The stepping-stone to homoeopathy and health

Preface To The Tenth English Edition

In issuing this edition of the Manual, the author cannot forbear making a slight reference to the increased esteem in which Homoeopathy is now held as compared with its position fifteen years ago. The great demand for this and other works of the author is no slight evidence of the rapid extension of homoeopathic practice. Is it too much to suppose that these works have contributed to the popularity of this method of the art of healing? Increased acquaintance with it has led to increased demand for its literature ; and increased diffusion of literature has led to extended knowledge and practice. By " Stepping-Stones " many wayfarers have crossed the stream of uncertainty to a " better land " of health, and have beckoned others to come thither by the same means. So they and others have advanced and have increased their numbers until the Homoeopaths are not now a small and feeble band. In the present edition the author has again endeavored to express his gratification at the wide appreciation of his humble efforts to extend Homoeopathy, by embodying some of the results of his enlarged experience during the fifteen years that have elapsed since the first edition of this book was published, by maintaining it on a level with the progressive character of Homoeopathy and medical science in general, and by presenting a longer list of complaints, with ampler treatment, than is included in any similar work with which he is acquainted. It has been revised throughout, and improved by the insertion in numerous parts of fresh observations of a practical character. Nearly every page will be found to include changes or additions which it is hoped will render the work increasingly useful.

Domestic Homoeopathy. — The profession of medicine cannot in this age of progress be treated as a mystery. The aim of the enlightened physician is to make its principles as extensively known as possible, conscious that thereby the greatest amount of good will accrue both to the profession and the public. Still, the objection is often urged that domestic Homoeopathy trenches on the legitimate sphere of the profession, and is dangerous in its tendency. Neither objection is valid. Drugs are, and we believe ever will be, employed in nearly every household — antibilious pills, Epsom salts, rhubarb, sulphur, magnesia, quinine, etc. We are Hot, therefore, the originators of domestic treatment; we have rather sought to reform it, by substituting remedies and measures which are not only far less harmful but very much more efficacious than those ordinarily adopted. Failure in health, of a simple and uncomplicated nature, may often be arrested at the outset by carrying out the instructions contained in the following pages, while if neglected till the symptoms assume forms which seem to justify the consultation of a medical man, it may become converted into serious and even fatal disease.

Justification. — A fact which specially justifies the composition of this Manual is the necessity of meeting, so far as possible, the requirements of persons residing in localities where professional homoeopathic treatment is inaccessible. An extensive correspondence with persons in various and remote parts of the country and of the world convinces the author of the importance of making some provision for patients placed in such positions ; at least, till professional men have been universally led to the study and practice of the discoveries of the illustrious Hahnemann.

Advantages of Professional Treatment. — While making these statements, we feel it to be our duty to recommend that, in every serious or doubtful case, or when the treatment herein prescribed is insufficient to effect improvement in a reasonable time, the patient or his friends should consult a qualified homoeopathic practitioner. The vast and ever-accumulating resources at the disposal of a professional Homoeopath unquestionably place him on high vantage ground compared with a domestic practitioner. The repertory at his command is always increasing, and must, under almost all circumstances, be more extensive than any that a private individual possesses ; his reading and professional intercourse make him acquainted with remedies of which ordinary persons are ignorant ; and diversified experience enables him to detect subtle symptoms which at once point to the employment of specific medicines.

Progress and Opposition. — In this age of scientific progress it is gratifying to observe that medicine, instead of being in the rear, is advancing to the front rank, and that Homoeopathy is in the vanguard of medical advancement. This is proved by its rapid extension, and by its powerful, though indirect, influence on medical and surgical practice generally, causing it to do homage to the instincts of humanity, and banishing every measure or drug that is harsh and destructive. Hostile resistance to Homoeopathy there is, but it comes exclusively from persons ignorant of its principles, or inexperienced in its actual results. The great majority of medical men, and, indeed, almost all who are outside the homoeopathic circle, are completely in the dark as to its theory and practice, and are consequently incompetent to give a reliable opinion on the subject ; just as the driver of a stage-coach or the commander of a sailing vessel lacks the knowledge and experience to pronounce on the merits of railways or steamers, although all are alike intended for the transport of passengers and merchandise. On the other hand, those who have been trained under the beliefs and practices of the old system, and have been converted to the new by investigating its theory and observing its results, are placed in a position to form and express a candid opinion of the merits of both. The author of this work is in this position. With the confidence, therefore, which knowledge of, and experience in, both the old and new modes of treatment alone can impart, he heartily recommends a trial of Homoeopathy.

