Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-08-29

out sOun0 DO0ies, eOunQ minus arc iu-
possible and without both life is blank
and civilization failure. You hold the
happiness OF the living in your hands and
the destinies Of unborn generations in
your keeping. We believe that you fully
appreciate the great responsibilities that
rest upon you, and we leave them with
YOU in all trust and confidence, bidding
lyou God speed in your work.
Mrs. F. w. Gould sang with her ac-
customed charm, Answer and was re-
called. the lady gracefully acknowledge
ing the compliment.
DIR HoYNE's address.
| DIR. It. 5. Hoyne, of Chicago. presi-
dent of the society," then made his annual
address to the society. 1t was very ex-
haustive and exceedingly able, and syn
opsis Is published.
| Custom demands, he said. that the
president of the society address his cons
ferers at the beginning of the annual ses>
sion in order to present such suggestions
as may seem pertinent to the occasion;
and IL can assure you that it is with diff
fldence not entirely devoid OF pleasure,
that arise before the citizens of this
beautiful city to discharge the duty ex-
pected of one holding the highest Office
in the gift of the academy. 1t is es-
teemed a great honor to be chosen pre-
siding officer of this honored represents
tive body. and thanks are due you and
are fully given"
We meet once more as the academy TO
exchange thoughts. opinions and expert
ence, and the subject to which invite
your attention and thought is one which
has occupied my tire life since leaving
a classical college, and that is, The
Homeopathic System of Medicine" The
administration of medicines for the cure
of disease has always interested every
J class of society-in fact, next to the &C,
cumulation of wealth it has occupied the
minds of the rich as well rs of the poor.
DIR. Good said: Drugs have already de-
stroyed more lives than war, pestilence
and famine combined" DIR. Hufeland
said: "More harm than good is done by
physicians. Sir Ashley Cooper said
The science of medicine Is founded on
conjecture and improved by murder. ."
Numerous other quotations might be CIV
en-. showing what doctors themselves
thought of drugs before the age of homes
opathy. The subject of my discourse is
certainly one that you have heard of, for
there is hardly a merchant, lawyer or
citizen in any corner of this broad land,
that has not looked with interest upon its
e benign influence, and everywhere il is
I represented by one OF more enthusiastic
disciples.
: OF the father of this system of medi~
cine you possibly may not have heard, for
his long life ended nearly fifty years ago.
Samuel Hahnemann was born al Meissen,
= Saxony, on the 10th of April. 1855. being
the eldest of family of ten children.
. His parents were quite poor. but were
people of taste, and surrounded them
selves with such comforts as they could
afford. His father was painter of
Dresden china, and wished his son to
: follow in his footsteps. Hahnemann
4 chose the study of medicine, and was
: gratuitously afforded all the advantages
of the college in that city. and afterwards
graduated as a doctor of medicine at
! Erlangen in 1879. From that year up to
the time of his death he devoted his days
and nights to the practice of medicine,
: and the writings of various treatises on
medical subjects. While at work in his
laboratory, he discovered new salt of
mercury, known as Mercurius SOlubilis
Hahnemanni, which is still used by old
school physicians, especially at the st.
Louis hospital, Paris, as being milder and
: more etficacious. This was in 1854
about the same time that he published
his monograph on arsenic, a work that
has been greatly praised by CHEMISTS and
physicians, and has been extensively
quoted by ChristiansOn and other toxicOl-
J ogists. In 1890. while dwelling in Leip-
sic, he discovered the reason why cincho-
ma, the Jesuit powder, cured ague. and
that was because il produced in the
healthy body symptoms similar to those
OF ague. Ii was in 1896 that ne an
nounced the doctrines of homeopathy,
and attempted to demonstrate its truths
to his colleagues. and then his troubles
really began. They assailed his private
character, and scoffed and denounced his
principles. He was so prosecuted that he
had to leave Koenigslutten and other
J places. In the year 1889 the same class
of physicians continue the abuse, while
they quietly absorb some of his remedies
and triturations. And what was this
wonderful discovery that raised every
mans hand against him? Simila simili-
bus curantur, or, translated. like cures
like; or, to- give IL in Hahnemanu's
words; In order to cure gently. quickly.
certainly and enduringly, you must in
C every case of disease choose remedy
e that is itself capable of producing a com .
= plant like the one it is to cure" 1t was
from his careful study of cinchona and
( other drugs. that he was able to formulate
= the law, that symptoms which were pro.
duced by these drugs in a healthy person,
3 could be cured by these agents when pres
3 ent in diseased person. And it is by
: this experimenting with new drugs in
7 health. not disease, that the homeopathic
physician knows precisely upon what
structures they act specifically, and
what symptoms they produce. The
, greatest book and one which will
endure to the end of time, was published
, by Hahnemann in 1910. and was called
the Organon. a work in which all the
laws of Homeopathy are clearly set forth.
This good man after enunciating his
discoveries went about doing good. and
: Notwithstanding his trials and poverty
lived TO the age of lightweight. dying in
Paris the last of May, 1s43. Previous to
Hahnemann's discovery all was uncer-
tainty and conjecture in medicine; the
piling of theory upon theory. and by
; pothesis upon hypothesis continued until
the physician was left utterly powerless
IN known as we'll as unknown diseases
Blood-letting was a remedy for every
thing. and death from bleeding was of
! daily occurrence.