I could record numerous instances of similar results, but they would of course be foreign to the nature of this work. I trust that the few cases I have related will afford a convincing proof of the injustice, if not the unjustifiable obstinacy, of those practitioners who, refusing to submit the homœopathic practice to a fair trial, condemn it without investigation. That this practice will be adopted by quacks and needy adventurers, there is no doubt; but homœopathy is a science on which numerous voluminous works have been written by enlightened practitioners, whose situation in life placed them far above the necessities of speculation. Their publications are not sealed volumes, and any medical man can also obtain the preparations they recommend. It is possible, nay, more than probable, that physicians cannot find time to commence a new course of studies, for such this investigation must prove. If this is the case, let them frankly avow their utter ignorance of the doctrine, and not denounce a practice of which they do not possess the slightest knowledge.
Despite the persecution that Hahnemannism (as this doctrine is ironically denominated) is at present enduring, every reflecting and unprejudiced person must feel convinced that, although its wild and untenable theories may not overthrow the established systems (if any one system can be called established), yet its study and application bid fair to operate an important revolution in medicine. The introduction of infinite small doses, when compared, at least, with the quantities formerly prescribed, is gradually creeping in. The history of medicine affords abundant proofs of the acrimony, nay, the fury, with which every new doctrine has been impugned and insulted. The same annals will also show that this spirit of intolerance has always been in the ratio of the truths that these doctrines tended to bring into light. From the preceding observations, no one can accuse me of having become a blind bigot of homœopathy; but I can only hope that its present vituperators will follow my example, and examine the matter calmly and dispassionately before they proceed to pass a judgment that their vanity may lead them to consider a final sentence.
DOCTRINE OF SIGNATURES.
One of the most absurd medical doctrines that ever prevailed in the dark æras of science was the firm belief that all medicinal substances displayed certain external characters that pointed out their specific virtues. This curious theory may be traced to the Magi and Chaldæans, who pretended that every sublunary body was under a planetary influence. To find the means of concentrating or fixing this stellary emanation became a cabalistic study, called by Paracelsus the “ars signata;” and talismans of various kinds were introduced by the professors of sideral science. The word talisman appears to be derived from the Chaldæan and Arabic tilseman and tilsem, which mean characteristic figures or images.
Paracelsus, Porta, Crollius, and many other philosophers and physicians, cherished this vision, which had been transmitted to them through the dense mists of superstition from more ancient authorities; amongst others, Dioscorides, Ælius, and Pliny.
The lapis ætites, or eagle-stone, which was supposed to be found in the nests of this bird, but which, in fact, is nothing more than a variety of iron-ore, was said to prevent abortion if tied to the arm, and to accelerate parturition if affixed to the thigh. This conceit arose from the noise that seemed to arise from the centre of the stone when it was shaken: “Ætites lapis agitatus, sonitum edit, velut ex altero lapide prægnans.” From this absurd hypothesis sprung the doctrine; and the very names of plants were supposed to indicate their specific qualities. For instance, the euphrasia, or eye-bright, exhibiting a dark spot in its corolla, resembling the pupil of the eye, was considered efficacious in affections of that organ. The blood-stone, the heliotropum, from its being marked with red specks, was employed to stop hæmorrhage; and is to this day resorted to in some countries, even in England, to stop a bleeding from the nose.[41] Nettle-tea was prescribed for the eruption called nettle-rash. The semecarpus anacardium, bearing the form of a heart, was recommended in the diseases of this viscus. The cassuvium occidentale, resembling the formation of a kidney, was prescribed in renal complaints; and the pulmonary lichen of the oak, the sticta pulmonaria, from its cellular structure, was esteemed a valuable substance in morbid affections of the lungs. Deductions still more absurd, if possible, are recorded: thus saxifrage, and other plants that grow in rocky places, embodied as if it were in calcareous beds, were advised to dissolve the stone; and the echium, bearing some faint resemblance to a viper, was deemed infallible in the sting inflicted by this reptile. The divers colours of substances supposed to be medicinal were also another signature. Red flowers were given for derangement in the sanguiferous system, and yellow ones for those of the bile. In Crollius’s work, entitled “De Signaturis Plantarum,” many curious observations may be found; and Sennert, Keuch, Dieterich, and other writers displayed great industry in the division of these signatures, which, by the ancients, were considered as something denoting no particular quality, and were then called ἀσημοι χαρακτηροι; or σημαντικοι, when their virtues were evident.
Amongst the various influences and indications that were attributed to colours, black was especially considered as the mark of melancholy. Baptista Porta affirms, that if a “black spot be over the spleen, or in the nails, it signifies much care, grief, contention, and melancholy.” Cardan assures us that a little before his son’s death he had a black spot, which appeared in one of his nails, and dilated itself as he approached his end.
While nature was thus supposed to mark the virtues of her productions on their external configuration, man assumed the same authoritative power, and marked medicines with certain signs or seals. For this purpose, the ancient physicians carried signets or rings, frequently worn upon the thumb, and on which were engraved their own names, sometimes written backwards, or the denominations of the nostrums they vended. On one of these seals we find the word aromaticu, from aromaticum; on another, melinu, abbreviation of melinum,—a collyrium prepared with the alum of the island of Melos. A seal of this kind is described by Tôchon d’Annecy, bearing the words psoricum crocodem, an inscription that has puzzled medical antiquaries. The word psoricum was applied to an eruptive affection of the eye; and Actuarius mentions a collyrium psoricum of Ælius; while Marcellus Empiricus records the virtues of the psoricum stratioticum, which restored sight in twenty days to a patient who had been blind for twelve years; but, when it was applied, it was ineffectual, unless the words “Te nunc resunco, bregan gresso,” were religiously pronounced. Crocodem was also supposed to apply to crocus or saffron, or to crocodes, a remedy for sore eyes, mentioned by Galen; while some learned men refer the word to the dejections of the crocodile, which were said to possess various virtues. The earth of Lemnos was sealed with the figure of Diana, and to this day the bolar argils, brought from Greece, bear various seals and characters; hence the bolus Armeniæ, and bolus ruber, are called terra sigillata.
The influence of colours was supposed to have been so great, that in our own annals we find John de Gaddesden, mentioned by Chaucer, ordering the son of Edward I., when labouring under the small-pox, to be wrapped up in scarlet; and to the present day, flannel, died nine times blue, is supposed to be most efficacious in glandular swellings. Tourtelle, a French army physician, has made the following singular observation on this subject: “I observed that those soldiers of the Republic who were affected with diseases connected with transpiration were more severely indisposed, and not unfrequently exhibited symptoms of putrescency, when their wet clothes had left a blue tinge on the skin, than when they had been merely wetted by the rain.” The explanation of this supposed phenomenon, is simply that those men who had been coloured by their uniforms, had, no doubt, been long wearing them, saturated by incessant rains, whereas the others had merely been exposed to occasional showers. From this observation, I do not pretend to affirm that any deleterious substances in a dye might not occasion a dangerous absorption; but the accidents that may result from such a circumstance could be easily explained without having recourse to any particular influence of colour. The colour of cloth, especially in army clothing, may also materially tend to influence cutaneous transpiration, as some colours are more powerful conductors of heat than others; and it is not impossible that the French soldiers, not belonging to fresh levies, and who had always been clad in white, might have experienced some difference of temperature when marching under intense heat in dark blue and green uniforms.