Small Doses. 1 See article on “The Small Dose” in The Homoeopathic World, Oct., 1885.
Homoeopathy does not necessarily mean a small dose, as it is often erroneously supposed to do. The term is intended to designate a certain relation of medicine to disease, not a certain quantity of the medicine. The grand principle that which forms the basis of the science is, like cures like, irrespective of the quantity of the dose. Hahnemann, after he had discovered this principle, employed doses of the usual quantity. Experience and further investigation, however, taught him that smaller doses were not only sufficient and safer, but that, when frequently administered, they were more effective than large ones. Others have learned the same lesson, which is enforced by the testimony of all subsequent medical men who have fairly tested the point. The assertions of others who have not so tested it cannot claim confidence.
Apart from the greater curative power of small doses, it is a matter of perfect indifference to the followers of Hahnemann whether they administer medicines in large or small doses. If they found large doses more efficient in curing diseases than small ones, they would assuredly administer the former rather than the latter. We would suggest three reasons why small doses, administered in harmony with the homoeopathic law, are efficient: First, because they are exactly suited to the exalted susceptibility of the diseased part, and act upon the same class of functions that nature has already called to her aid. Secondly, because they act directly on the part which requires to be influenced, and not on other parts; their force is not, therefore, expended on healthy parts. And, thirdly, because only one remedy being administered at a time, its action is not interfered with by one or several others. Doctors who always administer drugs in combination have no idea of the power of single drugs in small doses.
Homoeopathy not opposed to Experience:
The results obtained by homoeopathic practitioners with small doses have been said to be opposed to all experiences. But the truth is that, prior to the researches of Hahnemann and his followers, we had no experience whatever in the matter. It is, consequently, just as absurd for medical men to deny that homoeopathic remedies can effect the cure of diseases because such cures are contrary to the experience of those who have never tried them, as for a certain King of Siam to have treated as false the statement that in some countries, and in some seasons, water, under the influence of frost, becomes changed from a fluid to a solid, permitting persons to walk upon it, because in his country no such phenomenon had ever been witnessed! Siamese philosophers are not yet extinct.
Faith not Homoeopathy:
That the efficacy of Homoeopathy is not dependent on faith or imagination, is proved by its curing the diseases of infants, of patients in delirium, and of inferior animals. The writer is personally acquainted with many intelligent farmers who employ none other than homoeopathic medicines in the treatment of their sick animals. It must be admitted that the farmers of this country are generally shrewd, calculating men, not easily deceived in matters affecting their interests, and moreover, usually conservative in their notions; nevertheless great numbers of them declare that Homoeopathy cures diseases that were incurable by the old method, that it cures more quickly, at less cost, and without damage to the constitutional powers of animals. We have in such declarations as these the best evidence that the success of Homoeopathy is not the result of mere faith, but of valuable medicines, properly administered.1 Mr. Lord has given the results of five years’ trial of Homoeopathy, not on the horses of private persons, but on those of the Cavalry Depot at Canterbury, and at Her Majesty’s Riding Establishment. Here Mr. Lord had full opportunities of trying our system before the open eyes of the military authorities, with their consent, and at the Government expense. Veterinary Homoeopathy is officially recognized in the British army, and this circumstances is due, in great measure, to the efforts of Mr. Lord, and his success in treatment.
In truth, the success of Homoeopathy is anything but the result of faith in those who practise it. Persons are generally slow to believe in it, and seldom have recourse to it, at first, without doubts and misgivings. Yet benefit is derived, in spite of their unbelief. Cure overcomes their incredulity. Faith comes and grows only as the cure progresses and is complete. The very improbability of a dose so small and so unlike what had been formerly given, acts, so far as the imagination has any influence upon the cure, unfavourably, instead of the reverse. Conviction does not heal, it is the healing that produces the conviction.
Diet not Homoeopathy
Neither does Homoeopathy consist in dietary measures, as often stated. All the interference of the homoeopathic doctor in this particular only amounts to the discouragement of the use of such articles as are needles or injurious, and just such as any accomplished and faithful physician would prohibit. As physician for many years to a large dispensary in Reading, the author often remarked that some of his most successful cases had been cured without any reference to the question of diet at all, and never prescribed the moderate use of coffee, tea, or anything else that agreed with the patient. In many cases, a strict set of dietary regulations would be useless, for dispensary patients have generally but little choice of food; yet none have benefited from Homoeopathy more than the poor.
Medicines in Health
A story has often been told of a child’s swallowing the contents of a tube of globules, which created great alarm but took “no effect.” Supposing the statement true, it doses not at all compromise Homoeopathy. Homoeopathic medicines, in the form in which they are usually administered, are prepared with view of acting on the constitution in disease, when the parts are far more sensitive, and much more easily affected, than in a state of health. A healthy constitution has no susceptibility for attenuated drugs; to ensure their action in health they must be administered in a low or crude form, so as to produce unnatural effects in short, a kind of poisoning.
Illustrations-Light.
For instance, a ray of light falling upon a diseased eye will cause pain, or even become intolerable, although in health the same eye might be unaffected by the broad light of day. The susceptibility of the eye has, in fact, been heightened by disease. Millions of rays of light afforded pleasure in health: now, one ray gives pain. Just so in reference to the tubes of globules, that which will produce no disturbance in health will, in disease, with heightened sensibility, act powerfully.
Seed:
Small doses may be taken without producing effects, just as seed may be sown without yielding fruit. It were as reasonable to expect a plentiful harvest from seeds scattered on the seashore, or on a beaten path, as to expect “effects” from infinitesimal doses when the natural accessories are wanting. As seed will not grow unless the soil is congenial and prepared, so small doses will not act if the symptoms calling for their action are absent.
The Magnet:
To borrow another illustration: The disease must have the same attraction for the medicine that the magnet has for iron. You could not tell by touching the loadstone with a piece of copper that it had any power of attraction; neither could you tell by taking an attenuation of Aconitum in a state of health, that it had any power. But try the magnet with a piece of iron, and Aconitum with a quick pulse, and then their respective energies will be demonstrated.
When it is said that the globules took “no effect,” the meaning is, no such “effect” as follows allopathic doses, viz., vomiting, purging, extreme pain, etc. And here we have an illustration of the safety of homoeopathic remedies, and see how favourably they contrast with the strong drugs and severe measures often employed under the old system of treatment. Well, indeed, would it have been for thousands of allopathic patients if bleeding, Mercury, blisters, purgatives, etc., had also taken “no effect.”
Advantages of Homoeopathy:
We are thus led on to the consideration of the advantages arising from the adoption of homoeopathic treatment, but we have only space to refer to a few.
Economy:
Economy is secured chiefly from the shortened duration of diseases. Bleeding, blistering, purging, and other debilitating measures are discarded, so that, the disease being cured, the patient soon regains his strength, because it has not been expended by exhausting treatment. Tedious convalescence and permanently shattered health too often follow allopathic drugging. Patients often suppose they have not fully “got over” the disease, when in reality they are suffering from the effects of drugs administered to master the disease. To the industrial portions of the community, whose livelihood depends upon continuous work in their calling, a speedy restoration to health is of great importance. Now it is a fact of too common occurrence, that much inconvenience, and even destitution, often results from the injudicious and protracted measures of the old system; for the poor patient is long in recovering. On the other hand, there is no medicinal exhaustion from which to recover, when the disease has been overcome by homoeopathic remedies.
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY, LONDON AND EDINBURGH, ETC. PHYSICIAN TO THE READING AND BERKSHIRE HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY.
Author of "The Stepping Stone to Homeopathy and Health,"
"Manual of Homoeopathic Treatment". Editor of "The Homoeopathic World."