CLARKE JH, Homoeopathy Explained - Classical Homeopathy Online

Now the suggestion I am going to make is that any one who wishes to know by
experience whether or not homeopathy is a true law of Nature, should procure from a
homeopathic chemist of repute a bottle of discs, or pilules, medicated with tincture of
Allium cepa 12, and the next time they take a cold let them take a dose every hour and
see what happens. I do not promise that it will cure every cold, but it will cure a large
number; and if the characteristic condition, “worse in a room, better in the open air”, is
present, it can hardly fail to cure the cold in a remarkably short space of time.
Those who are content to take the provings as they stand may save themselves the
trouble of re-proving the Materia Medica and use the remedies on the indications given.
In homoeopathic nurseries, castor oil, Gregory’s powder, and brimstone and treacle are
unknown. Nux vomica, Sulphur, and a few other remedies, in tasteless preparations, are
equal to all the common wants. The deadliest poisons under homoeopathic manipulation
become household friends. Take, for example, the deadly Aconite.
One of the greatest crimes Hahnemann was supposed by his contemporaries to have
committed was his neglect of blood-letting. In Aconite Hahnemann found the agent
which enabled him to meet the conditions for which blood-letting was most in request. In
proving Aconite Hahnemann noticed it produced the chill, anxiety, fear, and irritable
restlessness which characterise the first stage of fevers and inflammatory states. And
experience proved that Aconite, in homeopathic form, was a most potent means of
remedying these dangerous conditions at the outset. But Aconite will not cure all fevers,
and it is not to be used unless its leading indications are present.
I mention this because the success of homeopaths in curing states of fever with Aconite
has led allopaths to use the same remedy in fevers regardless of its finer indications. They
give it in the strong tincture to “knock down temperatures” – a very dangerous practice,
because Aconite is not a thing to trifle with in these low preparations.
However, most homoeopathic mothers can sing its praises from what they have observed
of its effects. There is no need for actual fever – or raised temperature – to be present in
order to obtain its curative action. For simple sleeplessness, with restless tossing, it is one
of the leading remedies; and here again it has often proved one of the best friends of the
nursery.
For further practical details other works, as I have already said, must be consulted; but
before leaving the subject, I should like to make one remark in reference to homoeopathic
remedies. Any one who wishes to test them should obtain them direct from some
homoeopathic chemist, and not from a general chemist or from “stores”. The preparation
of homoeopathic remedies demands care and honesty on the part of the chemist, and it is
only right that these should be recognised in the only possible way by paying a fair price
for them. He who buys homoeopathic medicines at a stores because they are a few pence
cheaper is apt to fare indifferently for his economy. Years ago a patient of mine
complained to me that the medicines I prescribed did not act. I asked where he had had
them dispensed. He referred to a certain large establishment at which he held a high
appointment. I told him I would not take the trouble to prescribe for him if he ever went
there again for his medicines. He went to a homoeopathic chemist after this, and the
result was so entirely satisfactory that he had no temptation to be “economical” in this
direction thereafter.
Some comparative statistics.
From Tract V. I will now give a few figures of comparative statistics. The first set relates