Many conclusions can be drawn from recent investigations regarding the effect of potentised homoeopathic medicines. Of course he who recognises for practical use at the bedside only those dilutions for which chemistry or meta-chemistry can give a satisfactory explanation of their activity, will constantly stumble. Homoeopathic theorists would advise him not to exceed the twenty-second potency with most substances-the number depends upon the molecular weight of the individual substances. What seems more to the point to me is the recognition of the importance of the infinitesimally small as a whole, and of the primordial structure of matter through the most delicate systems of energy.
Von Driesch has thrown new light upon an idea of Ottmar Rosenbach, which he has repeatedly emphasised, concerning the transformation of cosmic currents of energy in the centres of energy of the human organism; of these he says: “the organisms are transformers of the finest currents of energy originating from the cosmos.” These ideas in their relation to therapeutics are to be found in the “Problem of therapeutics, Introduction to Homoeopathy” (Ostwald’s Annal. der Natur philosophie) by Emil Schlegel, and also in Franz Eschle and Guttmann’s collection of Rosenbach’s works. Petruschky has been able to demonstrate by means of his Perkutan treatment of tuberculosis, and by the elaboration of his degrees of dilution in the administration of tuberculin, how strongly the processes of cure rest upon graduated stimuli.
ON COLLOIDAL CHEMISTRY, INVESTIGATIONS OF IONS, THEORIES OF HEREDITY, STIMULATING DOSES IN LIGHT THERAPY.
The same author relates in the same periodical (“Deutsche Zeitschrift fur Homoeopathie”), No. 3:
I may remind you that doses of a hundredth part of a milligram of the colloidal metals are capable of producing effects which can be physiologically measured; why then is it so difficult for the old school science to accept a general discussion on the experiences of homoeopathic medicinal doses? The early experiments by Naegeli and Ostwald, the later ones by the Frenchman Richet (with radium and infinitesimal doses of formic acid) and Roulin (with aspergillus niger and metallic ferments) we will only mention casually. Bertram’s confirmations are interesting. He established that plants are extremely sensitive to infinitesimal traces of catalytic fertilisers, and Loucheux thinks that under certain conditions a science of “plant homoeopathy could be elaborated here.” Also the theory of heredity is that of the effect of the infinitesimally small. When we are asked to accept that an individual with all his peculiarities-the idiot as well as the genius-at the moment of his conception is formed with all his possibilities in one ten- millionth part of a cubic millimetre, when Meirowsky asks us to recognise in his scientific works about heredity on the analysis of the skin, that the naevi are due to a specific alteration in the condition of the germplasm-he assumes an enormous number of the heredity-units (genes),-when Kahn in discussing the effects of the iodine in the thyroid glands, points out that the iodine- component is a decisive life-factor (the blood contains 0,000,000,000.6 per cent. of iodine) and thinks: “if Napoleon had had two milligrams of iodine less in his constitution…the history of Europe would have been different”; if all this is fundamentally correct, or ought to be correct, then I cannot see why the modern nature-scientist cannot extend his hand to Hahnemann and rejoice that a hundred years ago he taught how medicinal substances could be unfolded by fine division, bringing to the bedside help which was not entirely dependent upon the crude theories of matter then prevailing, theories which in many instances were bound to prove erroneous.
The investigations of the radium and X-ray physicians in their treatment of cancer with rays have made it possible to establish that the action of the rays upon the tissues may be destructive, arresting, stimulating, or indifferent. Here also physical research must go hand in hand with biological research. If rays were applied only from the point of view of the destruction of cancer tissues, without considering that in some individuals, through exposure to the rays the blood might undergo changes so serious that processes endangering life might result from it, then this would be a therapy which took no account of the biological point of view.
When discussing the science of dietetics and pharmacology, Dr. Meng says:
Here too you see that interesting parallels run between the effect of finely divided medicinal substances and the organism, and how strongly medicinal stimuli are dependent on the soil upon which they fall. Here also you have effects upon each individual organ and upon the whole system. The absence of one important accessory food factor-the best known is Funk’s vitamine-can arrest the function of one definite organ or of a number of organs. The disease picture can be very characteristic (beri- beri, scurvy) or it can be very general, as for instance when a severe poison causes death very quickly: the appetite wanes, general progressive debility occurs, together with severe loss of body-weight in spite of the administration of all other important substances, such as albumen, fat, and carbo-hydrates, and there is an absence of the sexual libido, and eventually death.
