The Sun. — 1836-11-26 (London, England)

PRACTICE.  BY ROBERT rviurr, Of the Universities of Edinburgh and Gottingen. Galignani, Paris ; Highley, London. This is quite a philosophical little essay, rather abstruse for the multitude, but its inductive character will give it value in the minds of the thinking few. If it te true that the intellectual schoolmaster, by neglecting the :moral nature of his pupils, qualifies the evil-disposed to he i;etter rogues, it is not less certain that the accumulation 6 objective knowledge, when not regulated by inductive rea,,oning, too often leads to error and mischief. Facts necessarily constitute a very essential element of every doctrine having scientific or philosophical pretensions ; but for its complete establishment it is not less necessary that the intitual relation of a doctrine and its facts should be in strict conformity with the laws of reason. Now, according to these laws, it would seem that, cateris paribus, the powers of all objects, and the energy of all phenomena, are increased in the direct ratio of their quantities. An infinitesimal quantity of lead added to a mass of the same metal will increase its weight arid its volume. The same law is true with regard to all solid, fluid, and gaseous substances ; 'lay even with regard to imponderable objects ; for, if you increase the quantity of light, heat, or elec tricity, you increase the intensity of their effects. Nevertheless, in order to accomplish the extinction of morbid action, the dogma--similia sinrilibus curantur—avowedly requires the employment of an additional quantity of the same sort of morbid action. So that the original disease seems thereby to be enabled to commit'a sort of suicide !—or, if the infinitesimal part of the malady, like the rod of Aaron, swallows up the original disease, it would furnish an example of destructiv.;ty much beyond that of the two Kilkenny cats ; for, alt.`iough they fought till they devoured each other, yet part of the tail of one of them was left. But the laws of nature are constant and invariable, and doctrines Oiould be made conformable to these laws, and not the laws to the doctrines. It is evident, however, that the homoeopathic doctrine is' contrary to all the laws yet known, whether of the internal mind, or of the external world. Hence its absurdity. But diseases are cured during the homoeopathic treatment. This our author is in no wise disposed to deny. He only denies the rationalness of the doctrine. He ascribes to sanative agents powers of modifying the qualities of action peculiar to the different organs and tissues of the body, and shows that the homeopathists have mistaken this modified quality of action, effected by remedial agents upon the glands, surfaces, and tissues, for something identical with the diseased action : and that they have confounded identity of locality with identity of action, by observing only one circumstance of resemblance, and disregarding the many others of difference. So that admitting for the sake of argument that the facts of the homoeopathist be true, he explains the Phenomena on entirely different principles, and maintains that when the infinitesimal doses act at all, they act as alteratives; that the successful practice of the homoeopathists is in fact allopathic ; and he concludes with some warniaqs on the danger of losing time in acute diseases, and on the probable increase of the Morbidly nervous constitutions so prevalent, especially among the higher classes a: the present day, by the long continued use of the narcot:e poisons even in small doses--a prominent feature of homoeopathic practice.