Potentisation and The Infinitesimal Dose



A. Wilford Hall, Ph.D., LL.D., Founder of the Substantial Philosophy in The problem of Human Life, had proved logically as early as 1875, that all the fundamental forces of the universe, including life, electricity and the ether of space or *substantial entities, incorporeal, intangible and invisible, but capable of being perceived, measured and weighed.

Modern science has practically accepted this conclusion, for today we have Sir Oliver Lodge, the greatest living correlator and interpreter of the facts of science, defining the ether of space as the most tenuous and refined substance known to science, and submitting mathematical computation of its physical properties.

Having anticipated the theory and conclusions of the chemist and physicist by clinical experience with high potencies in the treatment of the sick, the followers of Hahnemann are in a position to maintain, with authority that the curative power of a drug is not lost when it is diluted to such a degree that a dose represents an amount of actual drug substance so small as to be practically an unassignable quantity – in other words, an infinitesimal quantity.

But the doctrine of Potentiation and the infinitesimal Dose has another important application in medicine.

Fincke (On High Potencies ) says : “Disease originates in the specific action of noxious matter which is either produced within the organism, or brought in from without, and it is always carried on by a process of assimilation.

“Assimilation, everywhere is accompanied by *potentiation by rendering the infinitesimal particles of matter susceptible and active according to their inherent affinities.”

“As homoeopathic remedies are obtained by potentiation, that is by comminuting and refining drug matter, by means of a vehicle easily assimilable; so nutritious matter appears to stand (act) as the vehicle in the *natural potentiation of those noxious materials which the organism itself prepares as remedies for its own self-preservation” (antitoxins, antibodies. etc.).

“As the whole organism draws upon digestion, as the source of its nutrition, so every part and particle of the organism draws upon the various materials successively worked out by the different processes of animal chemistry for its own proper nutriment, and assimilates them for its own particular use and subsistence. Thus, the lacteals draw upon the chyle prepared by digestion; the lymphatics upon the transudation of the capillaries, the blood upon the fluids of either of these; and the nerves upon the blood.”

“Those parts of the organism which do not satisfy their wants and requirements by this intra-organic nutrition alone, assimilate from the outer world whatever is necessary, not only for their own existence, but also for their co-operation with others and for the self-preservation of the organism. Thus the blood assimilates oxygen from the air; the eye, light; the ear, sound; the nose, olfactory matter; the tongue, gustatory matter; the brain and nerves, phosphorous, etc.; the mind (thought or) the operations of other minds by means of the senses, and so on; the organism continually assimilating from the Planet and the Universe as long as it lasts. Consequently the whole organism is the product of assimilation of matter, *and its action is the result of potentiation of matter. And so is disease. And so is health. And so is all life.”

“The hypothetical ether is, possibly,*infinitesimal comminuted matter, forming as it were the *reservoir of the high potencies required for the Universal Assimilation or Homoeosis which is continually going on and mediating all life in the world.”

These words were written prior to 1865- more than fifty years ago. Does it not increase our respect and reverence for our Dr. Fincke as a philosopher to find Sir Oliver Lodge, the foremost philosopher and scientist of Great Britain substantially endorsing his view in his work, “The Ether of Space.” published in 1909?

Lodge says :- “The question is often asked, is ether material? This is largely a question of words and convenience. Undoubtedly, the ether belongs to the material or physical universe but it is not ordinary matter. I should prefer to say it not” matter” at all. It may be the *substance or substratum of material of which matter is composed, but it would be confusing and inconvenient not to be able to discriminate between matter on the one hand and ether on the other. If you tie a knot on a bit of string, the knots is composed of string both string is not composed of knot. If you have a smoke or vortex ring in the air, The vortex ring is made of air, but the atmosphere is not a vortex ring.

