Hahnemann taught, over a century ago, that *”the effect of a homoeopathic dose is augmented by increasing the quantity of the liquid in which the medicine is dissolved preparatory to its administration.” Recent scientific study of solutions in working out in the laboratory the theory of dissociation of molecules, has verified the observation and confirmed and amplified the theory of Hahnemann.
According to the later theory of the dissociation of molecules a chemical when dissolved it dissociated into parts smaller than the atoms of which it was composed. These particles are called ions. It has been proved that *the more dilute the solution, the greater the number of ions and the fewer the atoms. Complete ionization and absolute dissociation are possible only in infinite dilution.
The following statement was made for the author by Mr. J. D. Burby, Chemist of the Electrical Testing Laboratories of New York.
“The Theory of electrolytic dissociation or, simply the ionization theory, was proposed in its completed form by arrhenius to explain irregularities in the osmotic behavior of certain substances, notably inorganic acid, bases and salts. The theory is briefly that :-
“All substances belonging to the class which in water solution conduct electricity are upon being dissolved in a dissociating solvent, dissociated into ions.: Such substances are called electrolytes. It is to be particularly noted that the passage of an electric current through such a solution is not the cause of the dissociation, but rather that dissociation takes place when the substance goes into solution and it is because the solution contains the ions that it will conduct electricity.
Regarding the quantitative side of the theory, it need only be said that the degree of dissociation or ionization is a function of the dilution. The greater the dilution is the greater the degree of ionization, until at infinite dilution ionization is complete.
Further, the reactivity of electrolytes in dilute solution is measured by the degree to which they are ionized. Each substance has the property of dissociating to a definite extent when the solution has a certain concentration. Thus if equi-molecular solutions of hydrochloric, nitric sulphuric and hydrofluoric acids are compared as regards the speed of reaction with a second substance, it will be found that the order in which they stand in this respect will be a measure of the degree to which they are ionized.
It would seem from this that the velocity of all reactions between electrolytes is greater, the greater the dilution and this is so with certain restrictions. Theoretically the relative reactivity is greatest at infinite dilution because then the degree of ionization is greatest. Practically, however there is a limit to this, because after a certain degree of dilution has been reached, the actual reactivity becomes too small to be of moment.
It should be further noted that the ionization theory applies particularly to inorganic acid, bases and salts and that most organic compounds are very little dissociated, as we understand dissociation. Also, other solvents than water act as dissociating solvents, and among other may be mentioned liquid ammonia, liquid sulphur dioxide, and certain organic solvents.”
In *chemistry a molecule is defined as the smallest part of a compound substance that can exist separately and still retain its composition and properties; the smallest combination of atoms that will form a chemical compound.
In *physics the structural unity (molecule) is distinguished from the atom, and applied to particles of gases in the kinetic theory, independently of their relation to the chemical molecules.
Lord Kelvin illustrates the size of a molecule as follows :
“Imagine a rain drop or a globe of glass as large as a pea, to be magnified up to the size of the earth, each constituent molecule being magnified in the same proportion. The magnified structure would be coarser grained than a heap of small shot, but probably less coarse grained than a heap of cricket balls.”
The smallest material things in the world, the last in the series of little things known to modern science, is *the electron, or electric corpuscle. It is supposed that the chemical atoms are composed of a collection of electrons having orbital motions in a sphere of positive electrification. The electron is conceived to be billions of times smaller than the atom. A French scientist compares the electrons in the atom to gnats in the dome of cathedral.
It was formerly supposed that the atom was the smallest component part of matter. For a long time the atom had only a theoretical existence, its existence being assumed in order to account for the chemical combinations which take place between different elements in certain proportions. Even the ultra- microscope, which enables us to see and count particles of gold in ruby glass averaging six millionths of a millimeter in diameter, failed to reveal the atom. It remained for Rutherford, studying radium with his electroscope to identify and count individual atoms, Zeeman of Amsterdam, studying light through the spectroscope, split the spectral line of a flame by holding the flame between the poles of powerful electro-magnet, proving that light is an electric phenomenon, and showing a close relation between the activities of atoms and the origin of light itself.
Langley of the Smithsonian Institution invented *the bolometer, which measure variations of temperature of one hundred millionth of a degree. This represent a change of temperature about equal to that produced by a candle five miles distant.
