(From vol. iv, 2nd edit., 1825.)
Just as superstition, impure observations, and credulous assumptions have been the source of innumerable falsely ascribed remedial virtues of medicines in the Materia medica; in like manner physicians by their failure to resort to the test of the experimentand by their futile theorizing, have quite as unreasonably, denied the possesion of any medicinal power whatever to many substances that are very powerful, and consequently of great curative virtue, and by so doing they have deprived us of these remedies.
In this place I will speak only of gold, and not of this metal altered by the ordinary chemical processes, consequently not of it dissolved by the action of acids nor percipitated from its solution (fulminating gold), both of which have been declared to be, if not useless, then absolutely noxious, apparently because they cannot be taken without dangerous consequences when given in what is called a justa dosis, or, in other words, in excessive quantity.
No! I speak of pure gold not altered by chemical manipulations.
Modern physicians have pronounced this to be quite inactive; they have at length expunged it out of all their Materia Medicas, and thereby deprived us of all its mighty curative virtues.
“It is incapable of solution in our gastric juices, hence it must be quite powerless and useless.” This was their theorical conclusion, in the medical art, as is well known, such theoretical dicta have always availed more than convincing proof. Because they did not question experience, the only possible guide in the medical art which is found on experience alone; because it was easier to make mere assertions, therefore they usually preferred bold dicta, theoretical empty assumptions and arbitrary maximsn to solid truth.
It is no excuse for them that the older physicians have also deemed gold to be quite useless and powerless, that, for example, FABRICIUS (in Obs. Medorrhinum) says:- “What effect can the low temperatureof our stomach have no gold-leaf, seeing that it is unalteredby the most intense heat?” Or NICHOLAS MONDARDES (De Ferro, pp. 32, 33) :- “Patients may take my word for it, and spare themselves the expense of employing glod as a medicine – they can never obtain any medicinal virtue from it for their maladies.” Or ALSTON (Mat. Medorrhinum i, p. 69):- “Seeing that gold in its metallic state cannot be dissolved or altered by the vital power, it can consequently have no medicinal action, but what it exerts on the intestines by virtue of its weight, hardness, and mechanical form.” Or, lastly, J,, F. GMELIN (Appar. Medorrhinum Min., i. p. 445):- “As gold is not destructible, not resolvable into vapour, and is hence incapable of union with juices of the animal body, therefore it cannot possess curative virtues.” (It was very stupid to attempt to decide theoritically the question whether gold can possess remedial properties – the only proper thing to do was to convince oneself by trial and experience whether it had remedial powers or not. If it has curative virtues then all the theroretical denials are rediculous.)
Nor are they excused when they adduce a number of other older physicians as deniers of the medical properties of gold, and refer to such names as ANT. MUSA BRASSAVOLUS, FEL. PLATERUS, HIER. CARDANUS, JO. BRAVUS PETRAFIT, FRANC, PIC. MIRANDOLA, MERINUS, MERCENIUS, DURETUS, CAMERARIUS, CORDOSUS, CONRINGIUS, LEMERY, ANGELUS SALA, or JOH. SCHRODER, who on other matters is so extremely credulous.
They were all wrong, and so are all the modern physicians.
Gold was great, peculiar medicinal powers.
At first I allowed myself to be deterred by these deniers from hoping for medicinal properties in pure gold; but as I could not persuade myself to consider any metal whatsoever as destitute of curative powers, I employed it at first in solution. Hence the few symptoms from the solution of gold recorded below. I then gave, in cases where the symptoms guided me to the homoeopathic employment, the quintillionth or sextillionth of a grain of gold in solution for a dose, and observed curative effects somewhat similar to those I afterwards experienced from pure gold.
But because, as a rule, I do not like, when I can avoid it, to give the metals dissolved in acids (when I can not avoid doing so, I prefer their solution in vegetable acids), and least of all in mineral acids, as that detracts from their noble simplicity, for they must assuredly undergo some alteration in their properties when acted on by these acids – as we must perceive on a comparison of the curative effects of corrosive sublimate with those of the black oxide of mercury – I was delighted to find a number of Arabian physicians unanimously testifying to the medicinal powers of gold in a finely pulverized form, particularly in some serious morbid conditions, in some of which the solution of gold had already been of great use to me. This circumstance inspired me with great confidence in the assertions of the Arabians.
Hahnemann's three major publications chart the development of homeopathy. In the Organon of Medicine, we see the fundamentals laid out. Materia Medica Pura records the exact symptoms of the remedy provings. In his book, The Chronic Diseases, Their Peculiar Nature and Their Homoeopathic Cure, he showed us how natural diseases become chronic in nature when suppressed by improper treatment.
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