The action of the passions and emotions in the production of diseases, of which they are such a frequent cause, may also be referred to the head of sympathy. The irritation in the brain is propagated to the organ more directly in sympathy with that apart which is the seat of the mental affection in question, and acting like another irritation, produces disease in a similar manner. The passions and emotions are also a common predisposing cause of disease.
Among the exciting causes of disease, miasms or specific viruses deserve especial consideration and though we shall hereafter have occasion to consider the affections produced by miasmatic causes in general more in detail, it is necessary to allude to them in this place.
Miasms are of two sorts, which may he termed acute and chronic. Acute miasms are irritations that give rise, within a certain period after their contact with the organism, to a certain definite series of phenomena, terminating in complete recovery or in death. After once invading the system, they appear to destroy, for a time at least the susceptibility of the organism to be acted on by the same miasms. Their intensity seems to depend, in some degree, on the length of the period of what is called their latent stage, ie., the period from their invasion of the organism till the development of their peculiar effects, which may be considered the period during which their peculiar irritation is at work. Some of them, when inoculate, appear in a milder form than the natural disease, which is generally considered to be owing to the shorter duration of their latent stage. During the course of the disease excited by them, their specific miasms is reproduced. Such miasms are variola, vaccinia, rubeola, perhaps hydrophobia, typhus, mumps, etc.
The chronic miasms likewise, after a longer or shorter period of incubation, produce an array of morbid phenomena in the body, but seem to have little tendency to cease spontaneously, and are very apt to degenerate into different permanent morbid states. At one period of their existence they reproduce the miasms capable of propagating themselves. Such miasms are syphilis, gonorrhea, various skin diseases, much as tinea capitis, perhaps scabies, etc.
Parasitical animals are frequently stated to be an exciting cause of disease, but whilst some of them, such as the various specifies of pediculus and the acarus scabiei, seem to be always communicated from one individual to another, or to invade the body from without, others, such as hydatids and intestinal worms, seem rather to be the result of a morbid process-a renal morbid secretion in fact. The proofs that they are so are chiefly these: that similar worms are never found in other situations: that they are found in the foetus; that each is found in its won habitat, and however else; that some of them exist in parts of the body whither it seems impossible their ova could have been transported by the circulation or otherwise; that their ova have been given in vain to healthy persons. Moreover, when we consider the changes that occur in effused lymph as it becomes organized, we shall have less difficulty in conceiving how more lightly organized structures, in some cases possessing a quasi- independent existence, may be secreted by the organisms. It has been observed, namely, that in the possesses of organization of effused lymph, the blood-vessels originate in the centre of the effused mass and are not propagated into it from the blood- vessels of the system; and attention to this fact, in considering the difficulties attendant on the treatment of various normal growths, which may be supposed to possess, like parasites, a sort of independent existence will explain to us, in some measure, the difficulty of affecting them by our therapeutics appliances. We should also bear in mind that the healthy body is capable of secreting and does secrete creatures having a separate vitality. Thus the testicles develop myriads of independent animals, the spermatozoa, and the ovaries secrete the ovum, which speedily acquires a distinct vitality. A consideration of these facts will reconcile us to the idea of other organs of the body, in a morbid state, being capable of producing structures having a quasi-independent life. Of course it cannot be denied that these parasites, however produced, do frequently become a source of irritation, and consequently it is often expedient to secure their expulsion, but we cannot hop to prevent their reproduction, unless by our specifics we are able to alter the morbid state to which they owe there being.
In ancient times all contagious diseases used to be attributed to animalculae, and this theory has recently been revised by Henle, and supported by very ingenious arguments. To this abuse Hahnemann himself attributed the invasion and propagation of cholera, in a pamphlet he wrote on the subject if that disease, published in the Lesser Writings (P. 849).
Before proceeding to he subject of therapeutics, I may briefly recapitulate what we may consider to be the essential nature of the morbid process. The organism, from one of the predisposing causes alluded to above, is rendered susceptible to the action of an irritation, such as one of the exciting causes just hinted at. The irritation seems, in the first instance, to produce an over- action of the power which regulates the admission of blood into the extreme capillaries-when they are the part acted on by the irritation; this constitutes the state of incubation, the latent stage of the malady the stage of extreme contraction of the capillaries and is followed, sooner later by a diminished action of that same power, causing dilation of the capillaries; consequently, entrance of more blood, and increased discharge of their contents-increase secretion. The return to the healthy state is indicative of a restoration of their contractile power to the capillaries, and the consequent due passage through them of the normal among of blood. Such restoration is effected in several different ways: 1st, by the gradual and slow action of the natural stimuli; 2nd, by the application of an artificial stimulus, causing the capillaries to resume their natural; contraction, and that either (a) directly to the seat of the disease, or (b) by its application to another apart, whence the irritation is communicated by sympathy to the seat, of morbid action.
This description of the morbid process is applicable to only the simplest form of morbid action, viz., simple inflammation. In the more complex morbid processes, many more and mode intricate actions come into play, but they may all, or almost all, be revolved into the following elements.
1. A SUSCEPTIBILITY.
2. An increased action caused by a specific irritation, the first or latent stage.
3. A diminished action, owing to exhaustion of the irritability, the inevitable consequence of the primarily increased action, constituting the proper morbid process.
4. A restoration of the normal action by (a) the prolonged and gradual action of the natural specific stimuli; or by (b) an artificial specific stimulus, more powerful than the ordinary stimuli of the organism
But in the case of complex disease, we can easily imagine that the primary irritation is not confined to one organ or tissue, or that it is sympathetically propagated to many others that the morbid process in pen part, producing a derangement in the balance of the fluids, may give rise to many secondary phenomena of a more or less grave character; that the chemical and even the mechanical changes accompanying many of the morbid processes may develop quite another series of morbid action; that the imperfect return of the parts affected to to healthy action may, from a permanent increase of section, give rise to hypertrophies, induration, tumors, and permanent abnormal discharges, and such complication of the disease may necessitate a greater complication of the agencies requisite for the restoration of health, and so forth.
Thus, then, inflammation may be taken as the type of all disease-with some few unimportant exceptions-although what is commonly understood as inflammation may not be apparent; and disease may be considered as differing from each other only in degree, and the verities they represent may be attributed to the different seats of the morbid action, and the different functions consequently involved by it.
If such be the true explanation of morbid action, we might naturally infer that the rational radical treatment of diseases would be to increase the intensity and power of the natural stimuli, or to supply artificially a new stimulus, capable of exciting or increased action the part of the organism suffering from under stimulation, in other words, diseased. I speak not at present of what is termed palliative treatment, such as the removal of mechanical impediments to the performance of natural functions, the administration of stupefying agents for allaying pain, the withdrawal, either mechanically or by specifics irritant of some of the fluids of the body, etc. The first of these objects would be gained, in whole or in pat, by a removal of the patient from injurious influences, by his transference to a purer atmosphere or more congenial climate, by favorable mental imprisons, by withholding improper articles of food and drink and administering suitable ones; in other words, by calling into action the known principles of hygiene and dietetics.
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.