Note 17 — Chapter VI · HOMŒOPATHY.[14]

The inconsistency of Homœopathists in using medicines in Allopathic doses is sometimes of the most barefaced character. An instance of this kind I lately met with in a New York paper. It seems that the Homœopathic physicians in that city appointed a committee to draw up some directions, to be given to the citizens for the prevention and treatment of Cholera. The directions are all quite consistent till you come to the 12th which reads thus: “If the diarrhœa should become profuse (with or without pain, and vomiting,) the discharges being watery and whitish, and the strength rapidly failing, take five drops of spirits of Camphor every half hour until it is effectually stopped. Should these symptoms become very severe, three drops of Camphor may be administered every five minutes.” In this direction they make a complete leap from Homœopathy over to Allopathy. In the first eleven directions they adhere most strictly to the Hahnemanic attenuations and triturations. But these, you will observe, respect those only who are threatened, or imagine themselves to be threatened, with cholera. It is well enough to amuse such with the ‘third attenuation’ of Cuprum or Veratrum. But in the twelfth direction, which is for those who are actually attacked with the disease, the attenuations and triturations are forgotten; for it now gets to be a serious business, and the tiny doses will not do. Three drops of Spirits of Camphor every five minutes!!! If the patient should be dosed at this rate, for twenty-four hours, he would take nearly two ounces of spirit of Camphor. The whole Homœopathic committee could not use up this quantity in a twelvemonth in all their extensive practice, if they should give it strictly on Hahnemanic principles.