The Midwest pioneer, his ills, cures, & doctors - University Library ...

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and the process just described repeated, we shall have a
powder of which every grain contains the hundredth of
the hundredth, or the ten thousandth part of a grain of the
medicinal substance. Repeat the same process with the
same quantity of fresh sugar of milk, and every grain of
your powder will contain the millionth of a grain of the
medicinal substance. When the powder is of this strength,
it is ready to employ in the further solutions and dilutions
to be made use of in practice."
Once the drug had been attenuated, there remained yet,
before it could be used, the triturition or dilution of it.
This process was to be accomplished by combining it with
a liquid, preferably alcohol. A grain of the attenuated
powder was to be covered over with a hundred drops of
alcohol; the container was to be slowly turned for a few
minutes until the powder dissolved, then two shakes given
it. Hahnemann said: "A long experience and multiplied
observations upon the sick lead me within the last few
years to prefer giving only two shakes to medicinal liquids,
whereas I formerly used to give ten." The more the vial
was shaken the more highly "potentized" the medicine became.
Also the effect of the dose increased with each addition
of the fluid in which it was dissolved; hence the preparer
of the concoction had to exercise extreme care lest
he create, unwittingly, a medicine too powerful for even
the strongest of patients, not to mention his more sensitive
sufferers. For experimental purpose Hahnemann once "dissolved
a grain of soda in half an ounce of water mixed with
alcohol in a phial, which was thereby filled two-thirds full,
and shook this solution continuously for half an hour, and
this fluid was in potency and energy equal to the thirtieth
development of power."
The process of dilution was carried on in the same manner
as that of attenuation. Each successive dilution with
alcohol reduced the medicine to a hundredth part of the
quantity of that which preceded it. In this way the dilution
of the original millionth of a grain of medicine contained
in a grain of powder could be carried successfully