For example, a hard pill of belladonna of five grains, swallowed by a robust and healthy man, may be followed by only trifling symptoms; but let pill be dissolved in a pound of water, and an ounce of the solution be given every hour, then we shall have well-marked symptoms of the poisonous action cf the drug. But if, instead of administering it to a person in rude health, it be given to one who is suffering from such an inflammation of the tonsils as belladonna produces, then we shall find that the inflamed tonsils will be most acted upon by their specific irritant. Disease implies a preternatural sensitiveness. An inflamed eye cannot bear light, an inflamed stomach cannot bear food, and every diseased organ is powerfully affected by the particular substance w;ich has, in its physiological operation, a close affinity with the character of the morbid condition in which it is at the time its specific medicine is administered.
To arrive at the degree to which it was desirable to reduce the dose, a series of experimentswere necessary. It was a matter to which all d priori reasoning was inappli cable. In an article published in Ilufeland's Journal in the year 1801, Hahnemann observes: "You ask me what effect of a grain of belladonna can have. The word can is apt to lead to misconceptions. Let us ask nature what effect newpth of a grain of belladonna has." He then states the conditions of the experiment—viz., that this fraction of a grain should be administered to a patient suffering from a peculiar form of scarlet fever then prevalent in Germany, mid presenting a combination of symptoms bearing a close resemblance to those produced by belladonna: Hahnemann maintained that this fraction of a grain was sufficient for the purposes of homeopathic cure.
Homeopathic doses are often expressed by fractions, thus: Suppose the medicine to be a vegetable substance; a strong tincture is made of it, and this is technically called the mother-tiaciure. Two scales of dilution arc now prepared from this, called respec tively the dechrtal and the centesimal, which latter was that advocated by Hahnemann, while the former, though of recent introduction; is at present very largely employed. To prepare the decimal attenuations, 1 drop of mother-tincture is added to 9 drops of alcohol, and it is labeled 1x. The second dee-laud dilution. (2') is formed by adding 9 drops of spirit to 1 drop of and so on for the etc. In preparing the centerisuals, 1 drop of mother-tincture is added to 99 drop4 of alcohol, so as to dilute it 99 times, and this preparation is called Wae first ditutioa, and marked 1. Again, a drop of number 1 —that is, of the of a drop of the mother-tincture—is mixed with other 09 drops of alcohol, and marked 2, or the second dilution. This contains of a drop of
of a drop of the mother-tincture, or 15066th of a drop of the mother-tincture. Fins simple process of subdivision is continued, and each step is recorded in the same way: thus, number 3 means a millionth; number 6, a billionth; and number 30 (which is the highest recommended by Hahnemann), a decillionth. Insoluble substances, of course, cannot be thus treated; they are triturated with sugar of milk. One grain, say, of sulphur is triturated with 99 grains of sugar of milk, forming the first trituratimz, and marked number 1, and so on; but after advancing to the fifth or sixth, then it is pre sumed that all substances become soluble in this very minute proportion in alcohol, and alcoholic dilutions are made of them in the same way as of the vegetable tinctures. After making these alcoholic preparations, the homeopathic chemist saturates with them minute pellicles of sugar of milk, known technically by the name of globuks or pilules.* A system so revolutionary naturally encountered most, determined opposition. In Germany there were legal obstacles to its practice. In Austria physicians were not allowed to dispense their own medicines, even gratuitously; all medicines administered to the sick were prepared by the apothecaries, and the fate of homeopathy could not be trusted to their hands. as their interests were deeply involved. Thus it happened that, from the year 1818 to the year 1836, homeopathy was only tolerated in Austria under exceptional circumstances. In 1836 cholera broke out for the second time in Vienna, and Dr. Fleischmann, the physician to an institution in which homeopathy has been followed, was required by government to prepare the hospital for the reception of cholera patients. He the charge, on the condition that he was to be allowed to employ homeopathy in their treatment. This was granted, homeopathy having been very successful in Vienna and different towns in Germany in cholera in 1830-31. He treated cases; of these, 488 recovered and 244 died. The hospital was under daily inspection by the government, and the result of the treatment was made known to count Kolourat, the home-minister. Shortly after. the emperor issued an ordinance granting to every duly qualified physician the right of practicing homeopathy. The cholera mortality under homeopathic treatment was in this instance one in three, while the average mortality of the same epidemic at the same place was two in three,—Wilde's Austria.