HOMŒOPATHY EXPLAINED

Preface
One hundred and fifty years ago there was born to a porcelain-painter of Meissen, in Upper Saxony, a son who was destined to revolutionize the world of medicine, to inaugurate a new era in medical thought. If ever the story of Samuel Hahnemann and his discoveries should fail to attract, the fault must lie with the teller and not with the story itself. For whether it be regarded from the human, the historic, the scientific, or the economic point of view, there is nothing in the world's history of more enthralling interest than the record of the patient, persistent, heroic labours of Hahnemann in his endeavour to bring to he light of day the Law which he knew must underlie the seemingly chaotic phenomena of drug-action. At the dawn of the nineteenth century, when Autocracy in the political world of Europe was tottering to its fall, Hahnemann, then in his prime, was making his first attacks on the power of Authority in medicine, and leading all who would to take their stand on the ground of Natural Fact. The battle is yet far from won; but Hahnemann had led the way into a new world of thought, and now all who wish to I know the thing that is, are no longer obliged to accept that only which bears Authority's imprimatur.
At this stage of progress there is no longer any need to treat homœopathy as a question of belief. It is nothing of the kind: it is a matter of science - a thing which may be known. No one has any right to claim either belief or disbelief in homœopathy - he must either know it; he must either understand it, or fail to understand it. To understand homœopathy is not such an easy matter as some think it ought to be; but it is not more difficult than is the understanding of other sciences. The object of this work is to make the understanding possible to all who wish to understand. To those who wish not to understand - and they are, unhappily, a very numerous body - I have nothing to say. The wish to know is all I ask of my readers; if, inspired with this wish, they fail after a careful reading of my book, the blame must lie with me.
When one comes to think of it, that drug-action should have more than one side to it would seem to be a matter of course. The scientific mind revolts at the notion that an active cause can produce identical results in opposite conditions. That a drug should act differently when given to a person under conditions of disease from what it would do in the same person when in health, is only what common sense would expect. And common sense next demand to know just exactly what that difference may be; The answer to that query is Hahnemann's life and work - the discovery of the Law of Cure. It would seem to the unprofessional mind a trite observation to make, that the business of a doctor is to cure. It seemed so to Hahnemann, and the first sentence of his Organon states plainly enough that the "high and only business of the physician is to heal the sick - to cure, as it is termed." And yet we have respected teachers at this time of day telling their students that they may "treat" patients - they cannot cure them. They speak learnedly about the "decadence of drugs", as if Mother Earth could not produce plants and minerals of the proper potency in these latter days. The fault according to them lies with Nature - not in their hands ! Homœopathy disposes of all this childish nonsense.
There is an Art of cure, but it must be learned and practiced with brains. Cures rarely take place by accident, and unless a man makes up his mind to master the art of curing, he will not achieve much in that line. The Faculty says, "You cannot cure patients - you can only treat them; if you pretend to cure, you are a quack." Homœopathy says, "You may cure if you will take the trouble to learn the art. Curing is the only excuse for your existence as a physician, and if you do not cure, you are a failure."
The object of this work is to put the facts of the facts of the case before the public, and before those members of the profession who have closed their intelligence at the bidding of the goddess Authority.
For a long time past my publishers have been urging me to give them a revised edition of my little work entitled "Homœopathy : All about it." Hitherto pressure of other work has prevented me from complying with their request. Now that I have been able to give some thought and time to the subject, it has seemed to me desirable to recast the work, enlarge its scope, and adapt it to more recent requirements. Thus it has come about that although the former work is embodied in this volume, the work itself is rather a new book than a new edition, and I have therefore regarded it in this light and have given it a new title.