from haste an carelessness, the translator has so marred these works by errors of omission and of translation, that they are to the student and practitioner what false lights on a difficult coast are to the unsuspecting mariner.
Dr. Hempel translated also Jahr’s New Manual or Symptomen Codex, and claims to have incorporated with it nearly all that is valuable in the Manual of Noack and Trinks, thus making it the most complete and perfect work of the kind in existence, and the best possible in the present state of our science. This translation was published with a preface by Dr. C. Hering and under the high sanction of his name and that of Dr. Gray, of New York. It is almost universally used in this country and in England, and the knowledge of the Materia Medica and of the true practice of Homoeopathy possessed by the rising generation of practitioners is, in the main, what this manual is capable of affording.
If now, I should say that this translation and compilation contains all the errors, omissions and perversions which rendered Dr. Hempel’s former translations untrustworthy, along with many others peculiar to this work, I should surely hear in reply that Dr. Hering has expressly in his preface commended the diligence and accuracy and zeal of the translator, and I should be referred to page six of the preface, whether Dr. Hering is made to say, “the Editor has, with extraordinary minuteness and labor, compared the two manuals and has transferred to the manual of Jahr all additional drugs and pathogenetic effects contained in Noack and Trinks’ work.” What could I say in offset to this indorsement of Dr. Hering? There is a word to say on the subject of this preface. It was unquestionably written originally by Dr. Hering in German. The English translation, by whomsoever made, seems not to have been altogether satisfactory to Dr. Hering (as well it might not be), for the German original was published by him (a “verbatim copy,” as he says) in he Allg. Hom. Zeitung. The English preface to Jahr’s New Manual differs from this German original far more widely than the license of scholarship will at all justify. In a foot-note to the original of the passage we have quoted above in commendation of the Editor and translator of Jahr’s New Manual, Dr. Hering says: (1 Vol., XI., Nos.23 and 24, February and March, 1851.) “After comparison of the translation with the original, the above indorsement is hereby altogether and completely withdrawn,” (2 Dies wird hiermit nach Vergleichung der Uebesetzung mitdem Original ganz und gar zuruckgenommen.) Thus, in an obscure foot-note in a German periodical, seen by n to more than one in a hundred of those American and English students who are induced by Dr. Herings’s commendatory preface to place confidence in Dr. Hempel’s translations and compilations, Dr. Hering vindicates his fame as a good school and a faithful champion of our science by withdrawing his commendation of Dr. Hempel.
If those whose confidence has been misplaced by reason of this indorsement in English, canceled in German only, should, with a measure of just indignation, demand of me why the retraction was not made in the language and in the country in which the commendation was suffered to be published, why Drs. Hering and Gray, acknowledged leaders of our school in America, did not suppress this so- called translation or expose its false pretentions, in words as intelligible and as widely read as those in which their support of it was permitted, alas! I nothing to say. (See Appendix).
To plead that, in a matter which involves the education or perversion of a whole generation and the healthy progress and soundness of Homoeopathy wherever the English language is spoken, in such a matter the engrossments of business or tenderness towards s delinquent individual kept them silent, would be to cast a doubt upon the estimate in which they hold scientific truth, a doubt inadmissible in gentlemen of their position.
It avails not to say: Why find fault with these translations and this manual, inasmuch as we have no others? Had the unworthiness of these been made known, had they not, on the contrary, been indorse by high authority, we had long since had others and trustworthy. An exposure of the imperfections we have spoken on would have created a demand for other works, and it is not less true in science than in trade that “demand creates a supply.”
Having selected a remedy on which to commence his studies, the student should gather together all the reports of provers, whether in the form of their daily records (in which form our dear and lamented colleague Dr. Joslin published his admirable proving of Rumex crispus, as did also the Austrian proves), or in the Hahnemannian anatomical scheme, and should carefully peruse them. We will assume that he has selected Pulsatilla, and will use this remedy to illustrate what we have further to say. We have no other proving of this drug than the very perfect one of Hahnemann in vol. i. of Materia Medica Pura.
