LXVI.

THE PRINCIPLES ENUNCIATED BY SAMUEL HAHNEMANN AS AUTHORITY IN

MEDICINE.

BY HENRY N. GUERNSEY, M.D., PHILADELPHIA.

As every language has its grammar whereby all students may acquire a knowledge of and become skilled in the use of said language, as every form of computation or calculation of numbers has its rules of arithmetic whereby all so wishing can become cognizant of and skilled in the use of numbers, so in medicine there is a code of rules embodied in a text-book whereby all physicians can acquire a knowledge of the way to practice medicine and can become skilled therein.

As a thorough acquaintance with the principles and rules of grammar will lead us all to use and speak a language correctly, as a thorough knowledge of arithmetic will bring us all to a correct and harmonious use of numbers, so in medicine, a thorough and comprehensive understanding of this one text-book will bring and cement us all into one harmonious brotherhood of successful healers.

The text-book to which I refer is Samuel Hahnemann's Organon of the Healing Art.

After studying this text-book for a period of thirty years, and during all this time having resolutely and indefatigably applied its precepts to aid me in the cure of all manner of diseases and every form of sickness, to the extent of my ability, and having on every occasion observed its unfailing reliability, I stand here

to-day, firm and immovable in the advocacy of this text-book as the only means of harmonizing the profession; as the only means whereby this American Institute of Homœopathy can achieve to itself a glorious future and can become a blessing to humanity throughout the world. Without the benign and pacific influence of this great and eternal embodiment of truth, Hahnemann's Organon, this Institute would grow more and more discordant, till its organization might be completely undermined. At some future time, however, sooner or later, another society would be called into existence, whose basis, whose keystone and whose ceaseless growth would be in full agreement with the teachings of the immortal Hahnemann, and would thus be founded upon the rock of eternal truth.

My pilgrimage in the practice of medicine has not been solitary. Dr. Constantine Hering, the father of homœopathy in this country; Dr. A. Lippe, that stanch supporter of the true principles of our art; the sage Raue, who swerves not to the right nor to the left; my friend and classmate, Dr. Edward Bayard, ever resolute in maintaining the cause he has espoused; our late lamented Carroll Dunham who, at our meeting of only last year occupied the highest place of honor that we could tender him, and for whose untimely removal from our midst we so grievously mourn; P. P. Wells, that deep and accurate thinker; William E. Paine, another link binding us to eternity, whose loss can scarcely ever be replaced in all New England; F. R. McManus, who is now in attendance at this meeting, and who, at the advanced age of threescore years and ten, is firmer than ever in his belief in the Organon. All these and many younger members of the profession were and are my daily companions in receiving in full harmony the doctrines of the master of our art, Samuel Hahnemann. I speak now for myself and for those I have the honor of referring to above, that this American Institute, individually and collectively, in so far as the law of cure is concerned, could not spend the next thirty years so profitably as to study, to discuss and to apply rigidly in daily practice every rule and precept given us by our master in the Organon of the Healing Art and in his Chronic Diseases. These works are eminently practical throughout. They are not of a character to be read

once and then laid aside, but they are for study, for laborious study every day of our lives, that we may gain a clear insight into their practical teachings. Constant experience will prove to us that the more perfectly we apply his principles to practice in every case we prescribe for, the more satisfactory and complete will be our success in curing the sick.

Mr. President and brethren, let us begin this good work at once; then we shall become purer, more scientific and more able practitioners; then we shall have offered upon this floor for our consideration, fewer and fewer papers portraying shocking and inconsistent modes of practice, from which nothing can be learned except the utter unwillingness of their authors and writers to practice homœopathy.

On the other hand we shall have papers better and more scientific, showing profundity of thought in carrying out and promulgating the principles of Hahnemann. Then will this Institute be in the era of progress in improving the science and art of medicine.

Samuel Hahnemann had a comprehensive and sagacious mind. None but he has ever produced such a masterly and exhaustive work, marked in nearly every line by such depth of thought, and so eminently practical. A lifetime is not sufficient to learn this work or to see into but a very small part of its beauties. Our confrere, Constantine Hering, M.D., with his vast literary and medical knowledge and practical acquirements, though a reader of this unrivalled production for over fifty years, still continues to study and ponder over it, ever and anon finding something new and something more to be learned. It is true that as a medical guide-book it presents ample room and enough scope for investigation to satisfy the most ardent thirst for knowledge, and diversity enough to suit every variety of taste, order of intellect and degree of comprehension.

Let our Institute enter upon this noble work at once and in full earnest, individually and collectively; then will its perpetuity, its strength and power of might be felt in and throughout the world. Do this, and allopathy in all her strongholds will speedily be replaced by her rival opponent, homoeopathy,

and nations will rejoice more than ever in its mighty healing virtues.

Having carefully studied, considered and put through the ordeal of repeated tests the subject discussed, I have arrived at the foregoing conclusions, and I now submit the result of my reflections and investigations to the judgment of others. I wish to invite, on the contents of this paper, the severest scrutiny and the closest, but at the same time candid, criticism, trusting that if the true view is not here taken and the correct conclusions arrived at, some one will undertake the discussion and will bring out the true view.

APPENDIX.

DISCUSSION.

SECOND DAY-MORNING SESSION.

DR. THOMAS MOORE, Germantown, Phila.: I wish to relate an interesting circumstance connected with the uses of electricity, from which you can make your own deductions and application. Some years ago the Atlantic cable gave no little trouble to the electricians; it would work for awhile and then it would cease working. I have been told by persons who knew all the circumstances, that at first they used the most powerful batteries to overcome the difficulty without avail, and that they then used the weakest, and have done so ever since, and have had no further trouble with the cable.

DR. S. LILIENTHAL, of New York: In regard to Dr. Guernsey's paper, I doubt if there is any one in this assemblage who has a word to say against the Organon or its use; but at the same time it is hard to sit quietly and hear over and over again that homoeopathy is going to the dogs, unless this man's or that man's notions are followed out. There is not a member of this Institute, nor a homoeopathist outside of its membership, who does not as fully believe in the similia similibus curantur of our system as Dr. Guernsey does, and follows it out in practice to the best of his ability. It is not becoming in any man to find fault with his fellows. No one of us stands so far above his fellows as to be entitled to find fault with their ways of practice. No doubt every one of us has pondered over cases for hours and hours, and even then been in doubt as to the proper remedy. We are not all Herings and Dunhams and Guernseys, to whom these things seem to come as by intuition. But it seems to be the case that if any one falters or has doubts, or in his doubt and faltering does something that somebody considers to be not homoeopathic, he is to be told that he is no homoeopath, that the sooner he goes back to the flesh-pots of his allopathic Egypt,