HOMOEOPATHY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 216, 14 September 1867, Page 2

HOMOEOPATHY.

To tbk Editor op the Nelson Evening Mail. Siß-—Perßonß calling themselves Homosopathists having latterly attracted attention- by seeking to intrude into the list of qualified colonial medical men the same of one who, they admit, has do qualification —a privilege which of rational medicine desires, I have stated ia your paper that I think it unreasonable, particularly as homoeopathy is nearly extinct, nobody has any exact idea what it is, and I have myself striven in vain to , find out. Three letters have appeared in reply: one in your columns, very candid and to the point, but obscurely worded j two others by 'J. G-.' in the Examiner, carefully keeping away from the point. I have now, with the assistance of these letters and the current homoeopathic literature (consisting of thousands of popular

tracts, guides, .plain wordsVs&c.;— I neye,r met one addressecLtq. scientific; men coatainingan original observation, or discovery in chemistry, anatomy, physiology, &ic), to find out what homoeopathy professes to be; aad then to inquire .whether anyone practises it now. : . From these pamphlets and, the letter in your paper, I learn that it purports to be a ', law of cure/ 'the principle of which is" to cure diseases- bygiving a small quantity of such medicines us produce similar symptoms, in large 4oses, in the healthy persou;' and in the domestic guides which one sees on the table in every homoeopathic household I find that the small quantity is invariably set down as the 6th or 3rd dilution; in Dr Laurie's Epitome, for instance, a list of 45 drugs is given, 3/ in the 6th and 8 in the 3rd dilution, neither of them containing, I think, more than a millionth of a grain. I have also read two letters in the Examiner signed ■' J. G./ saying that the above law *is a correct definition and accepted by all homceo* pathists.' lam sorry to have gained little other information from J. G.; but excepting his translation of homoeopathy, which he says is no harder a word than oligocythemia, his letters keep away from the point. : . My reason for thinking homceopathy extinct, is, that I never met a homceopathist whose practice corresponds with this law. They all have recourse more or less to rational medicines in full doses; and if asked for a list of the rational medicines they employ, and the by-law under which they break * the law/ they give some stich evasive answer as the following, which I extract from one of J. G.'s letters- — Vs& occasionally have recourse to rational medicine 'just to show our freedom from prejudice.' .. ■ My sphere of homoeopathic observation has been however very limited, but English rational practitioners having lately heard of some cures effected by homoeopathy, and being ever ready to investigate and adopt anything which can be seen in the light of. common sense to cure, instituted an inquiry what the practice really was in Mancbrster, a place where homceopathists muster in great numbers and have a public hospital and dispensary. With this object in view they collected many precsriptions, in the handwriting of the various homoeopathic practitioners in the city, some for the cure of private patients, some from the public institutions, and it was found that in more than half of them rational drugs were prescribed in rational doses, that there might be no charge of unfair dealing these prescriptions have been published in facsimile handwriting, the following two are a fair sample of the. remainder. "Take of phosphate of zinc three grains to form a powder, one to be taken three .times a day. Send 24 of these powders." This prescription is in tiiS .handwriting of a homoeopathic practttfdner. The patient had epilepsy and was cured by it; it is a usual medicine and the usual dose prescribed by rational practitioners for the disease. The following has printed in large type on the back of the paper "Manchester and Salford Homoeopathic Dispensary, 29 Lever-street" (I wonder how many thousands of tracts condemning the use of mercury the subscribers had on their bookshelves. "Take of red oxide of.. mercury A. one grain. Send six such powders." In the books -on homoeopathy.. : which one sees on the table in all the houses of faithful believers, there is much about infinitesimal dilutions, but no, mention of attenuations A, I, B, indeed the thing is kept so very close, no explanatory book being publicly advertised or .sold that it was hard to find out what A, etc., meant, it was however found out at least. . A means one part of the drug and nine parts of sugar, this patient was therefore taking three times a day one/ s tenth, pf b grain of red oxide of mercury^ he was ia a state of salivation, he was taking the same medicine and the same doses which. - rational practitioners; give qf thafc"drcig : (though we seldom or never now salivate), ;I Horoceopathists now claim tbat people ■ who employ such potent drugs, in such large doses,., shall :be entered on the. " Register, whether they have a- diploma .. showing they have studied chemistry/ etc., or not. ■-'•; ''-'• I cannot trespass on your, space by asking you to copy any more of the prescriptions. From my own observation, and a perusal of . them, I am yet unable' to form any exact idea what homoeopathy is, but I believe the homoeopathy of the tractg and phamphlets is" extinct, and hones^*-.