A large class of diseases depends on the presence in the blood of a morbid material, or, what amounts to the same thing, on the constant working of a morbid process in that fluid. Some of these, as the eruptive fevers, will run a certain course, and then come to an end. These we cannot generally stop, but can only alleviate. But others, more in number, and more commonly met with, tend naturally to run on for an indefinite period, unless by any means we can arrest their progress. Some depend on a contagious virus, communicable from one person to another, as Syphilis. Some, as Ague, are dependent on atmospheric or terrestrial influences. Others are due to some derangement of the secondary assimilative processes, as Scrofula, Scurvy, Gout, and Rheumatism. Others again, to causes that are ill understood, as convulsive disorders and skin diseases. Lastly, some may be caused in many different ways, as common inflammatory fever.
Now the object in the treatment of such diseases is to obtain in each case some remedy, that shall be able to counteract this process, something that shall destroy the morbid influence at work, and thus restore health. Medicines that are used with this intention form the second division of Hæmatics, which I have named Catalytics (Catalytica,) from a Greek verb signifying to destroy or to unbind.
Now though I have a probable hypothesis to advance as to the action of some of these, I would not have this considered as more than hypothetical. I would not speak positively of the action of any one of them, any more than to say that each of them tends to neutralize one or more particular morbid poisons.
Some have tried to give a general explanation of their action, and have talked of it as if it were easily understood by their known properties. I am not of their opinion; and when I speak of Catalytics, I shall give my reasons for disagreeing with them. Now each Catalytic has peculiarities and affinities that distinguish it from all others. I have not thought that I could arrange them more truthfully than by subdividing them according to diseases which they tend to counteract. How inadequately is the action of Mercury and of Iodine expressed by calling them special stimulants, alteratives, or absorbents! Is it not better and more correct to say at once that Mercury is useful in checking inflammation in general, and in counteracting the poison of Syphilis in particular? and that Iodine is effective in secondary forms of the latter disorder, as well as in Scrofula?
These medicines, then, are specifics, in so far as they are particularly useful in certain disorders, and in those excel other remedies; but they are not, in the vulgar acceptation of that term, the only medicines which can be employed in such a disease, nor is their use to be restricted to it alone. I have already said that a Catalytic tends of itself to work out a peculiar process in the blood. For this reason their administration in health generally does harm. They have nothing in the blood corresponding to them; or if so, they are not introduced to supply its want. Thus they must eventually pass out of the body. Before doing so, some may act on the nerves. While so passing out, they may, as I have said, act either as Astringents or Eliminatives on the glands. Under these heads their secondary action will be subsequently considered.
Being thus foreign to the blood, Catalytics do not remain there to supply a want; but just long enough to counteract a morbid action, and are then excreted.
Such is the difference between Restorative and Catalytic medicines. Although so far as this their action is sufficiently distinct, yet some care is required in separating the remedies in one division from those in the other. Sometimes both kinds are used in the same disorder. For whenever the action of a morbid poison causes any derangement in the proportion of the normal constituents of the blood, a Restorative may become of use to supply this defect. Thus a cancerous or scrofulous condition may cause a deficiency in the red colouring matter of the blood, which may be supplied by Iron. When, as in Gout and Rheumatism, there is an excess of acid in the system, partly due to an absence of that basic matter which should be present to neutralize it, this may be restored by an alkaline remedy. In both of these cases a Restorative may be used in a disease which depends on a morbid agency. But other remedies, Catalytic in their action, are of more direct use in such disorders. They counteract the original poison, and striking at the root of the evil, instead of correcting the consequences, they are more likely to eradicate the disease.
Some medicines come under both heads, acting in different ways in different cases. Thus Potash may be a Restorative in Rheumatism, but a Catalytic in Scrofula.
The operation of some particular agents is rather obscure. I shall have to show how it seems to me that the vegetable acids may act as Restoratives in fevers; and also to explain why, of those medicines which are used in Intermittents, I have placed Quina among Restoratives, and Arsenic with Catalytics.
It may be remarked that the fact that Catalytic medicines produce of themselves distinct actions in the blood has proved a stumbling-block to the disciples of M. Hahnemann. For in some few cases their action may, to a certain extent, simulate the disease which they tend to cure, and has thus been confounded with it by this imaginative observer. This partial resemblance is probably due to the fact that both disease and remedy produce a series of changes in the same set of particles in the blood. If it were not so, the remedy could not meet the disease. It would be out of its province, as not acting at all in the same sphere. But that the actions are essentially different is sufficiently proved by the fact that they counteract each other. The remedy, moreover, is often of equal efficacy in other different disorders. It has been shown in Chapter II., that with regard to Eliminative medicines, the Homœopathic theory is founded on a misapprehension of facts.