There are three of these chronic miasms that belong to the human family–psora, syphilis and sycosis–and these we will take up and study. The worst cases are those wherein the three chronic miasms, or some parts of the three, have been complicated by drugs. When the effect of drugs has been removed then we may begin to study the pure miasms themselves, but the miasms are complicated at the present day in most men, for whenever we come in contact with chronic sickness we come in contact also with chronic drugging and its effect upon the vital force.
I am of the opinion, perhaps I am wrong, that when blood-letting was in vogue, when violent cathartics were thrown in, when emetics and sweating were prescribed, as in the olden times, when all these violent things were resorted to, the human race was not torn to pieces as rapidly as at the present day. The enormous doses of Jalap and Calomel rushed through the intestines and cleaned out the patient, and he felt better afterwards, and probably did not carry to his grave the internal results of that cleaning out.
He did not carry the internal results of the emetics and sudorifics, but at the present day small doses of concentrated drugs are administered, which have an insidious effect upon the economy and develop their chronic symptoms very slowly. From the continued taking of old school products, the alkaloids, etc., we have the most dreadful state that has ever occured in the history of medicine coming on. The aim is to get small doses, to get an insidious, effect. The milder preparations, like Sulphonal, require months to develop their chronic tendencies, and are most vicious and troublesome drugs.
These slow and subtle preparations are now being manufactured, and though seeming to produce a mild primary effect have secondary effects or after-effects which are very severe. Hahnemann said, in his time, the most troublesome chronic diseases were those that had been complicated with drugs. If that were true then it is ten times so now. The little headache compounds, the catarrh cures, etc., are milder as to the first effects, but more violent as to the last effects. They are prepared to imitate the palatable form of homoeopathic remedies.
In 1881, Kent accepted a position as professor of anatomy at the Homeopathic College of Missouri, an institution with which he remained affiliated until 1888. In 1890, Kent moved to Pennsylvania to take a position as Dean of Professors at the Post-Graduate Homeopathic Medical School of Philadelphia. In 1897 Kent published his magnum opus, Repertory of the Homœopathic Materia Medica. Kent moved to Chicago in 1903, where he taught at Hahnemann Medical College.