Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1860-06-01
WRITTEN ros THE CEDAR FALLS 6kzErrE.
RATIONAL MEDICINE.
Its Past and Present; it, True Relations to the
Partisans Of Exclusive Systems, and to Empirics.
BY DIR. S. N. PIERCE.

INC apSurulty O1 the nfSC prominent prln
ciple embraced in the doctrine of Homeopathy
and l now come to the consideration of tn
End and last, that of Tnfinitessimal doses.
Should believer in Homeopathy, who ha,
not studied into the arithmetic of the science
be told that grain of any article highly at
tenuated would be sufficient to supply all tn,
Homeopathic physicians in the world, will
all they would need of that article for years
he would consider it a base exageration. 1
he should be told that if medicine be given ir
the thirtieth dilution, Gin which Homcopath
lists pretend to witness appreclable results,
and if all the inhabitants of the earth should
take from one grain thus attcnuated, foul
doses daily, the one grain would not be con
sumed for many generations, he would no
believe the statement, and would probably
call for the proof. 1t is not only true thai
the dilutions are carried to this extent, but
in many cases they are, if possible, carried
much farther than this. Those who believe In
this doctrine, generally, have but little idea how
much they are called upon to believe. They
hear much said about small doses, but have
no definite idea concerning the extent of theil
minuteness. Indeed the comparisons tina,
are made by Homeopathic writer's are calcul
ated to blind them upon this subject. shall
attempt description of the manner in which
these preparations are made, and to show
that use no deception in my calculations,
shall make them in figures, as it is said, fig
ures cannot lie" a.u .a..aIa..
If the article to be used as a medicine is q
solid, one grain is taken and mixed with one
hundred grains of sugar of milk When
these have been thoroughly rubbed together,
the preparation is called the first attenuation
Then one grain Of this mixture must be ta-
ken and mixed with one hundred grains more
ofsugar. This makes the second attenuation.
One grain of this mixed with another one
hundred grains of sugar makes the third at
tcnuation. BY this means all the dlutions
arc made, and HAHNEMAN considered the
thirtieth the best for common use. If the
medicine to be used is tncturc, the first at
tenuation is made by adding one drop of the
tincture to one hundred drops of alcohol,
which makes the second dilution. One drop
of this added to one hundred more of alcohol
makes the third dilution This process is
continued until the desired point is reached
HAnNEMAN insists that this dilution greatly
increases the strength of the medicine, and
considers it unsafe, in ordinary circumstan-
ces, to carry the dilution farther than the
thirtieth degree of attenuation. Still he, in
few cases, administered medicine potentized
to the tro MousanM degree. He says that he
came near killing one patient by giving him
eight drops of the two thousanth dilution.-
Now supposing druggist wishes to attenu-
ate one grain Of Opium, even to tie twenti-
eth degree, what amount of sugar will he re-
quire? The calculation is very easily made.
The first attenuation would require one hun
dred grains; the second would require ten
thousand grains; this divided by the num-
Der Of grains in a pound, makes trifle over
173 pounds. The fifth dilution would require
1,73O,00O lbs, and the twentieth would take
1,73o,OoO 0O0, 600, ,OOO, 600, ,OOo, ,OOO, 600 900,
0OO,O00 pounds. This would make body
of sugar equal in size to sixty billion globes
the size Of the earth. The thirticth attcnua-
ton would then require slump" Of sugar
the size of which would be represented by
sixty billion Of such globes, multiplied sue
cessiycly by one hundred, ten times. i If this
is the thirticth dilution, what will we think of
the two thousanth? ' E
Suppose the medicine be liquid, let us
see what amount of Alcohol would be re-
quired to make these dilutions. The first
would require 100 drops; the second, 10000,
or about one pint; the third, 100 pnts; the
fourth, 10000 pints; the tenth would require
1 ,25O, ,Ooo, 100000, 900 gallons To make the
twelfth dilution would require body of alco-
hol one hundred miles wide, twenty feet deep,
and upwards of 500,O99 miles in length
The fifteenth would require a body of liquid
greater than the earth, and the thirtieth,
a volume millions of times greater than the
sun; and this is the dilution HAuNEMAN rec
ommends for common use HAHNEMAN goes
so far even as to say, in his " "Organon,'' "If
the patient is very sensitive, it win be suffic-
lent for him to smell once of vial containing
a glooule." From what has been said, some
might be led to suppose that the thirtieth at
tenuation could never be reached; and it GER
tainly could not if the whole quantity used at
each attenuation was preserved and carried
forward to the end of the process. Instead
of retaining the whole amount, at each attenu-
alton ninety-nine parts are thrown away, and
only single grain is carried forward into the
last attenuation. Let us reflect for moment
upon this process, conducted strictly in ac-
cordance with the rules laid down by HAn-
NEMAN. He orders mortar to be used, and
that each trituration shall be continued six
minutes, and we will allow four minutes
more for scraping the mortar after each pro-
cess Then ten minutes will be consumed at
each attenuation. AT this rate how long
would it take to obtain the two thousanth at
tenuation, provided the operator work eight