Importance of Health.- — The design of this Manual is to point out some of the means by which much human suffering may be prevented, bodily functions preserved unimpaired, and life prolonged to the full period of man's existence. The importance of the subject will be obvious when it is considered how inconsistent physical incapacity and suffering are with moral well-being. When the habits and circumstances of man are inimical to good health, all the capacities of his nature are diminished and deteriorated. The application, therefore, of means for guarding or restoring the health of the body at the same time provides for the exercise of the intellectual and moral powers in their highest state of perfection. Perhaps there are moral benefits and opportunities consequent on weakness and disease ; but who can doubt that those attendant on health and vigor are far greater ? Impaired health is a moral as well as a physical disadvantage. Reason asserts this, and experience confirms it. Who has not learned that an important way of" keeping the body in subjection" is to keep it free from the uneasy sensations and disabilities that accompany ill-health? If this be so, it places the highest value upon the perfection of our bodily organs, and stamps that profession whose duty it is to promote " the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate" as one of the very highest that can be exercised by man. From such a standpoint we see in every disease cured the removal of a blot which marred the image of God's noblest work, and new power given to brighten and lengthen man's earthly life. Thus, alleviating human suffering, and so allowing the fullest exercise of man's higher nature, we are permitted to be humble followers of Him who " healed all manner of diseases," and whose wonderful and beneficent life has been embodied in the simple phrase, " He went about doing good."

E. H. RUDDOCK.

Preface To The American Edition

In preparing a new edition of Dr. Ruddock's " Stepping-Stone," the editor has taken advantage of the opportunity afforded of submitting the work to a thorough revision. Without in any way altering the arrangement or scope of the book, the reviser has endeavored to bring it abreast of the times, and has made such alterations, either in the way of correction or addition, as he deemed w^ould render it still better fitted for the purpose it has so well fulfilled hitherto. To this edition a chapter on the chief diseases of women has been added, which will greatly enlarge the practical usefulness of the book. In giving the uses of the Twelve Tissue Remedies, and incorporating them with the other homoeopathic medicines mentioned, the editor feels confident that this addition will be welcomed by all who may have occasion to refer to the book, since the application of these precious remedies is not only a very wide one, but their uses are easily understood and readily applied by the intelligent layman. In its present form, this little volume is not only a stepping stone to Homoeopathy, as Dr. Ruddock aptly designates it, but it is also in itself a complete, though concise, treatise for the domestic treatment of all disorders.

It does not attempt to supplant the physician's services, but rather to supply such intelligent co-operation as every physician welcomes, and to be a reliable guide before his arrival in the management of all diseased conditions. Such popular treatises are of great use to Homoeopathy — are its most successful missionaries— and prepare larger and wider spheres for active work for homoeopathic physicians.

WM. BOERICKE, M.D.

Philadelphia, July, 1890.

HINTS TO THE READER.

I. The novice in Homoeopathy should first make himself familiar with the introductory chapters.

II. When the work is consulted for the treatment of any particular disease, the whole section devoted to it should be read before deciding on the course to be taken ; and if difficulty be experienced in choosing between different medicines, the Materia Medica should be referred to, and an endeavor made to discover the essential features peculiar to each remedy.

III. Persons desirous of being able to act wisely and promptly in any emergency, for the prevention or removal of suffering, should read this Manual through. Hurried perusal under excitement does not admit of that calm consideration of details which is often necessary to determine the most speedy and effective remedy. The body of the work, Part II, i3 devoted to diseases and their treatment— Part III to Materia Medica. Both should be studied carefully.

IV. When medical terms are used, they are either explained in the text or in the index, at the end of the Manual. This index is now very copious, and every subject of importance may be found by consulting it. Reference is further made easy by division of the work into parts, chapters and sections, and by a table of contents at the commencement.

V. To this new American edition of this Manual a Clinical Directory is appended, which, it is hoped, will

12 HINTS TO THE READER.

be found of great use to those who have attentivelystudied disease and Materia Medica. It contains, in a condensed form, prescriptions for diseases and symptoms, many of which and the remedies prescribed are not referred to in the body of the work. The Clinical Directory has been carefully arranged, and is really the essence of the varied experience of many professional medical men. It is, therefore, of more worth to those who know how to use it than many who glance at its few pages would suppose. The chapter on Diseases of Women is also a special feature of this edition.

