In my lecture on the Dynamization-theory (Lecture XII.) I pointed out to you the frequent changes Hahnemann made in the number of successions he directs to be given to each bottle, so I need not again dwell on that subject.
I shall pass on to a consideration of what others have said respecting the pharmaceutical processes needful in homoeopathy.
Dr. Hearing was one of the first who suggested alterations in the preparation of our medicines. He first (Arch., xiii. e3, 81) suggested that experiments should be made with medicines prepared in the proportion of 1 of the drug to 1000 of the vehicle, and afterward (Ibid, m XII,. 2m, 134) suggested that experiments should be made with medicines prepared in the proportion of 1 of the drug to 1000 of he vehicle, and afterwards (he alludes to different preparations of vehicle and drug. He says, “I have discovered the law, that the larger the mass of the vehicle the milder is the action of the medicine. Attenuation prepared in. the proportion of 1 to 10 are much stronger in the 30th dilution that those prepared with 1 to 100. Preparations in. the proportion of 1 to 1000 act every mildly and rapidly in the 65th dilution. In the proportion of 1 to 10,000 all action very soon despairs.” He proposed a modification of Hahnemann’s mode of preparing in the 30th dilution in thirty different bottle with spirits of wine, and suggested that they might all be prepared in one bottle, and with water, in this way: after preparing the 1st dilution, the content of the bottle are to be poured out, and as one or more drops always remain in the bottle they will serve for the next dilution. Thus, all that is to be done is to fill up, empty, and refill the bottle the requisite number of times’ and expeditious and economical procedure.
In one of Dr. Hering’s last works (Amerik, Arxneipr, 39) he seems to ailment the circumstance that he ever proposed the decimal scale of dilation, i.e., the proportion of 1 of the drug to 9 of the vehicle.
Dr. Vehsemeyer, (Hyg., iv. 547) on a contrary, approves highly of the decimal scale for preparing he attentions, and wishes it to be generally adopted.
Gruner, (Hom. Pharmak) the celebrated homoeopathic chemist of Dresden, acted on this suggestion and prepared a complete set of medicines on the decimal scale.
Dr. Rummel (Ally. hom. Ztg., xxxi.18) suggested a different proportion of medicine and vehicle, viz., 2 to 898, on the ground that if we used the ordinary centesimal scale, it might happen that the one drop might not fall in to the bottle, where as with two drops there would be less chance of he attention remaining unmedicated. This is indeed, the sole recommendation for this proportion of medicine and vehicle; but it is otherwise with the so-called decimal scale or proportion of 1 to 9m, 10 to 90; for whereas with the latter scale we can always say at once what dilution of the centesimal scale any given attenuation corresponds to, with Rummel’s proposed scale we shall have no correspondence whatever with the Hahnemannic or centesimal scale. It is otherwise with the decimal scale; in order to find the preparation of he centesimal scale corresponding, in point of the quantity of medicine it contains, to any given number of the decimal, we have only to halve the number of the latter. Thus, the numbers 2,4,6,8,10, etc., of the decimal dilutions contain the same amount of medicine as the numbers 1,2,3,4,5 of he centesimal scale. so Dr. Wurmb and Caspur, (Hom.Klin.Stud.) who employ in their hospital at Vienna almost exclusively the 30th decimal dilution, actually use a preparation corresponding in medicinal strength to the 15th centesimal.
It would spin out this lecture to an intolerable length were I to attempt to give even an outline of all that has been written on the subject of homoeopathic pharmacy, so I shall close this lecture with the briefest of summaries.
Several homoeopathic pharmacopoeias have been published, all more or less valuable The first was Caspari’s Dispensatorium, which merely reproduces Hahnemann’s original directions for the proportion of his medicines. It was translated into Latin by Dr, Hartmann, and this Latin translation has been reprinted in England, and is still the only one that has been published in this country. It is of course extremely defective, and has not even the advantage of presenting us with Hahnemann’s latest views.
Dr. Buchner has published a Pharmacopoeia, which has reached its second edition; it describes the mode of preparing all the medicines used in homoeopathy up to the date of its publication (1852) but is not remarkable for any new views or improvements on the processes employed by Hahnemann.
