A monograph upon aconite : its therapeutic and physiological effects together with its uses, and accurate statements derived from the various sources of medical literature / translated from the German of Dr. Reil, by Henry B. Millard ; prize essay.

  • Reil, Dr. (Wilhelm), 1820-1880.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A monograph upon aconite : its therapeutic and physiological effects together with its uses, and accurate statements derived from the various sources of medical literature / translated from the German of Dr. Reil, by Henry B. Millard ; prize essay. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    by Hahnemann nimself, as well as from the labors of five pro- vers in particular, who made their experiments under Hahnemann's direction—namely, Ahner, Fr. Hahnemann, Hoenburg, Ruckert the elder, and Wahle, and also to the employment of the various experiences which had been communicated by other authors, whose names have been already given, and Gross, Helmont, Pet. De Albano, and Durr. In the arrangement of the order of the symptoms, the original scheme is followed out, but there is no sepa- ration, as at first, of the symptoms remarked by different obser- vers ; all the symptoms observed by Hahnemann and his imme- diate co-workers, and those given by the old physicians, are in- cluded under this arrangement, and after each symptom is given the time at which it appeared and the name of the observers. There can be no doubt that in this order, and in mixing to- gether the symptoms of such a variety of observers and sources, a great and decidedly retrograde movement was made by Hahne- mann. He accords in this arrangement, to his own observations and to the aphoristic observations of an Albano, Morjeus, and Helmont, the same degree of credibility and truth; and if, because he considers them correct and valuable, he demands that we should accept the accounts of the latter with the same confidence that he asks of us in the observations made by himself, he asks of us something with which no one not accustomed to swear blind- ly, in verba magestri, will be willing to comply. Turn we now, as we propose doing immediately, to the original sources whence Hahnemann borrowed these observations of others, we find them often so vitiated and obscure, and so little corresponding to the homoeopathic precautions, that we can ex- plain Hahnemann's adoption of them only upon the supposition that he made use of them simply because they suited his purpose {sit venia verbo): that is, because they were not only not contra- dictory to his own observations, but here and there seemed to confirm them. If we compare now these three articles referred to of Hahne- mann, on the symptoms of Aconite, namely that in the Frag, de Virib. Med. Pos. and those in the first and third editions of the Mat. Med. Pura, it is clearly evident that Hahnemann had al- ready decided in the Fragmenta the principal sphere of action of A'cnite in characteristic groups of symptoms, since we find some