Theory of the Dynamization of Medicine



The subject was taken up and pursued in a much more complete and satisfactory manner by Dr. Mayrhofer, who has given us the results of his investigations in the first volume of the Austrian Homoeopathic Journal. In order to observe more accurately what took place during the process of mechanical diminution by means of trituration, he investigated the homoeopathic triturations by means of the microscope, and chose the metals as the subjects of his investigations. In order to avoid all deception, he first carefully noticed the appearance under the microscope of the non- medicated milk-sugar, alcohol, distilled water, and the empty object- glass, and after becoming familiar with their appearance he then subjected to inspection the preparations, which he made himself in the proportion of two of the medicine to ninety-eight of the vehicle. The metallic triturations he dissolved in distilled water, in order to separate the metallic particles from the milk-sugar. The triturations were examined with a magnifying power of one hundred twenty diameters, the dilutions with a power of two hundred to three hundred diameters

It would be wearisome and superfluous to read to you all Dr. Mayrhofer’s descriptions of the different appearances he observed in different metallic preparations, so I shall content myself with giving a brief review of the most interesting points connected with his observations. I should mention that Dr. Mayrhofer gives lithographic representations of the appearance of several of the preparations he investigated under the microscope; copies of the most important of these will be found in the second volume of the British Journal of Homoeopathy, to which I must refer you in order that you may have a correct idea of what Dr.Mayrhofer observed. The preparations of platina showed distinct signs of the presence of the metal under the power of three hundred diameters in the 10th dilution, and he believes even in the 12th and 13th dilutions.

Gold-leaf was no longer visible in the 5th dilution. Precipitated gold showed itself much more divisible. From a calculation Dr. Mayrhofer makes, it appears that the actual quantity of gold presenting under the microscope the appearance he delineates in one of the plates that accompany his paper, was not more than the 288,000th part of a grain; and the figure he gives dose not even give a sufficient idea of the actual number of particles, for those that floated about in the drop of water could not of course be depicted. In the representation of the second trituration of the precipitated gold, Dr. Mayrhofer calculates there is the 14,400,000th part of a grain of pure gold; that of the third trituration contains about the 720,000,000th part of a grain of gold. The triturated gold could be, he asserts, traced with the microscope as high as the tenth and eleventh potencies. The much greater divisibility of precipitated than of leaf-gold shows that it should be preferred for homoeopathic purposes to the latter.

Silver-leaf is more easily divided by trituration than gold-leaf. It cannot be traced further than the fifth potency. Precipitated silver can, we are told, be detected up to the twelfth attenuation.

Isolated globules of metallic mercury can be detected up to the tenth attenuations. Dr. Mayrhofer believes, from the appearances he observed, that the mercury undergoes a kind of half-oxydation by the trituration.

Metallic iron is still visible, under the magnifying power of three hundred diameters, in the seventh and eighth attenuations. It seems undergo an oxydizing process like the mercury.

Leaf-lead seems to triturate better than lead-filing, and seems also to become oxydized. Dr. Mayrhofer does not mention how high up in the scale of dilutions he could still detect its metallic particles.

Metallic copper, prepared according to Hahnemann’s directions, by being rubbed on a fine whetstone under distilled water, presents the most curious appearance of any of the metallic triturations. Some of the fragments you will notice in the representation given of it in the British Journal of Homoeopathy are of considerable dimensions, and others present a rounded or hollowed-out aspect. Some of the ball-shaped pieces appear burst, and a second ball inside of them, like the Chinese ivory carvings. In the second trituration the larger fragments seem broken up, and a good many of the smaller balls are to be observed. In the third trituration all the balls disappear. The fragments present almost every variety of colour, apparently from undergoing an oxydizing process. It can only be detected in this preparation as far as the fifth attenuation. Copper-leaf is a better from of the metal for triturating than the preceding, but is very inferior to precipitated copper obtained by deposition from a solution of the sulphate on balls of Zincum met. The appearance of the first three triturations of precipitated copper under the microscope is almost exactly the same as that of the same triturations of precipitated gold. This preparation of copper also seems to become oxydized during the trituration. The particles of copper are alleged to be detectable in the twelfth attenuation.

Tinfoil, unless beat very thin, is scarcely more divisible by trituration than gold and silver foil. Precipitated tin, on the contrary, is the most divisible of all the metals, and the atomic particles in the dissolved solution seem to be in a constant state of dancing movement. The particles can be perceived as high as the thirteenth and fourteenth attenuations. Metallic zinc seems to triturate badly, as no traces of it could be discovered beyond the fifth potency.

In triturating the oxyde of arsenic-common white arsenic or arsenious acid-Dr. Mayrhofer found that the first trituration was not soluble in water, its dilution presented an amazing number of very fine points.

Dr.Mayrhofer draws the following deductions from his careful and praiseworthy experiments.

1. The precious metals, even when triturated to the finest powder, retain all the properties of the metals unchanged, and after this subdivision of their particles are just as insoluble in alcohol and water as when in larger masses.

2. The metallic lustre is exhibited by the precious metals even when reduced to the smallest visible, parts, but disappears from the baser metals, owing to their oxydation. The specific gravity is only seen in the larger particles, for the smaller ones float on the surface or are suspended in the liquid.

3. In the process of trituration there is a progressive division and diminution of the substance, and this, by making it capable of assimilation by the organism, may be called a rousing or awakening of its medicinal powers. It is doubtful if succussion has any effect in dividing the particles still more; there is no question of solution, in the proper sense of the word, the particles are only suspended; there is, however, a disengagement of electricity and magnetism by the friction of the metallic particles against one another. Whilst the old school called such a minute subdivision of the metals “killing them,” the new school calls it “vivifying them,” with more justice as regards the living organism.

4.Though the actual divisibility of matter by mechanical processes borders on the marvellous, still it is limited, and is far below the mathematical idea of infinity. The visible particles of the substances become gradually smaller and fewer as the triturations advance, and at length cease altogether; the atoms becoming always smaller and more mobile, at length come to be so that they elude the triturating force. We ought, however, to be quite content with the actual divisibility, for examination shows the diameter of the smallest metallic particles to be one twelve-hundredth to one two-thousandth part of a line, whilst the diameter of the blood-globule is one three-hundredth of a line, so that the cubic contents of the metallic particle are sixty- four times less than those of the blood-globule. A patient, who takes a grain of the third trituration of tin or arsenic, swallows the amazing number of 115,200,000 particles of the medicine, and if he take it made according to the decimal scale, no less than 576,000,000 particles, each of which possesses all the properties of the metal, and from their minute size can freely penetrate to all parts of the organism, and develop their peculiar on every part.

5. It is of great importance what preparation is used for the trituration. Metallic oxydes, precipitated metals, and fluid mercury are the best; iron and lead-filings less good; still worse are zinc and copper powder obtained by rubbing on a stone under water; and worst of all are silver and gold-leaf.

6.It is only the precious metals that afford real reguline preparations, the baser metals seem all to become oxydized during trituration, owing to their affinity to oxygen. It would therefore be preferable to select the oxydes of these baser metals at once for trituration.

Dr. Koch (Die homoeopathie.) examined the third trituration of mercurius vivus under the microscope, and found it to contain an infinite number of the smallest globules of mercury.

R.E. Dudgeon
Robert Ellis Dudgeon 1820 – 1904 Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh in 1839, Robert Ellis Dudgeon studied in Paris and Vienna before graduating as a doctor. Robert Ellis Dudgeon then became the editor of the British Journal of Homeopathy and he held this post for forty years.
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.