On the other hand, if the pharmacists indulge in abridging the time of rubbing and scraping, or in augmenting the quantities triturated per one hour and one potency, inferior preparations will result. Indeed, various instances of such negligence of Hahnemanns requirements have been demonstrated to us. Whereas a property made trituration of Lycopodium 1c has a distinct oil smell, imperfect preparations do not smell at all. If the same powder is dissolved in water, a bad preparation will be recognized by not giving the milky turbidness to the solution which a good trituration shows. .
The reason for these differences were obvious, when we examined these preparations under the microscope. It was significant that in the bad triturations the Lycopodium spores were practically not broken up, whilst in proper preparations practically all the delicate spores were broken. Unbroken spores cannot set free the oily contents on which depend the smell of a proper trituration, the milky turbidness of its solution in water and, as a matter of greater importance, its medicinal virtues. The unsatisfactory preparations were imperfect.
Where a bigger demand for homoeopathic medicines exists, triturating by hand has been abandoned for practical reasons. It is done by machines, by mills of the mortar-and-pestle type or by ball mills. But the preparations resulting from such machines, as widely used on the Continent, appeared equally unsatisfactory, i.e. Lycopodium 1c. of big factories showed all the deficiencies as described. The spores and the milk sugar are mixed, but the spores are not ground properly, are not broken up.
In striking contrast the products of the mills of the London Homoeopathic Laboratories answered all the tests as well as the small quantities triturated by hand, made according to Hahnemanns rules. The reason could be easily understood: These mills had a heavy weight attached to the top of the pestle, which produce a thorough grinding effect. The mills we have seen at other places worked without pressure, thus the grinding effect was inadequate.
We have seen at the London Homoeopathic Laboratories other examples of triturations which clearly demonstrated the same differences in quality. For instance in 3x triturations of Sulphur and Carbo veg. the properly made ones gave a permanent uniform, turbid (colloidal) solution, while other preparations left the water clear and transparent, the particles being too big to be kept in suspension, formed a deposit.
Between the proper Hahnemannian triturations made by hand and the products of the London Homoeopathic Laboratories mills no difference could be observed. Dr. Leeser told us that he had experimented with many types of mills until he found a suitable one and then the proportion of time for grinding a certain quantity had to be adjusted, correct hand made preparations always serving as standards for comparison. Once the time needed for a certain quantity had been found by many tests with various substances, these proportions could be applied as an empiric unit for proceeding with this type of mill for any substance to be triturated.