Part I. On Homeopathy And Hygiene

CHAPTEE I. page

Introductory — Early History— -Status of Professional Homoeopaths — Indirect Influence — Its fast-increasing Adoption by its Quondam Opponents — Homoeopathy pirated by Allopathic Professors — Is Homoeopathy going down ? — What is Homoeopathy ? — Appeals to Facts — The Single Eemedy — Small Doses — Homoeopathy not Opposed to Experience — Faith not Homoeopathy — Veterinary Homoeopathy in the British Army — Diet not Homoeopathy — Medicines in Health — Illustrations: Light, Seed and the Magnet — Advantages of Homoeopathy — Economy — Homoeopathic Success — Is the Public a Competent Judge ? — Homoeopathy and Cholera — Constipation — Statistics — Gentle Measures — Jerr old's Death-bed — Homoeopathic Medicines are Specific — Homoeopathy and Children — Experimental Practice — Preventive Medicine — Future of Homoeopathy — Magna est Veritas, et preralebit.

CHAPTEE II.

Observations on Health {Hygiene) 33

General Hints — Diet — Water — Fresh Air — Light — Bathing — Clothing — Exercise — Tobacco and Snuff — Drugs.

CHAPTEE III.

The Tissue Remedies 45

The Theory of Biochemistry and History of the Tissue Eemedies.

Medicines : their Administration, etc 49

Forms of Medicines — Globules, Tinctures, Triturations — Genuine Medicines — Medicine Case — Directions for Taking Medicines — List of Medicines — Hours — The Dose — Eepetition of Doses — Alternation of Medicines. "*" 13

14 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV. p AGE

Nursing, Diet, Baths and Other Accessory Treatment 54

On Nursing : The Apartment, the Bed, Cleanliness, Beverages — Diet : Milk Diet, Meat Diet, Extraordinary Diet — Regularity of Feeding — Food not to be Kept in the Sick-room — Moderation in Convalescence — Baths, etc.: Warm or Hot Bath, Hot Foot-Bath, Wet Pack, Throat Compress. Abdominal Compress.

Part II. Diseases And Their Treatment

CHAPTEK I.

General Diseases. — (a) Blood Diseases . 63

Smallpox — Vaccination — Chickenpox — Measles — Scarlet Fever, Scarlatina — Typhoid Fever — Simple Fever — Ague, Intermittent Fever — Cholera — Whooping-Cough — Mumps — Influenza — Erysipelas.

CHAPTEE II.

General. Diseases. — {b) Constitutional Diseases 92

Acute Rheumatism, Kheumatic Fever, and Chronic Rheumatism — Lumbago, Pains in the Loins — Gout — Phthisis Pulmonalis, Scrofulous Consumption.

CHAPTEK III.

Diseases of the Nervous System 102

Epilepsy, Falling Sickness — Infantile Convulsions — Spasmodic 6roup, Child Crowing — Headache — Sick-Headache.

CHAPTEK IV.

Diseases of the Eyes, Ears, and Nose Ill

Inflammation of the Eyes — Stye on the Eyelids — Inflammation of the Ears — Earache — Discharge from the Ears — Deafness — Bleeding from the Nose.

CONTENTS. 15

CHAPTEE V. page

Croup — Cold in the Head, Catarrh — Hoarseness — Bronchitis — Asthma — Inflammation of the Lungs, and Pleurisy — Cough

CHAPTER VI.

Thrush, Frog — Disorders of Teething — Toothache — Sore Throat — Quinsy — Indigestion — Vomiting — Seasickness — Dysentery, Bloody Flux — Rupture and Strangulated Hernia — Worms— Diarrhoea, Looseness of the Bowels, Purging — Diarrhoea in Children — Colic — Constipation, Confined Bowels — Piles — Protrusion of the Bowel — Biliousness — Jaundice.

CHAPTER VII.

Diseases of the Urinary System . , 172

Difficulty in Urinating — Incontinence of Urine — Wetting the Bed — Bleeding from the Urinary Organs — Spermatorrhoea, Involuntary Emissions.

CHAPTER VIII.

Diseases of Women 178

Puberty and First Menstruation — Suppressed Menstruation — Painful Menstruation — Profuse Menstruation — Flooding — Leucorrhoea or "the W T hites" — Change of Life — Morning Sickness — Sore Nipples — Troubles of Lying-in Period.

