Considered from our present-day point of view, the same very important principle permeates the second doctrine of Hippocrates, the ideas of Paracelsus, and the method of medicinal therapy enunciated by Hahnemann and developed by his followers, i.e., ORGAN-THERAPY! The resources and the possibilities which are contained in the organs themselves must be directly called upon. They are really present; and as I have already said : The cure must proceed from the organs themselves. This always is and always will be the secret for restoring the disturbed organs to their physiological equilibrium. Indeed, nothing more is required and we cannot accomplish anything more with our drugs. But that much can be accomplished.
It may not be easy to bring ones self to a sympathetic under-standing of the trend of thought contained in the doctrine, “Similia similibus curantur”.
It means-re-education. In the end, however, it is simply a question of trying it out. Also a question of a little courage. I must confess that in the case of my own child, severely ill with Cholera in spite of their most earnest efforts, it was not easy or me to administer arsenic and, what is more, to administer it in a dose so small that, according to my views at that time, it could not possibly have any effect. But inside of twenty-four hours the diarrhoea had ceased.
I must refer yet to another point. If one uses drugs with the idea of getting results through organ-therapy, then one must have an accurate knowledge concerning the potential power of the drugs so us used. Merely the recommendation by any chemical manufacture is as insufficient for this purpose as is the result of experiments on animals or upon their isolated organs. For the present I shall not meet with much appreciation of this point of view. But : Tempore auriculae patients fit taures aratri! “In time, the steer becomes accustomed to the ploughmans yoke”.
I am quite aware that the views I have expressed in previous publications and in part brought forth in this treatise, carry the stigma that I might be a secret follower of the Hahnemann school. However, in my opinion there can be no schools for one whose duty it is to develop his science according to all his capabilities and to guard himself against narrow-mindedness. Simply and completely to ignore a therapeutical movement because it follows a different path than the one that has been trodden for two thousand years, is a procedure which, when closely examined, can scarcely be made to harmonize with the solemn words: Salus aegroti summa lex ! +The welfare of the sick is the highest law.
I will leave it to my readers to judge whether, according to my presentation, the second doctrine of Hippocrates, “Similia similibus curantur,” is reasonable or not. Should the judgment prove negative, I will have to be satisfied. Should the result be to the contrary, then it is my hope that this doctrine will not only remain alive but will attain to a really active proof of its power to live.
