The homopathic domestic physician / by Constantine Hering.

  • Hering, Constantine, 1800-1880.
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The homopathic domestic physician / by Constantine Hering. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    aided in the selection of the right medicine, how then, can persons, not physicians, and for whom these books are intended, ever learn from a few lines in a book how to distinguish one form of a disease from another, and how to make a true diagnosis ? It is a complete absurdity even to attempt it. Thus it has been done, and is still done, only for the sake of a more learned appearance. To write in technical terms, is a very cheap way of boasting. But as all men .of common sense never trust a doctor whose mouth abounds with tech- nicalities, so they will throw aside a book which pretends to be a clear advice for everybody, and in which there is not a page but swarms with technical terms. But the worst of all in such homoeopathic books, is the addition of the doses of the medicine. It has been said on both sides of the Atlantic, many have felt it to be a very serious defect in the former editions of this domestic guide, that no directions had been given with regard to the strength of the doses, and particularly the repeti- tion of the same medicine. The only advice which can be given at all, had been given in the introduction to the book, but they wanted such a direction in every chapter with regard to the different diseases or different- medicines. But all such directions in particular, are nothing but wilful deceptions of the people. There is not the slightest doubt among physicians, however great the difference may be in their general views regarding the doses, that the strength and repetition depend altogether and ex- clusively on the peculiarity of the single case, and not at all on the name of the disease or the drug. How is it possible, that in nearly all such books for family use, a conspicuous part of every chapter is formed by directions, because they are very much liked by the ignorant, whether the medicines are to be taken dry or in water, how often and in how many hours they are to be repeated, &c, if all this depends, never on the disease or the name given to it, but on the character of the case ? A physician has to take into consideration the age of the patient, his constitution, his general disposition, his peculiarities, &c. The homceopathists themselves differ greatly in their views; some cannot get the doses strong enough, some prefer different medium preparations, and some give higher and the highest potencies ; all these things are still open questions with them ; they differ also with