CHAPTER IX.

Nettlerash — Itching of the Skin — Ringworm — Shingles — Chilblains — Ulcers, Sores — Boil — W'hitlow — Corn — Warts.

CHAPTER X.

Unclassified Diseases , 193

Palpitation of the Heart — Hemorrhages and Hemorrhagic Diathesis — Spitting or .Vomiting of Blood, from Rupture of a Bloodvessel.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE XL Injuries— Accidents

Apnoea (from Drowning, Hanging, Suffocation by Gas, etc.) — Fainting, Insensibility — What to Do when a Dress Catches Fire — Burns and Scalds — Frostbite — Sunstroke — Bruises — Wounds — Poisoned Wounds — Bites and Stings — Foreign Bodies in the Eye or Ear— Bloodshot Eye — Broken Bones — Sprain — Fatigue and Overexertion — Poisons.

PAGE

Part III. Concise Materia Medica

Remedies . ,

Aconitum,

Antimonium,

Apis,

Arnica,

Arsenicum,

Belladonna,

Bryonia,

Calcarea carb.,

Cantharis,

Carbo,

Chamomilla,

China,

Cimieifuga,

Cina,

Coffea,

Colocynthis,

Drosera,

Dulcamara,

Gelsemium,

The Twelve Tissue Eemedies Calcarea fluor., Calcarea phos., Calcarea sulph., Ferrum phos., Kali mur., Kali phos.,

Hamamelis,

Hepar,

Ignatia,

Ipecacuanha,

Kali bichromicum,

Lycopodium,

Mercurius,

Nux vomica,

Opium,

Phosphorus,

Podophyllum,

Pulsatilla,

Bhus tox.,

Spongia,

Sulphur,

Tartar emetic,

Veratrum album,

Veratrum viride.

Kali sulph., Magnesia phos., Natrum mur., Natrum phos., Natrum sulph., Silicea.

PART IV. Clinical Directory Index

THE

STEPPING-STONE TO HOMEOPATHY AND HEALTH.

Part I. Chapter L

Introductory. — This Manual is issued as a " Stepping- Stone " to the domestic practice of Homoeopathy ; a few remarks, therefore, explanatory of this system of medicine may appropriately precede its practical teachings.

Life is the noblest gift of God, and health one of its greatest accompanying blessings. To recover health when lost, and to preserve it in its integrity to the allotted period of human life are the objects contemplated in the publication of this little volume. The reader is requested to pause a few minutes before entering on the subsequent practical details, in order briefly to consider some of the more prominent features and a few of the advantages that would arise from the more general and extended adoption of Homoeopathy,

Early History. — Homoeopathy is a system of medicine for the cure of all curable diseases, first discovered and adopted nearly a century ago (A.D. 1790) by that great physician, Hahnemann. But we do not claim 2 (IT)

for that distinguished man the invention of Homoeopathy ; he only removed the obscurity which had hitherto shrouded the subject of medicine, and unfolded to mankind a great law of nature, just as Newton discovered the principle of gravitation. Glimmerings of this science had been caught many centuries before by Hippocrates and others, but the illustrious Hahnemann was the first fully to grasp the principle and to enunciate it as the law of healing, and therefore of universal applicability. At first its professors were few, and consisted of the immediate friends and disciples of Hahnemann ; but, ever since, they have been steadily multiplying, so that now medical men of great intelligence and high moral principle are to be found practicing Homoeopathy in every civilized portion of the globe. There are about three hundred avowed legally qualified practitioners in Great Britain ; while if those who approve the system and practice it in part or secret were added, the number would be far more than doubled. In the United States of America there are upward of 10,000 practitioners and many State-supported hospitals, universities and medical colleges.

Status of Professional Homoeopaths. — It is often represented that homoeopathic medical men occupy an inferior position to those of the old school. Nothing could be further from the truth. The homoeopathic practitioners have the same legal rank and have passed through similar courses of study as their brethren of the old school, supplemented by the special study of Homoeopathy and the homoeopathic application of drugs, by which knowledge they are enabled to cope with many forms of disease against which the old school practitioner, without this special knowledge, is powerless.

