In homoeopathy we differentiate the different kinds of debility,and prescribe the remedy which corresponds, in a dose which is quite large enough to remove the debility without depositing a mineral or vegetable poison in the patients body to breed future trouble. In a large number of cases of debility there is one of the chronic miasms at the bottom of it. Relieve the system of that by the appropriate homoeopathic remedy, and the feeling of wellness and natural appetite at once return without the help of strong drugs.
HOMOEOPATHY HAS NO APERIENTS.
This is often alleged against homoeopathy as a grave defect. Homoeopaths hold themselves free to make use of the physiological effects of any drug if they think the occasion calls for it, only they do not delude themselves with the idea that they are curing a patient of constipation by simply ordering a purge. Homoeopaths have a much higher opinion of the unaided powers of Nature than allopaths, lay or medical, entertain. Some of the latter think that no natural function can be properly carried out unless assisted by some drug-no meal can be digested without the aid of some digestive, or else some mineral water.
The perpetual resort to aperients on the part of such vast numbers is another relic of barbarism, and a survival of the Facultys teaching in the days when the whole of medical practice was summed up in bleeding, purging, and administering. A young medical man, fresh from one of the London schools, recently told me that there was always a sigh of relief from the physician when examining a patient in the wards if he found that he had constipation, for then he knew what to prescribe-a purgative.
The thing that is lost sight of by allopaths is that constipation is a constitutional disease. A purgative does not cure it, but only gives temporary relief, and aggravates the actual condition. Homoeopathy cures constipation without any purging. The drugs most used by the allopaths to check diarrhoea- Opium, Sulphur, Nux vomica, Lead, Alum, and many other so-called astringents-have cured in their homoeopathic form the most inveterate cases of constipation without any disturbance whatever.
Homoeopathy has thus the very best of aperients; and though it does not possess and does not want active purgative, homoeopathists are free to use drugs in that way if in any case they think it worth while as a temporary expedient. The need for that is so rare, however, in the practice of many homoeopathists, as to be scarcely worth taking into account.
5. HOMOEOPATHY CURES TOO QUICKLY.
The most valid argument against homoeopathy was given me by a doctor in the navy who related a case. The ship this doctor was appointed to was stationed in the Red SEa during one of the Egyptian wars, and acted as hospital ship to the fighting force on shore. During this time many case of dysentery were received on board, and as my friend found no satisfactory treatment for it under allopathy, and as he knew something about homoeopathy, he determined to treat his cases according to Hahnemanns method. The cases all presented symptoms like those produced by Mercurius corrosivus, and this he gave minute doses with the result that his patients got well in a very short time.
One officer-and it is his case that I particularly allude to-was brought on board exceedingly ill with dysentery; but to everyones astonishment he recovered under the treatment by Mercurius corrosivus so rapidly that he became perfectly well and ready to return to duty in a very short time. The day after he rejoined his regiment, the next battle of the campaign was fought, and he was the first man to be killed on the British side! Under allopathy he could not possibly have got well in time.
