Organon of the art of healing / By Samuel Hahnemann.

  • Hahnemann, Samuel, 1755-1843.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Organon of the art of healing / By Samuel Hahnemann. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    places, he Is careful to add the condition: Provided it is still capable of producing an aggravation which proves it to be stronger than the natural disease.'^ (§§ 160, 249, 279, etc.). Some practitioners use only strong tinctures or crude drugs, or, at most, only low dilutions, and deny the advantages of greater attenuation; others depend entirely on the so-called high poten- cies. There is a decided tendency to diverge into extremes; while a number follow a middle course, the advocates of high potencies transcend Hahnemann's propositions regarding the dose, as far as the defenders of low dilutions fall short of it. These extremes have created a sectarian spirit among the public, and its drift is forcibly reflected in the views of the laity. This may, in future, cause us some difficulty, because people attach far more importance to divisions among the doctors than these do. Although the Organon was translated in a spirit of reverence for its author, the chief motive was to afford our students an opportunity to become acquainted with the sources and the prin- ciples of the new school of medicine. In proportion as these are actually mastered, and in proportion to their isolation, and abstraction from the adoration of the personality of their origi- nator, their general and thorough adoption will be rapid or slow. Finally, and in conformity with the purpose of the Organon as a text-book of the principles of homoeopathy, the translator has transferred the last paragraphs (293-4) and their foot-notes, treating of mesmerism, to an appendix. Whatever individuals may think of the subject of these paragraphs, it has no bearing on the principles of homoeopathy. Though mature minds are in no danger of being disturbed by it, in these days abounding in displays of jugglery and superstition, mingled with natural, though unfathomed phenomena, beginners might be led astray, and to misjudge the book upon which they should repose con- fidence. C. Wesselhceft, M.D. BosTOiT, August 2l8t, 1875.