INDIRECT INFLUENCE. 19

Indirect Influence. — Moreover, there are many who practice homceopathically, but have not the courage to avow it; and many others who, impelled by the influence which this system is everywhere exerting, are greatly modifying their practice. Even the Lancet occasionally opens its pages to the teaching of Homoeopathy : an Allopath describes the successful treatment of nausea, retching and vomiting by a drop of Ipecacuanha wine in a teaspoonful of water, repeated at first every hour, and afterward every four hours. The writer states that he was induced by the recommendation of a medical friend (no doubt a Homoeopath) to use this treatment, that he did it with the greatest skepticism, and with the fullest expectation of finding these small doses useless. Repeated successes, after the failure of lengthened trials of the usual allopathic armament, compelled him to believe in their efficacy. Indeed, Aconite and various other of our well-known remedies are frequently prescribed ; and cases successfully treated by them are quoted in the allopathic journals. The use of single remedies in one or two-drop doses, or even smaller, by medical men of the old school satisfactorily proves the growing influence of Homoeopathy, especially when, as we have seen, the remedies so used are prescribed for diseases to which they are homoeopathic. The good thus effected by the discovery of Hahnemann is immeasurable. Its influence is both direct and indirect, acknowledged and unacknowledged, but always beneficent. Not only medical men, but tens of thousands of intelligent persons in every civilized portion of the globe confide in Homoeopathy as the best and most natural system of cure.

Homoeopathy Pirated by Allopathic Professors. — But the most convincing proof of the advance of Homoeopathy is to be found in the more popular of the allopathic works on materia medica and therapeutics, such as Dr. Lauder Brunton's Pharmacology, Therapeutics and Materia Medica, and Professor Sidney Ringer's Handbook of Therapeutics. In these books homoeopathic remedies are recommended by the hundred, but no acknowledgment is made to Homoeopathy or Hahnemann. And this is what constitutes the dishonesty of their action. In science and literature to appropriate the works of another without giving due acknowledgment to the real author of them constitutes piracy ; and the works of the writers we have named are at once an unintentional monument to the genius of Hahnemann, and an equally unintentional monument to the writers' own disgrace.

Homoeopathy going Down ? — It is true, the statement is often made by its opponents that the new system is on the decline. " Homoeopathy is going down," once remarked a medical man of the allopathic school. It is going down. Not, however, in the sense he wished. It is sinking deep into the understandings and hearts of the people. Almost everywhere they are directing their attention to the subject. They try it, and in the hour of sickness confide in it ; and if not conversant with the scientific proofs of Homoeopathy, they recognize in it a power to heal superior to that which they have ever experienced under the old plan of treatment.

What is Homoeopathy? — It may be advisable to answer succinctly this question before going further. Homoeopathy is a system of administering medicines for the cure of the sick, based on the fact that drugs have the power of causing in the healthy, diseased states similar to

SINGLE REMEDY. 21

those they have the power of removing in the sick. Thus quinine, which cures ague, has the power of causing attacks of fever like the ague fits: and Belladonna, which mitigates and prevents scarlet fever, produces, in the healthy, fever, sore throat, and a rash very like the symptoms of scarlet fever.

Homoeopathy Appeals to Facts. — It is deserving of remark that, in the discovery of Homoeopathy, Hahnemann did not first conceive a theory, and afterward seek for facts with which to uphold it. No ! At starting, and at each successive step, he relied solely upon facts. What he learned was from well-observed and unquestionable facts, based upon carefully conducted experiments. His assertions were grounded upon facts, the result of patient and oft-repeated investigations. For several years he kept his discovery to himself; at the same time he was arranging and accumulating evidence founded upon facts, which were diligently collected and closely scrutinized. At last he could speak with the confidence of a man who was well assured that the statements he made were true, that underneath his superstructure of theory there was not an uncertain foundation of supposition and probability, but the firm rock of natural and immutable reality. Homoeopathy is still upheld by facts. Its foundation cannot be shaken. Its position is firm in spite of all the storms by w T hich it has been assailed and all the tests by which it has been proved. It is because it has stood the trial of experience that it has been preserved to the present time, and will be transmitted to the latest generations.

