Hahnemann, it will be remembered by most of you, has a number paragraphs in his Organon, from Aphorism xliii. to Aphorism., where he treats of the homoeopathic cure of certain maladies by the miasm of certain others having a pathological affinity to them, and probably such cases of natural homoeopathy are more allied to the case I have just recited than the isopathic cure formerly alluded
to.
The employment of a natural morbid process for the cure of a totally different malady is not new in medicine. Thus the cow- pock disease has been employed successfully for the removal of those deformities called telangiectasias or vascular naevi. I don’t know who introduced this practice, but I have myself practised it on more than one occasion with perfect success. The plan is to make numerous punctures all over the surface of the tumour, and into these to introduce the vaccine matter. The vesicle, in its development, seems completely to destroy the vascular structure, and nothing remains behind but the usual vaccine scar. In this way I have removed two such tumours, one on the eyelid, the other on the thigh
The isopathic heresy, with its innumerable divergences and extravagances, has brought no small amount of ridicule upon homoeopathy, and has been eagerly seized on by some of our opponents as a proper mark for their wit and satire. But in truth examples of isopathic treatment are not a wanting in the records of allopathic medicine, and even in our own day we have witnessed the administration of isopathic remedies by distinguished men in the ranks of our opponents. Thus ox-gall pills were lately a fashionable remedy in bilious derangements; urea was given by Fouquier and Laennec, in doses of two scruples at a time, as a diuretic in dropsy-with the greatest success, it is asserted; and it is a very common and effectual mode of curing drunkenness in Sweden, to compel the subject of this vice to eat and drink everything mixed with spirits, whereby he soon gets sickened for ever of his once favourite beverage.
The disgusting character of many of the preparations introduced into our Materia Medica by the isopathists has been particularly held up to public condemnation by our adversaries, but it should be remembered that in times gone by preparations of the same nature were in great reputation as remedial agents, and some of the foulest of them were retained in the allopathic dispensatories until a very recent period. A few of these may be mentioned as specimens. Dioscorides, Galen, Paulus AEgineta, and others, make mention of various excrementitious matters useful for the cure of diseases, among which we find the dung of dogs, children, wolves, sheep, oxen, pigeons, fowls, storks, mice, starlings and crocodiles; the urine of men, boys, mules, goats, and camels; again we find such delectable remedies prescribed by the wisdom of our ancestors as bugs, lizards, earth worms, locusts, serpents, slough, the blood of various animals, spider’s web, soot, burnt hair, sweat, etc., and these delicacies were given in palpable quantities with their full natural flavour attached to them, not frittered away by infinitesimal dilution into the colourless and insipid preparations of modern isopathists.
I cannot resist quoting here a portion of a satire upon the vile remedies of ancient physic, which Schro has happily rescued from oblivion:-
“TU QUOQUE BRUTE.”
“Non tamen ullus adhuc, ut membra reduceret aegri
Corporis ad normam, formicarum ova comesse,
Aut cum lumbricis argenti pocula vivi
Sumere visus erat, cineremque ex dente lupino.
Ignorabantur cancri fluviatilis exta;
Nemo bombycum sanum se stamine, nemo
Testibus hoedorum voluit. Quid nominis album
Graecum, quas vires hircorum sanguis haberet,
Fel aquilae cerebrumve, lien vel tostus echini,
Vel canis ustus adeps, latuit felicius omnes.
Incolumes ut adhue gaudebant simplici vietu,
Sic se curabant use quoque simplicis herbae.
Sed jam nulli operae, pretis fruticique marino
Parcitur. Ignotae procul et trans aequora lectae
Radices magno sumtu votoque petuntur.
Cachunde et China Guaiacum, barbara dictu
Germina, quis veterum sumsit? Quis noverat usquam
Crescere? Conteritur propinaturrque corallum.
Post asini auriculas longum hoe mobile sanguis
Elicitur bibturque avide, nec non aqua pastae
Anguillae, colubri moechae, et cum spermate ceti
Lampyridum expressus nitida putredine succus.
Non, mihi si centum linguae, praecepta medendi
Enumerare queam, lentoque dolore necandi:
Quae Phalarim scripsisse putes, dictasse Perillum.
Pulvis Trithemii, et bufonum salque lacertae
Mistaque ranarum puterfactis viscera corvis!
Ichneumon Pharius coquitur, Stomachaque ministrant
Arida Tartareas purgando dolia crustas.
Nil haerens inter sacrum saxumque Bathyllus
Horrebit. Quaevis afflicto opsonia praebe;
Ut morbum expellat, crocodili stercora linget.” (Medicinae gloria, per Sat. 22 ass. auctore Jac. Balde : Monachii 1651. Sat. tert., v. 48, c. 5.)
Nor are such delicate preparations confined to the remote antiquity of physic, for, as Professor Henderson has pointed out in his recent defence of homoeopathy against Professor Simpson’s laboured attack, (Homoeopathy Fairly Represented, p. 168.) that eminent physician Hoffmann has stamped with the seal of his approbation a number of filthy preparations, if possible exceeding in their disgustingly repulsive character any of those enumerated above. If, then, our opponents will insist on raking up the infinitesimal dirt that some unacknowledged, self-styled homoeopathists have chosen to introduce into our previously pure Materia Medica, we are prepared to meet them on their own terms, and we need but to stir up the great dunghill of their own Materia Medica to raise a stench their nostrils that shall for ever make them repent of having begun the combat with such foul weapons.
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.