New-York daily tribune., 1845-05-27
THE TRIBUNE.
y,,nemann on Chronic Diseases.

,,,h (. Preface hy CoSSTASTfSE Herring, Al. ID. New
York: VIM Rsdde, 1922 Broadway
One of the most striking signs of the liberalizlng
...1sncv of public opinion is the rapidity with
sbicb the Homeopathic system OF medicine has
mad. its way into popular favor. That system Is
comole,e and thorough revolution in the most
,,ooortapt OF all mans temporal interests-a re-
oma,ion, radical and externinatlng, Of wide
.,,ead and aembracing practice of error. sane
,onsd bv an existence OF three thousand years and
.n.,ained BY the authority of an unbroken success
.;on Of "great names," during all THAI time. Error
,bns barrjcaded from without and sanclihed from
v,thia.-thus powerful, self-relying, unquestoned;
offered no slight adventure TO whoever would
attack It. Much better il was to yield quiet alcgi-.
aoce to this hereditary despotism, and. when the
bour Of sickness came to offer up ones life patiently
martyr 10 ones faith in the established church,
and thus to die amid the respectful sympathes Of
ones friends and surrounded by the upurIed eyes
and hands of his helpless physicians, than 10 cut
hmselfofi at once from human sympathy by daring
10 doubt, 10 question: TO rebel! This was the old
fashion, But Hahnemann was another sort OF man.
Little cared he for human sympathies-but much
for human symptoms! Little respect or awe had
this great, obstinate, ploddiug German innovator
for Matera Medicas, Prognoses and Diagnoses.
Pathological ClassifcatioDs and all the other
Thry-Six Articles OF medical faith OF one thing
he was certain that physicians were not masters
Of disease; tilat they knew nothing of it, but by
guess work. that they struck at random, aad as
often wounded the patient with their poiscaed
weapons as The disease. On this basis, German
fashion, he went to thinkins--fhen experimenting:
and these be practiced diligently for many, many
wears: and then, at the age of seventy-three, with
line quarter century in length OF living witnesses
10 the truth and efficacy of his dscoveries-with
his door beset from morning TO night and at ali
hours ol the night with the sick, the wounded and
The crlppled begging but for sight of the great
masler-thus a-c great deeds ever by the suffering
;sno,.nt conf.unded with the miraculous-this
man dared to proclaim in the face of the world his
theory. Or rather, he was impeled to proclaim
be immutable truths which he had been permitted
to discover.
Since that time the march of Homeopathy has
been onward, even amid the fiercest and bltcrest
oppostion of those whose bread. whose fame,
whose pride, were violently interested in putting ii
down and trampling it down for ever. No new
heresy ever travelled so fast and even new, when
there are hundreds and thousands of Homeopathic
practitioners scattered over the world-many OF
them converts from the foremost ranks of old error
--eyvn OF those who still cling to the regular alb
surdes and horrors of the mortar and lancet, more
than half have consciences and are alarmed out OF
iheuseves-starlled into terror every time they are
about TO poison human being or to bleed him TO
death, or TO hurry him out of the world by any of
the well.established and time-honored methods
Of scientific homicide. We know many regular
physicians whose conscieRces have go smltten them
that they scarcely dare Use their old.fashioned
powerful remedies and yet they so lack the
moral courage 10 renounce venerable errors that
they stll hesitate-tr1e with few harmless syrups
and bread pills, and "sive Nature chance 10
operate" Thus every way is either Homeopathy
or the tear OF II doing great good and excrtlns be-
nsn Influences upon the well being of sick men and
women.
The works Of Hahnemann are nearly unknown,
even to Germans. His style was too uncared-for,
loo ponderous, too dry, 10 tempt many people into
lis unpromsng labyrlnths. But We rejoice that he
has al length found an interpreter, even TO US who
thnS and read IN different language-an interpre-
ter ull Of understanding and enthusiasln-a ripe
scholar, as well in English as in German-who has
ue rare power Of receiving an author into his own
BRAIN IN such state of fusion that he can repro
ouce the matter at his fingers's ends in forms that
We may recognize, while the spirit and meaning
remain precisely as they were.
Inc prsscn; volume contains only Hahnemann's
great Theory of Chronic Diseases: others and we
believe all Of his works, are TO follow.-We will
4, "a.
Of this theory. Perceivipg that, in an immense
fs'y Of diseases, after they had bees apparently
cured by the then known remedies, they were al
most certain 10 break out again In some other form,
sno often with increased malienancy, he was led 10
oeieve that all these symptoms had a common on
sln; (; and his earnest observations and experiments
continued IN silence for ten years, al length ena-
DIED HIM 10 proclaim his great discovery-the ex-
Sence OF the chronic miaslns. These are three:
syphilis, Sycosls, PsoI1. The first two are spe-
eihe, and need not 10 be dwelt upon here: but the
a'al hydra-headed enemy of human health and
iie IS 'ne Psora, or Itch miasm. This Hahnemann
.n'aAs caught either by the embryo or inme-
ula'es a''ef o'rth, or in childhood, Gas in the case
OF Inc common Itch suppressed by external treat.
ment) and lies latent in the system. gradually as
sm'!atlns the system 10 itself, until favorable Oh
porunty occnrs for its breaking ou, in, ,b. .c,,
or otsecoadary form of disease He saws;
had reached this point, when mv in,ss,;-a.;ons
aad observations upon nop.venereal cbroo,c n,.
tents led me al once 10 II celve that u,.viou.J
sSlsllng Itch, which they often confessed 10 have
hsd WAS the cause why many diseases thar an1
Eesred TO be separate and coherent msIadies should
mol De cured BY homeopathic treatment. All The
Subsequent sutferinss were dated from the time
When the psoric eruption had manifested itself In
many OF these chronic patients, who were unw:l.
ing 10 confess having had the itch, or who had
ssn TOO careless 10 heed 1t, had no recollection
o.L, often discovered, by careful inquiries, ,ha,
.seslsss oi the iich had shown themselves upon
SsslI I bodies from time to time, in the shape OF
sl pls'ules or herpes, &c. as so many inallibls
s'apsoms OF the chronic coptasion.
@ iaese circumstances, coupled with the fact that
sosic s eSupiions which had been removed by evil
sadaceS or oy some other csuse, Were evidently
siuaeo ioWeo IN otherwise healthy persons by chronic
SsH S'tais s having The like or slniIar symptoms-as
mSsaie observed beth by oIner ply sicians and
Snns.' Ssa' 10 an infinite number of casrs--lcif mr he
dDOut the lltcrnai enrrny whirh | had IN