“The essential distinction between matter and ether is that matter *moves, in the sense that it has the property of locomotion and can effect impact and bombardment; while either is *strained and has the property of exerting stress and recoil. All potential energy exists in the ether. It may vibrate and it may rotate, but as regards locomotion it is stationary- the most stationary body we know; absolutely stationary, so to speak; our standard of rest. All that we ourselves can effect in the material universe, is to alter the motion and configuration of masses of matter. * *

“But now comes the question. How is it possible for matter to be composed of ehter? How is it possible for a solid to be made out of a fluid? A solid possesses the properties of rigidity, impenetrability, elasticity, and such like; how can these be imitated by a perfect, fluid such as the ether must be? ”

The answer is, they can be imitated by a fluid in motion; a statement which we make with confidence as the result of a great part of Lord Kelvin’s work.

“It may be illustrated by a few experiments.”

“A wheel of spokes, transparent of permeable when stationary, becomes opaque when revolving, so that a ball thrown against it does not go through but rebounds. The motion only affects permeability to matter; transparency to light is unaffected.”

” A flexible chain, set spinning, can stand up on end while the motion continues.”

“A jet of water at sufficient speed can be struck with a hammer and resists being cut with a sword.” * * *

” If ether can be set spinning, therefore we have some hope of making it imitate the properties of matter, or even of constructing matter by its aid. But *how are we to spin the ether? Matter alone seems to have grip on it.” * * *

” But you can vibrate it electrically; and every source of radiation does that. An electrical charge, in sufficiently rapid vibration, is the only source of ether waves that we know; and if an electric charge is suddenly stopped, it generates the pulses known as X-Rays, as the result of the collision. Not speed, but sudden change of speed is the necessary condition for generating waves in the ether by electricity.” * * *

“The universe we are living in is an extraordinary one, and our investigation of it has only just begun. We know that matter has a psychical significance, since it can constitute *brain, which links together the physical and psychical worlds. If any one thinks that the ether, with all its massiveness and energy, has probably no physical significance, I find myself unable to agree with him.”

“The earliest conception of ether regarded it as simply a medium for conveying radiation. Faraday’s experiments and investigation led him to believe that it had other perhaps more important uses and properties. He conjectured that the same medium which is electromagnetic phenomena, and this conjecture was amply strengthened by subsequent investigations.”

Lodge now says : – “One more function is now being discovered; *the ether is being found to constitute matter.”

Prof. Sir. J. J. Thomson says :- “The *whole mass of any body is just the mass of ether surrounding the body which is carried along by the Faraday tubes associated with the atoms of the body. *In fact all mass is mass of the ether; all momentum, momentum of the ether and all kinetic energy, kinetic energy of the ether. This view it should be said, requires the density of the ether to be immensely greater than that of any known substance.”

Thus we see that the difference between Dr. Fincke’s conception of the constitution of the ether and that of Faraday and the later scientists is mainly verbal. There is no appreciable difference between the ether as; “matter in a state of *infinitesimal fineness of division,” and the ether as the “substance of which matter is composed.” Comprehension of either idea depends upon the ability to understand the meaning of the word infinitesimal as used in the mathematical sense. ” Infinitely small,” denotes a quantity conceived as continually diminishing so as to become less than any other quantity having an assigned value. There is no limit assigned nor conceivable. It is finite thought carried to the utmost limit :and then some.”

The philosopher, the physicist and chemist, each in his own way, analyzes divides and subdivides matter until he can go no farther, and then finds himself confronted by a mystery, incapable of solution by physical means. Shall he stop there and hush the question that will arise in his mind when he has penetrated thus far? Something within him rebels at the arbitrary limitation of thought. Aspiration intuition reason, analogy, the logical faculty, all urge him forward. Up to this point his investigation has revealed what can only be regarded logically as secondary causes. The primary cause eludes him.. The physician and pathologist also has his mystery. The microbe, the bacillus, the bacterium, all forms of micro-organisms and all other proximate causes of disease, carried back even to the formless bit of protoplasm or living matter, must themselves be accounted for. That which lies beyond cannot be seen by the microscope. At this point, it is necessary to substitute the telescope of intuitional reasoning for the microscope of physical of physical demonstration.

Stuart Close
Stuart M. Close (1860-1929)
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.