Single Remedy. — Homoeopathic treatment is not only distinguished by its simple evolution from facts, but also by its simple exhibition of methods of cure. Only

22 HOMCEOPATHY.

one remedy is given at a time ; thus the pure action of each separate drug is ascertained, and the confusion resulting from mixing different substances in one prescription is avoided. Every remedy has an action peculiar to itself, and it cannot but happen, when several drugs are introduced into the system at the same time, that they interfere with each other. If, under such circumstances, good is effected, it is often impossible to determine which drug or how many out of the number have contributed to the result. Or if no good follows, and it be necessary to alter the prescription, then it must be also impossible to know what change to make, what remedies to omit, what new ones to add. Dr. Paris, a distinguished allopathic physician, says he was once told by a practitioner in the country that the quantity and complexity of the medicines which he gave his patients were always increased in the ratio with the obscurity of their cases. " If," said he, " I fire a profusion of shot, it is very extraordinary if some do not hit the mark." " A patient in the hands of such a practitioner," adds Dr. Paris, " has not a much better chance than a Chinese mandarin, who, upon being attacked with any disease, calls in twelve or more physicians, and swallows in one mixture all the potions which each separately prescribes." In Homoeopathy we only give one medicine at a time; its action upon the system is then simple and undisturbed, and we are no longer in doubt as to what is doing good.

Small Doses. — Homoeopathy does not necessarily mean a small dose, as it is often erroneously supposed to do. The term is intended to designate a certain relation of medicine to disease, not a certain quantity of the medicine. The grand principle — that which forms the basis

HOMCEOPATHY NOT OPPOSED TO EXPERIENCE. 23

of the science — is, like cures like, irrespective of the quantity of the dose. Hahnemann, after he had discovered this principle, employed doses of the usual quantity. Experience and further investigation, however, taught him that smaller doses were not only sufficient and safer, but that, when frequently administered, they were more effective than large ones. Others have learned the same lesson, which is enforced by the testimony of all subsequent medical men who have fairly tested the point. The assertions of others who have not so tested it cannot claim confidence.

Apart from the greater curative power of small doses, it is a matter of perfect indifference to the followers of Hahnemann whether they administer medicines in large or small doses. If they found large doses more efficient in curino; diseases than small ones, thev would assuredly administer the former rather than the latter. "We may suggest three reasons why small doses, administered in harmony with the homoeopathic law, are efficient : First, because they are exactly suited to the exalted susceptibility of the diseased part, and act upon the same class of functions that nature has already called to her aid. Secondly, because they act directly on the part which requires to be influenced, and not on other parts ; their force is not, therefore, expended on healthy parts. And, thirdly, because only one remedy being administered at a time, its action is not interfered with by one or several others. Doctors who always administer drug's

%j o

in combination have no idea of the power of single drugs in small doses.

Homoeopathy not Opposed to Experience. — The results obtained by homoeopathic practitioners with small doses have been said to be opposed to all experience. But

24 HOMCEOPATHY.

the truth is that, prior to the researches of Hahnemann and his followers, we had no experience whatever in the matter. It is, consequently, just as absurd for medical men to deny that homoeopathic remedies can effect the cure of disease because such cures are contrary to the experience of those who have never tried them, as for a certain King of Siam to have treated as false the statement that in some countries, and in some seasons, water, under the influence of frost, becomes changed from a fluid to a solid, permitting persons to walk upon it, because in his country no such phenomenon had ever been witnessed. Siamese philosophers are not yet extinct.

Faith not Homoeopathy. — That the efficacy of Homoeopathy is not dependent on faith or imagination is proved by its curing the diseases of infants, of patients in delirium, and of inferior animals. The writer is personally acquainted with many intelligent farmers who employ none other than homoeopathic medicines in the treatment of their sick animals. It must be admitted that the farmers of this country are generally shrewd, calculating men, not easily deceived in matters affecting their interests, and, moreover, usually conservative in their notions ; nevertheless, great numbers of them declare that Homoeopathy cures diseases that were incurable by the old method ; that it cures more quickly, at a less cost, and without damage to the constitutional powers of animals. We have in such declarations as these the best evidence that the success of Homoeopathy is not the result of mere faith, but of valuable medicines properly administered.

In truth, the success of Homoeopathy is anything but the result of faith in those who practice it. Per-

MEDICINES IN HEALTH. 25

sons are generally slow to believe in it, and seldom have recourse to it at first without doubts and misgivings. Yet benefit is derived in spite of their unbelief. Cure overcomes their incredulity. Faith comes and grows only as the cure progresses and is complete. The very improbability of a dose so small and so unlike what had been formerly given acts, so far as the imagination has any influence upon the cure, unfavorably instead of the reverse. Conviction does not heal; it is the healing that produces the conviction.