The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-04-09
RoNG0PAYHS TO CELEBRATE
HAHNEMANN's DISCIPLES 70 DO
him HONOR TOMORROW.


COmmemOratlOns Here and in Europe.
Tho homeopathic physicians Of New
York will have a banquet tomorrow night
TO celebrate the l5Oth anniversary Of the
birth Of Samuel HahnemAnn, founder Of
their sYst0m Of medicine. All over the
country and in all tho capitals Of Europe
physicians win meet TO honor the memory
Of the man who started the battle Of pills.
which has lasted good century. who estab-
hshed a school Of therapeutics which has
1900 followers in the United States alone,
and whose work, as even advocates Of the
other school admit, had at least an indirectly
benehoent effect upon the whole practice Of
medicine.
DR.. Hahnemann was q German and a
good physician OF the older school before
he propounded his doctrine Of Sinilid stint
Hbus eUrdniur. Il Is told in the annals
OF tho homeopathists that his favorite child
died In spite Of all the medicine be knew
and that he gave up the practice Of medi-
cine in disgust and made living as a chem
ist and by translating medical works.
As a chemist he was the first to discover
a solvent Of mercury. In the course Of
his TRANSACTIONS he started the chain Of
thought which led him TO his theory.
In Cullen's aMateria Medioa, an English
work which he was turning into German,
= he noticed some striking condolences.
For instance. beladonna was set down as
a cure for scarlet fever, yet the symptoms
Of belladonna poisoning are like the symp-
toms OF scarlet fever.
He found that quinine, a specific for
malarial fever produces malarious symp-
toms in a healthy person. He took an
overdose Of quinine as an experiment.
Ut produced the chills, fever and sweats
Of maLarial fever.
Working on that line, Hahnemann began
TO dose himself and his family. and to
note the results By 1895 he had gathered
enough data TO lay down his principle,
Like cures like" His theory was published
in a medical journal Of Leipsio and 1t made
q sensation.
Disciples began to gather from all parts
Of Europe. Early in his practice he pro-
mulgated the doctrine Of small doses.
Those were the days Of nauseous black
draughts and OF bleeding, and perhaps this
as much az anything else stirred up the
old school physicians against him.
His followers were expelled from medical
societies aud forbidden to practise their
profession, and the social atmosphere OF
teipsic became so disagreeable that he
withdrew to Anhalt-Kothen, where the
reigning Duke gave him protection. There
he published his "Organon.' Though his
modern followers reject a good deal which
is contained in that work, it is still the Bible
Of homeopathy.
nthis work he laid down these principles,
which are still the foundation stones Of
the homeopathic theory:
l. Like cures like.
T. Every remedy should be tried on healthy
human beings and its effects noted.
3. In every case the minimum dose should
be used-the smallest amount necessary 20
produce a cure.
There was also the theory Of high poten-
cies. Nothing else in homeopathic prao-
tiee has stirred up 80 much ridicule as
this doctrine. Against II Oliver Wendell
Holmes directed some Of his sharpest
satire.
IL was Hahnemann's belief that successive
dilutions with alcohol, mixed by shaking
- process, really increased the potency OF
a drug A homeopathic who follows
Hahnemann In this win make diution OF
the twelfth degree about as follows:
He will take twelve walls, each containing
say ninety-eight drops OF alcohol. Into the
first he viii put two drops OF the ttncture Of
the drug and shake II thoroughly. Into
the second vial he puts two drops Of the
resulting mixture and will shake 1t. He
repeats the process all down the line clear
TO the twelfth vial.
II was Hahnemann's idea that quality
andnot quantity is the thing in drug effect;
and that Of these succeeding mixtures
spirit rs engendered.
Homnopathists differ widely among
themselves on this point-a controversy
within a controversy.
In the '2Os OF the last century Hahne-
mann went to Paris, called by the growth
Of the cult in that city. In fact hompop-
athy was prospering all over Europe, even
In Russia, at that time.
He became a fad in the French capital,
and left fortune at his death IN 1855. Late
in life he published a work on itch, in which
be drew the conclusion that all diseases
are forms Of itch. His apolOgists say that
IN this theory, however fanciful II seems,
he approach d the bacterial theory.
It was in the '4Os that a reaction set in.
Practice Of the new school was forbidden
In many parts Of Europe Its hospitals
and academies we're closed.
This had the effect of driving many
homeopathic physicians to the United
States. start had already been made at
Allentown, Pa, where the first hom1o-
pathio medical school in this country was
founded, Another was started In Phila-
dephia, always a home Of the cult
In New York, where the homPopathists
had been pra ctising since 1885, college
was founded in the early '6Os. There was
some trouble in getting official recognition,
but William Cullen Bryant and others threw
themselves into the fight for the new school.
and won their case.
Now the homnopaths have colleges and
schools in New York, Boston, Philadelphia,
Baltimore, cincinnati, Ann ArboT, Detroit,
Chicago, Iowa City, Denver Kansas CITY,
St. Louis, Louisville and San Francisco
In 1900 out Of something more than 10000
physicians Of all schools they numbered
$1,000.
Abroad the cult has had more trouble.
Nowhere in Europe have homeopathic
physicians fun official recognition, and they
have not a single regular school outside OF
the United States. In France, where
among them there are several eminent
physicians and in England where they have
as adherents such men as DR.. James Henry
Clark. their practitioners generally do not
use the name,
In Germany they are prohibited from
holding Government posts and are classed
as uuacks. There are not more than 100
hom9opaths in the empire, and these have
carried on for many years an uphill fight
for a chair Of homeopathic therapeutics in
one Of the universities. The United States
4 decidedly honRopathy's stronghold.
@Hahnemann has never received the
credit he deserves said a homuC pathio
physician the other day. Even II you do
not believe in homeopathy, you have 10
admit his influence in making medicine
a a. - l..