Homoeopathy unveiled, or, Observations on Hahnemann, his doctrines, and treatment of disease / by William Perrin Brodribb.

Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Homoeopathy unveiled, or, Observations on Hahnemann, his doctrines, and treatment of disease / by William Perrin Brodribb. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    36/46 (page 36)
    3G proved no better than heathen idols, which derived all their importance and authority only from the folly and ignorance of those who worshipped them! Frenzied multitudes have journeyed to the holy land, on errands of supposed piety, but in reality of blind passion and superstition. Thousands of victims have been sacrificed to a belief in witchcraft; how many became crazed on the subject of the philosopher's stone? while whole nations have run mad after some visionary object of wealth, or ridiculous folly. Who can read the world’s history without viewing it as “ the great and awful book of human folly, which Porson once jestingly said he would write in five hundred volumes ? ” “ We cannot justly infer the worth of a thing from the attention paid to it by men. They may be compelled by authority, biassed by interest, governed by vanity, oi- led astray by novelty. Even great men have had their follies. Nothing has been brought forward so absurd as not to have attracted to it some names of distinction.” Almost any pretensions and novelties broached with confidence “ may strike and produce a temporary impression in their favour, especially in a country like this : a country proverbial for its credulity ; and its more than Athenian rage for something new, whatever be the nature of it. In England, it has been said by a satirical yet just observer, that ‘ any monster will make a man that is, be the means of rendering him renowned or rich. Who can question this for a moment, that has patience to mortify himself as a Briton by reflection and review ? Take prodigies — dwarfs, giants, unnatural births, deformities—the more hideous, the more repelling the spectacles, the more attractive and popular have they k