A homoeopathic treatise on the diseases of children / by Alph. Teste ; translated from the French by Emma H. Côté.

  • Teste, Alph. (Alphonse), 1814-
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A homoeopathic treatise on the diseases of children / by Alph. Teste ; translated from the French by Emma H. Côté. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    before another medicinal substance was discovered to take rank by the side of mercury. At last, however, quinine appeared, to double the number of specifics. It was asserted that quinine * cured intermittent fe- ver, in the same manner that mercury cured syphilis ; that is to say, without causing any of those violent perturbations that all other medicines produced, and from the nature of which were inferred the dominant quality and generic denomination of each. Quinine provoking neither vomiting, purgation, urine, sweat, nor sleep, was not then an emetic, or pur- gative, a diuretic, sudorific, or narcotic ; for the grand reason that it was bitter, and under the not less spe- cious pretext that it tanned the gastric fluid, as the bark * The Allopath'c physicians iuclude iron, also, in the number of their specifics. Let it be so—they have then three. What wealth! And what a proof of the fecundity of clinical experience ! Three specifics in two thousand years ! And yet, it is well to observe that specificity, in the absolute sense, as understood by Allopathy, is really but a gross and lying fiction. There really exist specific re- medies against such or such a group of definite symptoms, (we employ no others) ; but from the moment that these symptoms are absent, or no longer exist, the specificity ceases, and the remedy no longer cures, although the disease still exists and has not changed its name. This is equivalent to saying, that it is almost always ne- cessary to have recourse to the employment, successively, of several specifics to cure one disease. This is the reason that Allopathists, who for the most part do not suspect these facts, see so often, what never fails to astonish them, mercury fail in syphilis; quinine, in intermittent fever, and iron, in chlorosis. 3