Again, if we are to judge of the relative strength of different agents by their effects, we cannot say that the medicinal irritation of belladonna, for example, is stronger than that of the miasm of scarlatina, for whilst it would require a large dose of the former to produce the semblance of even a slight attack of scarlatina, we know that the most imponderable portion of the latter will of times kill in spite of the most judicious treatment. Besides, we know that the violence of the effect of a medicinal agent is in a great degree proportioned to the quantity in which it is administered, and the quantity sufficient for the homoeopathic cure is so infinitesimal, that it is unable in most cases to produce the slightest appreciable effect upon the healthy organism. It is thus obvious that the medicinal irritation cannot by any possibility be considered the stronger of the two, and some of the illustrations of the homoeopathic law given by Hahnemann in the Organon abundantly demonstrate this.
The overheated labourer cured himself by taking a small mouthful of brandy, quite insufficient to produce those symptoms of overheating from which the suffers.
The cook who has burnt his hand does not expose it again to a greater heat than caused the burn, but to a much less degree of heat.
The frost-bitten limb is cured not by a greater cold than caused the frost-bite, but by a much less degree of cold.
These examples, which are Hahnemann’s own illustrations, sufficiently show that the curative irritation, in place of being stronger, is actually weaker than the morbific on.
Let us examine some of the other illustrations he brings forward to prove the greater strength or power of the curative agent.
“How is it that in the early dawn the brilliant Jupiter vanishes from the gaze of the beholder? By a stronger very similar power acting on his optic nerve, the brightness of approaching day! In situations replete with foetid odours, wherewith is it usual to soothe effectually the offended olfactory nerves? With snuff, that affects the sense of smell in a similar but stronger manner! No music, no sugared cake, which act on the nerves of other sense, can cure this nausea caused by the disgusting odour. How does the warrior cunningly banish the piteous cries of him who runs the gauntlet from the ears of the compassionate bystanders? By the shrill notes of the life, commingled with the roll of the noise drum! And the distant roar of the enemy’s cannon, that inspires his army with fear? By the mimic thunder of the big drum! For neither the one nor the other would the distribution of a brilliant piece of uniform nor as regimental reprimand suffice. In like manner, mourning and sorrow will be effaced from the mind by the account of another and still greater cause for sorrow happening to another, even though it be a mere fiction. The injurious consequences of too great joy will be removed by drinking coffee which produces an excessively joyous state of mind. Nations, like the Germans, who have for centuries been gradually sinking deeper and deeper in soulless apathy and degrading serfdom, must first be trodden still deeper in the dust by the Western Conqueror, until their situation became intolerable; their mean opinion of themselves was thereby overstrained and removed; they again became alive to their dignity as men, and then for the first time they raised their heads as Germans.” (Organon. Aphorism xxvi., note).
The disappearance of Jupiter before the sunlight is a most unhappy illustration; for what can be more different from the morbific effects of the invasion of a disease-creating agent than the impinging of the rays from a planet on the retina, and what more different from its cure than the physical phenomenon of the disappearance of the celestial bodies before the powerful rays of the luminary of day? That the analogy should be complete, the observer should have been rendered for ever incapable of seeing Jupiter after once beholding the sun’s light! The same remarks apply to the minor noises being rendered inaudible by the greater.
The next illustrations of a great grief being soothed by the recital of a greater tale of woe is not, as it would at first sight seem, favourable to the theory, for the recited tale, be it ever so woeful, is incapable of producing such violent effects as the misfortune experienced by the individual himself which caused his grief. It is obvious that it is a less powerful agency than that which caused the affection it is to cure.
The injurious consequences of too great joy being cured by coffee, which produces an excessively joyous state of mind, is surely not an illustration of the homoeopathic law; at least, not as the proposition stands. In order that it shall be such an illustration, it would have to be shown that coffee produces a state or an affection similar to the injurious effects of great joy.