The well-known homoeopathic physician, Dr. Stuart Close of Brooklyn, writes in “The Homoeopathic Recorder,” 1921, No. 3, page 130-131, on “potentising and infinitesimal doses”:
“The smallest material thing in the world, the last in the series of little things known to modern science, is the electron, or electric corpuscle. It is supposed that the chemical atoms are composed of collections of electrons having orbital motions in a sphere of positive electrification. The electron is conceived to be billions of times smaller than the atom. Becquerel, the French scientist, compares the electrons in the atom to gnats in the dome of a cathedral.
Zeeman, of Amsterdam, studying light through the Spectroscope, split the spectral line of a flame, by holding the flame between the poles of a powerful electro-magnet, proving that light is an electric phenomenon and showing a close relation between the activities of atoms and the origin of light itself.
Langley, of the Smithsonian Institution, invented the Bolometer, which measures variations of temperature of one hundred millionth of a degree. This represents a change of temperature about equal to that produced by a candle five miles distant.
Light, travelling through space at the rate of 186,000 miles per second, has been found to exert a distinct push or pressure. Hence, Radiation, the force opposed to Gravitation, must be considered in studying the movements of matter in a state of infinitesimal sub-division. This pressure force is measured by the Radiometer, invented by two American physicists, Professors Nicholls and Hull. It is used in connection with the Bolometer, in measuring the rays from radioactive substances.
Pfund, of John Hopkins University, in 1913, perfected a still more sensitive instrument said to be capable of measuring a degree of heat equivalent to that given off by a candle, sixty miles away.
SUPPLEMENT 231
EVIDENCE FOR THE PRESENCE OF MATERIAL IN TRITURATIONS AND SOLUTIONS OF HIGHLY DILUTED SUBSTANCES.
Griesselich’s “Hygea” of the year 1842, Vol. 16, page 17, contains an extensive essay by Dr. Carl Mayrhofer on “Microscopic Examinations of Homoeopathic metallic preparations explained by diagrams.” The author has again tested by means of the microscope various potentised triturations of metals (platinum, gold, silver, zinc, mercury, iron, lead, copper and tin). He alleges he has seen individual particles of metals by a magnification of 120, in the 9th and 10th centesimal potencies; in platinum he believes he has been able to observe isolated particles “even in the 12th and 13th centesimal,” at least they had the appearance which metal presents, before it has been triturated.
Dr. O. Buchmann describes in a prize essay entitled a “Microscopic and other observations and experiments to prove the solubility of metals and other hard substances, chiefly in the Homoeopathic dilutions and triturations” (Leipsic, 1884), what he observed under the 100, 1200 and 3000 magnifications; the measurements which he undertook are between 1/500 to 1/5000 millimeter.
The well-known physicist Wilhelm Ostwald of Leipsic, in the “Journal of Physical Chemistry,” 1887, pages 289-330, and in the “Allg. hom. Ztg.,” Vol. 134, Nos. 21-26, reports on experiments carried out with highly attenuated substances in solution, with the assistance of highly saturated solutions. We only give one instance out of the abundance of the material quoted:
One human hair has no influence upon over-cooled salol (with this substances and (common) salt Ostwald carried out his experiments-R.H.). If you rub a hair over one consolidated crystal of this substances and then immerse it immediately in fluid, salol, it at once produces consolidation. It is not necessary for this purpose to use special pressure; a gentle passing over which only slightly curves the hair is sufficient in most instances… As a hair has an uneven surface which may act like a file upon the soft crystal of salol. I replaced this with a finely spun glass hair. In this instance also the effect was produced with great regularity. If the hair was passed between the fingers after touching the crystal it did not lose its effect, even after passing it through twenty times. Between two layers of soft rubber, however, the salol could be very easily wiped away. One glass hair was made effective by contact and then cleaned in fine quartz powder. It remained effective and also the quartz powder had acquired one particle of activity, producing in some tests consolidation but not in all. Testing the material and objects used by means of a control experiment, was in no case omitted.
Richard Haehl was also an editor and publisher of the homeopathic journal Allgemcine, and other homeopathic publications.
Haehl was responsible for saving many of the valuable artifacts of Samuel Hahnemann and retrieving the 6th edition of the Organon and publishing it in 1921.
Richard Haehl was the author of - Life and Work of Samuel Hahnemann