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

Date:
1853
Catalogue details

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.

    283/310 (page 269)
    ITS POTENCY IN INFINITESIMAL DOSES. 2G9 13 gallons of fluid. To form the tenth dilution, one grain of coffee would require to he commixed and diffused through an ocean, with a volume of 1400 cubic miles of fluid ; or, in other words, with a volume of fluid equal to several times the size of Loch- Tjomond. And again, to form the thii'tieth dilution of coffee, one grain of it would require to he commixed in a quantity of fluid suf- ficient to make billions of spherical masses or seas, each large enough to extend from limit to limit of the orbit of Neptune. But according to different homoeopathists, a ch’op taken as a dose out of a teaspoonful of fluid containing a due solution of a grain of coffee, or a drop taken out of the last named ocean of it, containing also a gi’ain, is endowed with similar therapeutic effects. The pre- paration of coffee would be equally, or nearly equally strong and equally curative, whether the single grain were diffused through a teaspoonful of fluid,—or through thirteen gallons of fluid,—or through a quantity of fluid far larger than Loch-Lomond,—or through a quantity of fluid billions of times larger than the whole planetary system. Indeed, some aver that the last solution, namely, the grain of coffee dissolved and commixed in an ocean billions of times larger than the orbit of Neptune, would be of “ terrific potency”’ (to use then’ own language), and stronger even than the same grain of coffee triturated and commixed with due succussions (see foot- note, p. 264, for their numbei’), only with a teaspoonful of fluid. On this principle, one single grain of coffee ought to make a suffi- cient dose for many millions of generations, at least for such a small portion of mankind as the coffee-drinking population of Great Britain ; and the subject is one which we would recommend homoeo- pathic members of Parliament to bring under the instant and anxious attention of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and of M. Soyer. [lomoeopathists constantly tell us, that, setting aside all precon- ceived opinions, we ought to give a trial to their system, and we would ffie convinced by the results of expei'ience. The same argument has always been used by all the abettors of every exclusive system of treat- ment—by hydropathists, hygeists, kinesipaths, etc. etc. Homoeo- pathic experience, however, has obtained the same results even /• ’ “ This result, so incomprehensible to the man of figures, goes so far that we must set bounds to the succussion progress, in order that the degree of attenuation be not over-balanced by the increased potency of the medicine.”—Hahnemann’s Lesser Writings, p. 822.