Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 51-53. (Budapest, 1969)

TANULMÁNYOK - Antall József: A homeopátia és az orvosképzés Magyarországon (angol nyelven)

The next theorem of the homoeopathic school is that the smaller dose is used the stronger the effect will be. That is why the constant increase of dilution is advised. Drugs work mostly not by their substance, but by the immaterial forces hidden in them. According to Hahnemann two drops of the medicine (fresh sap or primary tincture) must be mixed with 98 drops of alcohol (first dilution). Two drops of the result must be mixed with another 98 drops of alcohol and that must be continued until thirty. There were over-zelous ones, who did not stop until sixty, while the more "sane" did not go further than ten. Hahnemann wrote on the dilution of his drugs: "The bodies multiplied in such a way are so much changed physically and chemically, that even the bodies insoluble both in alcohol and in water become soluble after such a transformation . . . / am the first to show the world an entirely new discovery.

.. . Medicines are not common lifeless bodies, their true substance is rather dinamically spiritual, rather pure power." The phantasy of the homoeopaths was boundless when they put up a case for the dosing of diluted drugs. But they more often borrowed their comparisons rather from contemporary inventions than from the testimony of medical experience. Döme Argenti, the best known Hungarian homoeopath, for instance took the example of the power of steam, the steamship and the locomotive. "Well, you believe the amazing power of the railway locomotive! You believe, don't you ? because you see it. You will similarly see the inconceivable power of the homoeopathical remedies!" But the great physicians of the age commented upon the multiplying effect of dilution with deadly irony. Rudolf Virchow (1821—1902), the famous German scientist once told his audience: "// / pour a glass of beer in the River Spree in Berlin, what will become of that beer in the water at the mouth of the river near Spandau? These who deal with homoeopathy among you are not worthy of sitting in this room." But his warning failed to convince his opponents. It is always difficult to convince by common sense those people, groups, schools, who hold perverted views. Rather they get confirmed in their belief and when forced into the periphery of their viewpoint they even increase their hopeless struggle. Some homoeopaths—far surpassing the teachings of their master—treated itchiness with "potentiated" pus from itchy persons, and hepatopathia and tubercolosis with fluid from those affected organs ("hepatin", "pulmonal"). The homoeopaths put more emphasis on the diet of the patient than was customary—though themselves protested against that being the only secret of their success. They forbade the treated patient to consume "seasoned, aromatic, hot and too sour food like strong vinegar, pepper, horseradish, saffron" and "smoked meat, too salty and fat meet indlcuding goose, duck and pork which are hard to digest" (Argenti). They empasized cleanliness as well, the frequent changing of bedcloth and underwear. It was the pecularity of the homoeopathic medicines that they were prepared by the doctors themselves. Homoeopathic therapy and pharmacy are inseparable. They used the same medicines for the most different ailments as they naturally knew nothing about their working but decided on their use on an empirical way, or better to say on the basis of imaginary experience. One of their most ioo