During the first perusal, and several may be necessary for the purpose, the student should endeavor to make a general analysis of the proving. This analysis would enable him to place the drug along with several others in one or other of certain groups into which he will find, as he advances in his studies, the Materia Medica arranges itself. Among the chief points of this general analysis will be the following:
I. Sphere of action in the drug. It will be seen that every drug affects some organs or systems of organs or tissues more decidedly than others. Pulsatilla, for example, acts pre-eminently upon the vegetative system, upon the organs of reproduction and their appendages, and upon the composition of the blood, depressing the action of the former systems and producing in the latter a condition similar to that of one form of chlorosis. We learn these facts by bringing a knowledge of Physiology to bear upon and interpret the symptoms of the intestinal tract and of the urino-genital organs, those of the vascular system and the symptoms of the head and disposition. For in these we have retarded digestion, vertigo, audible pulsation of the carotids, momentary loss of sight and hearing on sudden exertion, palpitation, paleness, retarded and scanty menstruation with syncope and exhaustion; depressed melancholic disposition. In the other hand, the student will notice that Pulsatilla exerts but little action upon the bones, skin and glands, and this will be another important step toward grouping.
II. The extent to which the organic substance is affected. From some provings it must be gathered-Spigelia, for example-that the organic substance is but slightly affected or only in isolated localities, while in other provings the effects is profound and general, Carbo vegetables and Lachesis. In others, again, the affection of the organic substance and the irritation of the nervous system are equal in degree and both are great, Arsenicum. Conclusions on this head are drawn from the following symptoms: those of the complexion and of the skin generally, as regards color and temperature, which enlighten us respecting congestions, if there by any, and the color and character of the congesting fluid; those of the evacuations from the bowels, bladder, uterus and all secreting glands and surface; those of the cutaneous eruptions and ulcers; finally, those which denote the existence of dyscrasias of whatever variety, e.g., dropsies, phthisis, cancer, gout, rheumatism, etc. Under this head we find in the proving or Pulsatilla no evidence of any further action than that above mentioned- a hydraemic dyscrasis and which is further corroborated by the abundant serous or thin mucous discharges from secreting glands and surfaces.
III. The action of the drug on the vital power, correlative of the above, and shown in the symptoms of the nervous system as they are given conjointly with the symptoms of the various organs to which the different parts of the nervous system are distributed. He may consider the nervous system under five heads. a. The sensorium, of which the symptoms are found chiefly under the rubrics Head and Symptoms are found chiefly under the rubrics Head and Disposition. b. The general sensibility. c. The general mobility. Data respecting these heads are found in the symptoms of the tissues to which the nerves of sense and motion are distributed. d. The special sensibility, as exhibited in the symptoms of the organs of special sense-the eye, ear, nose and tongue. e. The sympathetic system-as exhibited in the symptoms or organs containing involuntary muscles-in the intestinal tract and in all the sphincters.
In forming conclusions on any one of these points, regards must be had to the entire remaining action of the drug. We should otherwise reach a very false judgment. Pulsatilla, for example, produces blindness and deadness. We might regard these as very important affections of the special senses, did we not learn also that these phenomena occur simultaneously with scanty and difficult menstruation, and with palpitation and throbbing of the carotids, and conjointly with great pallor and frequent syncope. These concurrences compel us to regard the blindness and deafness as sympathetic symptoms occurring in chlorotic patient, and connected perhaps with a hydraemia produced by Pulsatilla.
Dr. Dunham graduated from Columbia University with Honours in 1847. In 1850 he received M.D. degree at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York. While in Dublin, he received a dissecting wound that nearly killed him, but with the aid of homoeopathy he cured himself with Lachesis. He visited various homoeopathic hospitals in Europe and then went to Munster where he stayed with Dr. Boenninghausen and studied the methods of that great master. His works include 'Lectures on Materia Medica' and 'Homoeopathy - Science of Therapeutics'.