I would give quite another interpretation of the rising of the Germans against Napoleon than the far-fetched one here given. The Germans rose as one man because their princes appealed to them as men, in place of treating them as salves, as they had hitherto done, and they rose on the promise of having their liberties secured and constitutional government bestowed upon them-promises that were broken whenever these brave Germans had secured their respective thrones to these faithless princes; just as we have seen in our own time the most sacred and solemn oaths of a similar tenor broken by these same worthy princes and their successors, when the dangers that extorted from them those oaths were past. No, loyal and true-hearted old Saxon! do not seek in homoeopathy an explanation of the wonderful rising of your glorious countrymen against the Corsican tyrant. The prize of liberty-that first and best of human blessings-which was held temptingly before their eyes by their treacherous princes, was what excited them to do those heroic deeds of valour that freed their country from the sway of the mighty despot; but Europe remembers with indignation how shamelessly the well-earned prize was withheld the moment these pusillanimous domestic tyrants felt their ignoble thrones secure.
Another error is contained in this explanation of Hahnemann’s, and that is with respect to the supposed nature of disease, which is here represented as an inimical entity residing in the organism, against which the instinctive vital power is struggling ineffectually, which I trust I shall be able to show is a totally erroneous conception of the morbid process. But of this hereafter.
At a subsequent period, viz., in the preface to the fourth vol. of the Chronic Diseases, 1838, Hahnemann attempted another explanation of the curative of the curative process, which I shall now read to you:-
“It is undeniable that our vital force is unable, without the assistance of true curative agents, administered by human skill, to combat with inconsiderable acute diseases (if even it do not succumb to them), and to re-establish a sort of health, without sacrificing a portion (often a large portion) of the fluid and solid parts of the organism in what is called a crisis. How it effects this will remain for ever unknown to us; thus much, however, is certain, that it cannot overcome even these diseases in a direct manner, nor without such sacrifices. The chronic diseases of miasmatic origin it cannot cure by itself, and restore real health, even with such sacrifices. But equally certains is it, that when, by the true (homoeopathic) healing art, guided by human wisdom, it is put in a position to overpower and to subdue (to cure) diseases with which it is attacked, as well those of an acute as those of a chronic miasmatic character, directly and without such sacrifices, without loss to the organism and to life, it is always the vital force that conquers: just as the native army which drives the enemy out of the country must be called the conqueror, although it was assisted by foreign auxiliary troops. It is the organic vital force of our bodies which itself cures natural diseases of all kinds, in a direct manner and without such sacrifices, whenever, by means of the proper (homoeopathic) medicines, it is placed in a position conquer, which indeed it never could do without the auxiliary power, without this aid; for our organic vital force, by itself, only suffices to preserve the vital operations in their good order as long as the individual is not morbidly deranged by the inimical influence of morbific agencies. By itself it s not a match for the latter; it opposes them with a power scarcely equal to that which the inimical influence exerts upon it, and that with various indications of suffering on its own part (which we term symptoms of disease), but by its own power it could never overcome the chronic-disease enemy, as it cannot conquer even acute diseases, without considerable loss of portions of the organism, if it were to remain without assistance from without by means of real remedial aid, to furnish which the Preserver of human life has commissioned the intelligent physician. With a scarcely equal opposing power, I repeat, the vital force advances against the hostile disease, and yet no enemy can he overcome, except by a superior power. The homoeopathic medicine alone can supply the vital principle with this superior power. Left to itself, this principle that animates us, this vital force, merely organic, only designed for maintaining undisturbed health, opposes to the advancing hostile disease only a weak resistance, and, as the disease progresses and increases in intensity, a greater resistance, but at least one that is only equal to the hostile attack, in delicate patients not even equal, often only weaker; for offering an overpowering, an unhurtful opposition, it is not capable, not intended, not designed. But if, by means of acting upon it by homoeopathic medicines, we physicians can represent and oppose to this instinctive vital force, its enemy the disease as it were increased-however little increased-and if
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.