Samuel Hahnemann's Organon of homœopathic medicine.

  • Hahnemann, Samuel, 1755-1843.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Samuel Hahnemann's Organon of homœopathic medicine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    and brought into unison with other laws already acknow-^ lodged, or with other theories received as true. This has never ])een reckoned a subject of reproach to any discoverer. Man will and must seek to illustrate the phenomena which he ob- serves, and bring individual parts into co-aptation—the new into harmony with that previously known. In this endeavour, not only is he liable to err, but actually does err in the great majority of cases; accordingly, few hypotheses and attempts at explanation have endured long, and it is a fact of daily ac- knowledgment, that one hypothesis gives place to another in all sciences. Columbus himself entertained numerous con- jectures which time has verified or overthrown. Whether the theories of Hahnemann are destined to endure a longer or a shorter space, whether they be the best or not, time only can determine ; be it as it may, however, it is a matter of minor importance. For myself, I am generally considered as a disciple and adherent of Hahnemann, and I do indeed declare, that I am one among the most enthusiastic in do- ing homage to his greatness ; but nevertheless I declare also, that since my first acquaintance with homoeopathy, (in the year 1821,) down to the present day, I have never yet accepted a single theory in the Organon as it is there promulgated. I feel no aversion to acknowledge this even to the venerable sage himself. It is the genuine Hahnemannean spirit totally to dis- regard all theories, even those of one's own fabrication, when they are in opposition to the results of pure experience. All theories and hypotheses have no positive weight whatever, only so far as they lead to new experiments, and afford a bet- ter survey of the results of those already made. Whoever, therefore, will assail the theories of Hahnemann, or even altogether reject them, is, at perfect liberty to do so; but let him not imagine that he has thereby accomplished a memorable achievement. In every respect it is an affair of little importance. 2