Samuel Hahnemann's Organon of Homoeopathic Medicine

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PREFACE TO THE FIEST BEITISH EDITION. An accidental interview with a Russian physician, in the year 1828, made me acquainted for the first time with the medical doctrine of homoeopathy; the principle of which is, that certain medicines, when administered internally in a healthy state of the system, produce...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PREFACE TO THE FIEST BEITISH EDITION. An accidental interview with a Russian physician, in the year 1828, made me acquainted for the first time with the medical doctrine of homoeopathy; the principle of which is, that certain medicines, when administered internally in a healthy state of the system, produce certain effects, and that the same medicines are to be used when symptoms similar to those which they give rise to occur in disease. This doctrine, directly opposite to that which hitherto formed the basis of medical practice in these countries, attracted my attention. I immediately procured Hahnemann's Materia Medica Pura, in which the doctrine is partially explained, with the view of investigating the system experimentally, and reporting my observations thereon, free from theory, prejudice, or party. The first inquiry was, whether the proposition, similia similibus curantur was true. This investigation was confined to a single substance at a time. To ascertain the effects of Sulphate of Quinine, healthy individuals were selected, to whom grain-doses of the medicine were administered three times a day After using it for some days, stomach-sickness, loss of appetite, a sense of cold along the course of the spine, rigor, heat of skin, and general perspiration succeeded. Effects similar to these are often observed when this medicine is injudiciously selected in the treatment of disease. It sometimes happens that the symptoms of ague are aggravated by the prolonged use of Sulphate of Quinia, and, soon after it is withdrawn, the disease gradually subsides. The result of experiments and observations on this remedy elucidate its homoeopathic action. Mercurial preparations, when administered internally, produce symptoms local and constitutional, so closely resembling the poiso...