Mr. Gruner, the Dresden homoeopathic chemist, published a Pharmacopoeia in 1845, in which he has introduced some technical improvements. Thus, in place of adopting the rude method proposed by Hahnemann, of obtaining powdered metals by using the metallic leaf, or scraping them under water on a whetstone, he recommends us to employ the precipitated metals. I have already shown in the account I gave of Mayrhofer’s microscopic investigations, that the precipitates of metals. I have already show, in. the account I grave of Mayrhofer’s microscopic investigations, that the -precipitates of metals are much the best form for their trituration.
A Pharmacopoeia was also published by Dr. G. Schmid, (Arzbneibereitung und Gabengrosse) containing several useful suggestions as to the preparation of our drugs; and various other amendations of Hahnemann’s process have been suggested by several writers. Thus it was found that the admixture of acids directly with alcohol caused a decomposition of both, and water was therefore substituted by some for the first attenuations the attentions of phosphorus were recommended to be prepared directly from the tincture and not from the uncertain trituration. Different strengths of alcohol were advised for the preparation of different vegetable tinctures.
Dr. Mure of Palermo, Malta, Rio, Paris, in fact, of he four quarters of the globe, I believe, lays down in his book (L’Ecole de Rio, p.29) certain original rules for the preparation of medicinal attenuations. He says, as Hahnemann also latterly said, that all substances should be first triturated up to the third attenuation; but as some substances, such as nux vomica and ignatia, are very difficult to triturate, he has invented a machine that exhibits considerable mechanical ingenuity for triturating the hardest substances. He also has an idea that the successions of the fluid attentions should be made in vacuo, and in order to produce the vacuum in the dilution bottle he invented another machine, which strikes me as being as wonderful and nearly as useful as that complicated machine for daring corks which Hogartha has delineated in one of his pictures. Beside these he has likewise invented a machine for succussing the dilutions in the bottles so emptied of their air. This machine, which is well adapted to give the most powerful succession strokes, may console some of us who think so highly of Herculean successions, now that Jenichen of the strong arm is no longer among us; but those of us who believe that tincture of soluble substances are better than trituration, that there is no need for painfully extracting the air form our dilution bottles, and that all the good that may be gained from succession on may be effected by the muscular force of any man of ordinary strength, will think that Dr. Mure has wasted a vast amount of ingenuity on the contrivance and construction of these very useless machines.
M. Weber of Paris, a distinguished homoeopathic chemist, believing that the virtues of a drug were greatly developed by trituration, and that this trituration could scarcely be carried too far, proposed (Jour.de la MedorrhinumHom, ii. 313) that each medicine, weather fluid or solid, should be triturated at least as high as the 15th attenuation; but as each trituration was to occupy an hour, and as the labour entailed on the chemist by the adoption of this plan would-be enormous, M, Weber has invited a machine which he calls a dynamizator, consisting of four mortars with pestles attached, which are all set in motion by turning a handle. The commission of the Hahnemann Medical Society of paris appointed to report on M. Weber;s invention speaks very highly of its triturating powers. I think there can be no doubt about the superior power that such an instrument would bring to bear on the disintegration of those hard substances that require trituration, and, as effecting much saving of trouble, it would be advantageous to the operating pharmaceutist.
It is obvious that the only allowable modifications to be made in Hahnemann’s pharmaceutical processes are those which have the object of simplifying the preparation of the attenuations of obtaining the full medicinal virtues of the crude drug, and of rendering attentions, though prepared at different times and by different individuals, of a certain uniform strength.
Robert Ellis Dudgeon practiced at the London Homeopathic Hospital and specialised in Optics.
Robert Ellis Dudgeon wrote Pathogenetic Cyclopaedia 1839, Cure of Pannus by Innoculation, London and Edinburgh Journal of Medical Science 1844, Hahnemann’s Organon, 1849, Lectures on the Theory & Practice of Homeopathy, 1853, Homeopathic Treatment and Prevention of Asiatic Cholera 1847, Hahnemann’s Therapeutic Hints 1847, On Subaqueous Vision, Philosophical Magazine, 1871, The Influence of Homeopathy on General Medical Practice Since the Death of Hahnemann 1874, Repertory of the Homeopathic Materia Medica, 2 vols 1878-81, The Human Eye Its Optical Construction, 1878, Hahnemann’s Materia Medica Pura, 1880, The Sphygmograph, 1882, Materia Medica: Physiological and Applied 1884, Hahnemann the Founder of Scientific Therapeutics 1882, Hahnemann’s Organon 1893 5th Edition, Prolongation of Life 1900, Hahnemann’s Lesser Writing.