Part 1 (1/2)
An Epitome of Homeopathic Healing Art.
by B. L. Hill.
Introduction.
This work contains in a _condensed form_ a very large portion of all that is practically useful in the treatment of the diseases ordinarily occurring in this country. The symptoms are given with sufficient minuteness and detail to enable any one of ordinary capacities of observation to distinguish the complaint; and the treatment is so _plainly_ laid down, that no one need make a mistake. If strictly followed, it will, in a very large proportion of cases, effect cures, even when administered by those unacquainted with the medical sciences generally. It has been written from necessity, to meet the demands of community for a more definite work in a concise form, that should contain remedies of the most reliable character, with such directions for their use as can be followed by the _traveler on his journey_, or by families at home, when no physician is at hand. It might seem to some preposterous to speak of a _demand_ for another _domestic_ h.o.m.oeopathic Practice, when half a score or more of such works are now extant, some having come out within a very short time. The demand arises, not from the want of Books, but from the defects of those that exist. There is in most of them, too little point and definiteness in the prescriptions, and a kind of vague doubting recommendation noticeable to all, which carries the impression at once to every reader, of a want of _confidence_ by the author in his own directions.
Again, in some of the works there is too much confusion, the symptoms not being laid down with sufficient clearness to indicate the best remedy. Some of the works are unnecessarily large and c.u.mbersome, while the real amount of valuable practical matter is comparatively meager, obliging the reader to pay for paper and binding without the contained value of his money. I do not claim entire perfection for this work, yet I do claim it to be several steps in advance of the books now extant.
This work is my own, being the result of my practical experience and observation. I have introduced several remedies that, though they are familiar to me, and have been used in my practice for many years, are, nevertheless, comparatively strange and new to most of the profession.
Of some we have no extensive provings yet published, still the provings have been made, both upon the healthy and the sick. Their use, as directed in this work, is in strict accordance with their h.o.m.oeopathic relation to the symptoms for which they are prescribed.
Some may object to my practice of giving several remedies in alternation or rotation and in quick succession. To such I would say, When you try this mode of practice and on comparing it with the opposite one of giving only one remedy, and that at long intervals between the doses, find my mode to be less successful than yours, _then_ it will be time for you to make your objections. _You_ may rely upon the vague hypotheses of the books, and give your high dilutions singly, at long intervals, and let your patients die for want of _real_ treatment, while I will use lower dilutions and give two or more remedies in quick succession and cure mine. I only speak what is in accordance with universal observation, where the two modes are compared on equal footing, when I affirm that, while the former _may_ effect some cures, _most_ of the recoveries under it, are spontaneous and unaided, the latter _does_ cure; the disease being arrested by the medicine, and the proportion of unfavorable terminations is much less under the latter than the former course. I know many learned and successful pract.i.tioners who have subst.i.tuted low dilutions and the giving of several remedies in quick succession for the old mode of high attenuations and long intervals of single remedies, all of whom still adhere to the low, while I have yet to hear of the man who has gone _back_ to high single remedies and long intervals. My reason then, for the course here laid down, is, that it will _cure_ with more promptness and certainty. If others are so prejudiced as not to _try it_, they will still remain in ignorance of the _best practice_, and their patients will be the sufferers.
In reference to the fear that is expressed that if one medicine is given too soon after another, it will antidote the former, I have simply to say, I have no confidence in the hypothetic antidotal powers of the medicines one over another, as laid down in the books. It has not been verified by experience, and has no foundation in truth. It is true that one medicine will remove morbid symptoms that might be produced by an overdose of another; but both being given in the ordinary medicinal doses, neither of them to such an extent as to produce sensible symptoms, if given alone, would not, if given in quick succession, prevent each other from acting to remove their own peculiar symptoms that exist in the system at the time. So if we have the symptoms that are found in two or more different remedies present in the same attack, as is often the ease, we may give these several remedies one after another, with confidence in their curative effects for the symptoms they represent.
This has been my practice, and it has been _eminently successful_, and therefore I commend it to others, treating with pity the infirmity of those who ignorantly condemn it, as ”They know not what they do.”
ADMINISTRATION OF REMEDIES.
The remedies are either in the form of tinctures saturated, more or less dilute, in Pellets or Powders. The _Pellets_ may be taken dry upon the tongue, allowed to dissolve and swallowed. The dose for an adult is from 4 to 7; for an infant, from birth to one year old, 1 to 3; from one to three years, 2 to 4; from three to ten years, 3 to 5 pellets; after ten, same as an adult. 15 or 20 pellets may be dissolved in a gill of water, and a tea-spoonful dose given at a time, being particular to stir it until all are perfectly dissolved, stirring it each dose.
_Powders_ may be taken in the same manner, upon the tongue, a dose when dry, being about the same bulk as of the pellets as nearly as practicable. If put into water, to a gill of water add of the powder about what would lie on a three cent piece. If the liquid medicine is used, add 1 drop to a gill of water, and use tea-spoonful doses as above directed. The length of time between the doses should be, in Dysentery and Diarrhoea, regulated by the frequency of the discharges, giving a dose as often as the evacuations occur. In acute and violent diseases, the doses should be repeated oftener than in milder cases--about once an hour as a general rule is often enough, though in some cases they should be given in half an hour or oftener. In mild cases, once in two or three hours is often enough, and in chronic cases, once or twice a day.
Bathing.
The surface of the body should be kept clean, as far as possible, and to this end, in summer, should be well bathed at least once a day. In winter, though useful, it is not so indispensable; still no one should neglect the bath more than a week, and all ought to bathe at least twice a week, if not oftener, even in winter.
The bath should be of a temperature that is agreeable, and the room warm, especially for a feeble person. It should be so applied as not to give a general chill, as such shocks are always hurtful.
The _teeth_ should be kept clean and free from tartar. They should be cleaned every morning and after each meal. The feet, legs and arms should be warmly clothed, especially the _arms_, as an exposure of them to cold is liable to induce affections of the lungs, and to aggravate any existing disease of those organs.
By exposure of the feet and legs to cold, diseases and derangements of the female organs, even in young girls, are induced; and one prolific cause of female weakness is to be found in improper dressing of the feet and legs, while the _lung affections_ of females, now so fearfully prevalent, are traceable in a great degree to the fas.h.i.+on that has prevailed for a few years, of exposing the arms to cold.
Diet.
The diet of the sick should he nutricious, but at all times simple, free from greasy substances, and from all stimulating condiments whatsoever, as well as from vinegar, or food in which vinegar is used.
In short, let the food be nutritious, easily digested, small or moderate in quant.i.ty, and free from all ”seasoning,” except salt or sugar; and if salt is used at all, let the quant.i.ty be very small, much less than would be used in health.