|
At a regular monthly meeting
of the Society held on May 11th, 1876, A.R.Thomas, M.D. President,
being in the chair, the following interesting papers were read by
E.A.Farrington M.D.: “ Do medicines make functional changes?
Being a reply to an article of Dr. Lippe in the May number of the
Medical Advance, entitled, “The last departure of Homoeopathy
in the Physiological Livery,”and by Pemberton Dudley, M.D.
“On the Cimex Question.”
In the May number of Medical Advance, Dr.
Lippe contributed an article “ The last Departure of Homoeopathy
in the Physiological Livery.”
So far as the charges preferred in this article
apply to me personally, they demand no reply. But so far as they
compromise the integrity of the college in which I hold my professorship,
I am bound to inter the contest in her defence.
In the early part of the winter. I issued
syllabus containing some questions, arranged in sections. These
questions comprised a good portion of the Materia Medica, certainly
such portions, as the beginning practitioner ought to thoroughly
understand before he commences the practice of medicine.
To this syllabus Dr. Lippe raises several
objections, Viz:-
First, he considers that it reaches Schusslerism;
Secondly, that it is contrary to the teachings
of Hahnemann;
Thirdly, that it is false because the answers
to many of the proposed questions are impossible –can not be
true.
The words, which seem especially obnoxious
to him, are these: “ The intelligent application of Materia
Medica requires the knowledge of the changes medicines make in functions
and nutrition.” For example, I asked, “ What changes does
Lachesis make in the blood?” This Dr. Lippe terms Schusslerism.
He asserts, and misapplies Hahnemann to confirm his argument that
it is impossible to know what changes medicines make in function
and nutrition.
The reply to his argument comprises three
questions:-
First, what is Schusslerism?
Secondly, can we learn what changes medicines
make in functional and nutrition?
Thirdly, if he can, of what uses such information
in the application of drugs?
First, if Schusslerism means the law, which
Dr. Hering discovered some thirty years ago, then I plead guilty
to the charge. If it means floundering about with untried remedies,
basing their symptomatology on their supposed physiological action,
making a cure all of twelve substances---then I most emphatically
deny the charge. Every question propounded in the syllabus is answered
either from provings or from clinical experience. If Schusslerism
means that medical substance act on tissues producing changes in
function and nutrition, then again must I plead guilty.
|