Homoeopathy : its tenets and tendencies, theoretical, theological, and therapeutical / by James Y. Simpson.

Date:
1853
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Homoeopathy : its tenets and tendencies, theoretical, theological, and therapeutical / by James Y. Simpson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Second instance.— Vaccination and its Effects ujjon Small-pox. -—The second instance adduced by Sir John Herschel of the power of medicine over human maladies, is the suppression of small- pox by Dr Jenner’s discovery of vaccination. Certainly it would be impossible to adduce a more striking instance of the triumph of medicine over the ravages of disease; for, if small-pox prevailed now as much in Britain amongst oiir present increased population, as it prevailed among the smaller population of the last century, and before vaccination was discovered, about 80,000 individuals would die from it annually in England and Scotland alone; and, as I have already stated in a preceding page, this single discovery in medicine, has probably already saved millions of human lives, Hahnemann and his followers allege, that the prevention of small- pox by vaccination is a striking instance of the operation of the in- fallible law'^ of homoeopathy.’ But most assuredly it is not an in- stance in the slightest degree in favoiu’ of that law. In order to cure a disease, by means of a similar affection developed by a homoeopathically chosen remedy, we should, according to Hahnemann, excite in the body, an artificial or “ medicinal disease somewdiat greater in degree” than the natural disease wdiich we w’ish to remove. (^Organon, p. 41.) The physician, he elsewhere it, and the ‘ succussions,’ moreover, costing little—why not become candidates for fhe French prize? Why not propose to supply the French army in Africa with an infallible remedy, costing less than a farthing, and endowed with miraculous pro- perties ? You cannot fail to demonstrate the truth of your system ; the government cannot shut its eyes against the light; you will receive a reward superior to the sum of your united practices in London, and we will have a happy riddance of you.”— llomoeopalhy and the Homoeopaths, p. 193. ' This (vaccination) is an operation purely homoeopathic, and one which, from its efficacy in the prevention of a disease exhibiting analogous symptoms has been frequently quoted by our Great Founder and his disciples, as one of the best illus- trations of the immutable law,” etc—Dr Laurie’s Homoeopathic Domestic Medicine, p. 728. See also View of Homceojmthy, published by the Irish Homoeopathic Society, p. 17 ; etc. But, it may be added, a homoeopathic physician, Bonninghausen, “ actu- ally proposed to present a petition to go)vernment praying for the suppression of vac- cination, as he believed it to be a fertile source of chronic disease, and he had found that Thuja (200ih dilution) was a perfect specific for small-pox of the most violent character, preventing all pock-marks.”—Jbmvm/ of Homoeopathy for 1851, p. 350. On the contrary, Trinks, another homceopathist, found in small-pox at Dresden, that I'hvja was not “of the slightest me.”—Ibid., p. 604. And Dr Henriques states his belief, that “no specific for small-pox is known in homoeopathy,”—/iid, p. 503. Such is the alleged “harmony” among the disciples of the “eternal, unchangeable, infallible law,” similia similibus curantur.