*Light, travelling through space at the rate of 186,000 miles per second has been found to *exert a distinct push or pressure.
Hence, radiation the force opposed to gravitation, must be considered in studying the movements of matter in a state of infinitesimal subdivison. The pressure force is measured by the radiometer, invented by two American physicists, Professors Nichols and Hull. It is used in connection with bolometer, in measuring the rays from radio-active substances.
Pfund of Johns Hopkins University, in 1913 perfected a still more sensitive instrument said to be capable of measuring a degree of heat equivalent to that given off by a *candle sixty miles away.
Finally ether, the all pervading, space filling entity, is regarded as something which is neither matter nor energy, but which serves as the medium through which both matter nor energy, are transmitted. Science regards the ether as an intangible or immaterial substance, which acts like a solid, but which allows ordinary matter to pass through it without resistance or disturbance. When it is caused to vibrate at a certain speed or rate it becomes visible as light. Light is defined as ” an electro-magnetic disturbance of the ether.” Ordinary light is defined as the result of electric oscillation (or vibration) in the molecules or atoms of hot bodies, or sometimes of bodies not hot- as in the phenomena of phosphorescence.”.
Sir Oliver Lodge says, “the waves of light are not anything mechanical or material, but are something electrical and magnetic – they are, in fact, electrical disturbances periodic in space and time, and travelling with a known and tremendous speed through the ether of space. Their very existence depends upon the ether their speed of propagation is its best known quantitative property.”
Speaking of the ether, Lodge says :- ” The ether has not yet been bought under the domain of simple mechanics – it has not yet been reduced to motion and force,, and that probably because the *force aspect of it has been so singularly elusive that it is a question whether we ought to think of it as material at all.” * * *” Undoubtedly, the ether belongs to the material or physical universe, but it is not ordinary matter, I should prefer to stay it is not `matter’ at all. It may be the *substance or substratum, or *material of which matter is composed but it would be confusing and in convenient not to be able to discriminate between matter on the one hand and ether on the other.” He further says, – “we do not yet know that electricity is, or what ether is.We have as yet no dynamical explanation of either of them; but the past century has taught us what seems to their student an overwhelming quantity of facts about them. And when the present century, or the century after, lets us deeper into their secrets, and into the secrets of some other phenomena now in course of being rationally investigated, I feel as if it would be no merely material prospect that will be opening on our view, but some glimpse into a region of the universe which science has never entered yet, but which has been sought from fat, and perhaps blindly apprehended, by painter and poet, by philosopher and saint.” ( Lodge – The Ether of Space.)
As a summary of present knowledge, Sir Oliver defines the ether of space as “a continuous incompressible, stationary *fundamental substance or perfect fluid with what is equivalent to an inertia- coefficient of 10 power 12 grammes per c.c., that *matter is composed of *modified and electrified specks, or *minute structures of ether, which are amenable to mechanical, as well as to electrical force and add to the optical or electric density of the medium; and that elastic-rigidity and *all potential energy are due to excessively fined grained ethereal circulation, with and intrinsic kinetic energy of the order 10 power 33 ergs per cubic centimeter.”
Dr. Close was born November 24, 1860 and came to study homeopathy after the death of his father in 1879. His mother remarried a homoeopathic physician who turned Close's interests from law to medicine.
His stepfather helped him study the Organon and he attended medical school in California for two years. Finishing his studies at New York Homeopathic College he graduated in 1885. Completing his homeopathic education. Close preceptored with B. Fincke and P. P. Wells.
Setting up practice in Brooklyn, Dr. Close went on to found the Brooklyn Homoeopathic Union in 1897. This group devoted itself to the study of pure Hahnemannian homeopathy.
In 1905 Dr. Close was elected president of the International Hahnemannian Association. He was also the editor of the Department of Homeopathic Philosophy for the Homeopathic Recorder. Dr. Close taught homeopathic philosophy at New York Homeopathic Medical College from 1909-1913.
Dr. Close's lectures at New York Homeopathic were first published in the Homeopathic Recorder and later formed the basis for his masterpiece on homeopathic philosophy, The Genius of Homeopathy.
Dr. Close passed away on June 26, 1929 after a full and productive career in homeopathy.