For Hahnemann, incessant toil ceased after eighty years; and Burnett obtained his release unexpectedly, alone, in a hotel room one evening; and now it devolves on us to carry on, and extend the wonderful work for humanity. Homoeopathy has not necessarily failed where we fail to deal with–for instance– cancer; that is a lesson we may learn from Hahnemann and Burnett. Hahnemann refused, so he tells us, the plausible excuse for failure, in the too few proved drugs; and, instead, delved deeper than the superficial symptoms of the moment, into CAUSE; and thus attained still wider success. As Burnett wrote:
“Mach’s nach, aber nach’s besser,” “get on with it, but go one better.”
Burnett ends his first edition with the following: “Now, little book, go forth and tell to all concerned that, thanks to the labours of Paracelsus, Fludd, Lux, Hahnemann, Hering, Pasteur, Swan, Berridge, Skinner, Koch, and any others, phthisis and the tubercular diseases generally have definitely entered the list of medicable diseases. But finally, and for the last time, the remedy must not be administered by injection: it must be given in high, higher, and highest potencies, and the doses must be FAR APART.
To those who can only use low dilutions I solemnly say–Hands off!”
In his second edition he says, further: “Of course, it is not suggested that Bacillinum is a specific for all cases of phthisis, and necessarily it will not avail in the many cases that do not come for treatment till very late on: something that will cure every case of any malady bearing a given name is, of course, non-existent.
“Still, Bacillary phthisis taken early, and complicated with nothing else, is curable by Bacillinum, and this I say after eight years’ experience at the bedside and in the consulting room. Anything even approaching it in therapeutic efficacy is thus far absolutely unknown.
“Where, for instance, vaccinosis is also present, the vaccinosis must be first cured, or the phthisis remains uncured, do what you will.
“Where there is a primary spleen affection that led up to the phthisis, such a case must be approached from the spleen as a starting point, or the treatment fails. When a liver disease underlies the whole maldive state, and phthisis only co-exists with it, the liver malady must first be cured.
“When this state arises from an hereditary syphilitic taint (I say taint, not the disease proper) the specific nosode may be required first.
“When the phthisis arises from a cancerous parentage, Bacillinum will not always suffice, until other remedies have prepared the way.
“When the constitution has been damaged by typhoid, by malarialism, by alcoholism, by cinchonism, and so on, all these must be therapeutically reckoned with, or success will not reward our efforts. Wherever, in fact, phthisis co-exists with other diseases or taints of diseases, the Bacillinum, touches the bacillary part of the case ONLY.
“When phthisis supervenes upon over-crowding bad food, foul air, chronic sewage poisonings, wounded pride, it will be vain to expect the simple administration of a remedy of any kind to cure unaidedly if the active cause still remains present and operative… It is simple uncomplicated phthisis taken early that can be cured right off the reel by its pathologic simillimum.
“To any brother practitioners I would say, Shake off the shackles of prejudice and try for yourselves whether, and how far, I may be personally carried away on the wings of enthusiasm for my subject. But, mind, only high dilutions and no Kochian injections–and moreover, if you give the doses too often you will fail, as I formerly did before I learned the lesson that the pathologic similimum of a disease must be administered in high potency and infrequently. Moreover, the worse the case the higher the potency, as a rule.”
Again, we make no apology for these long and interesting quotations. Dr. Burnett was a great original thinker, and a most charming writer, and it is not everybody who can get at his booklets to be charmed and instructed.
