Page images
PDF
EPUB

He published some original works on homoeopathy, and along with Lux may be considered the founder of homœopathic veterinary medicine. All that we know of his person and character is that he was affected with everlasting restlessness, which caused him to change his place of residence as a doctor four times, and even led him to abandon his practice altogether for three years in order to act as tutor in Livonia.

The least important among the members of this early circle of Hahnemann's disciples was undoubtedly Langhammer, a man deformed in body and mind, without energy, who spent his time in unprofitable brooding, and who never could acquire any enthusiasm for the cause. Unfavorable outward circumstances, for the successful combating of which an energetic nature was necessary, may have contributed materially to his depressed disposition. On these accounts the value of his contributions to the Materia Medica is, to say the least, doubtful.

Such were the first disciples of Hahnemann. Young, unknown, though generally highly gifted men, who were commencing their medical career, mostly sprung from the lower or middle classes of society, who had to fight with unfavorable external circumstances, they were, one would think, but ill calculated to be the apostles of a new doctrine. And yet it was just the qualities and circumstances here named which rendered them particularly fit for the reception of the new truth. Still capable of fresh, pure enthusiasm, such as is incident to youth alone, not yet affected with exhaustion of the thinking faculty, not yet enchained by the fetters of medical orthodoxy, excluded from the levelling sociability of the upper classes, prevented by their narrow means from participating in students' pleasures which so often put a stop to study, they were of all men the fittest for doing the first hard work required for the foundation of a new doctrine. If we add to this the personal influence of the master, which in some way or another succeeded in inspiring others with the enthusiasm for the cause that animated himself, and in convincing them of its truth, we can then understand how

these earliest disciples, undeterred by the ridicule of their fellow-students, by privations and mortifications which they had to endure, went forward on their course with zeal and steadfastness. Thrown upon their own resources they formed a close alliance with the master and with one another. His house was their place of assembly, where they always got renewed incitement, courage, and instruction. And so from their conjoint labours came the work that constitutes the foundation stone of homeopathy, the Materia Medica, which it is not difficult for succeeding generations to build up. They themselves grew up to be excellent practitioners of medicine, in which they perceived ever more and more the truth aud great importance of the new doctrine which they had at first adopted on Hahnemann's sole authority, and armed with which they could defy their opponents. It is the results they obtained which induced older and more accredited doctors to make themselves conversant with homoeopathy. Among such converts I will only mention the two men, whose especial merit it is to have drawn homœopathy from its then obscure position, to have procured for it a kind of recognition on the part of the state, and greater consideration from the educated public. I allude to Moritz Müller and Rummel. Both were

equally distinguished for acute penetrating intellect and many-sided knowledge, which made them exactly fitted for champions of homoeopathy. I must refrain from dwelling at greater length on the importance to homœopathy of the accession of these two men in order not to occupy too much of your time. My only idea was to refresh your memory to-day with respect to Hahnemann's earliest disciples, and to recall their services to your mind. I do not think I have done anything superfluous by so doing, at a period when among the younger race of physicians there prevails a certain amount of scientific conceitedness that leads them to undervalue the labours and merits of their predecessors, on whose shoulders they stand.

Let us dismiss all disagreeable recollections, and let us refresh our minds with the contemplation of this first small band of Hahnemann's disciples, who stood in intimate cordial

relation to their master, who gave themselves up to his directions with all faith, and who counted the hours they passed in his house among the happiest of their lives. May their example teach us not to falter at a time when our good cause seems to be declining, when the constantly diminishing numbers of homoeopathic practitioners in Germany make us fear for its future. Let us undauntedly labour and fight. History teaches us that no truth that has once appeared in human knowledge, though it may be temporarily repressed and obscured, has ever been lost.

CENANTHE CROCATA.*

We have found, in the Montpellier Medical, an excellent, well-developed, very complete study of Enanthe crocata, by Dr. Bloc. The author insists in a special manner upon the botanical characters of the plant and the poisoning symptoms caused by it; he has studied microscopically the intimate tissues of its whole texture, its chemical composition, &c.

In this study we are chiefly interested in forty-nine observations of human poisonings, which, whatever was the age or sex of the victims, presented symptoms nearly identical, and all showed the phenomena characteristic of epilepsy. Moreover, we find in it cases of poisoning almost all fatal, where cattle had eaten the roots of this plant; here also the symptoms produced were similar. Some experiments were also tried or reported by Dr. B. with a resinous extract of the root upon rabbits and dogs; these also produced analogous symptoms. The resemblance of these symptoms to those produced by epilepsy and some of its sequelæ is so great that it has struck all the authors who have spoken of it as well as the one whose excellent memoir we are analysing. In order to demonstrate it, we are about

* Montpellier Medical, Nos. for Oct., Nov., Dec., 1872, April, May, 1873; Art Medical, March, 1874.

to reproduce, wholly or in part, some of the observations which he has collected, either personally or from various authors. But let us first commence with making the plant known by giving its principal botanical characters. "The œnanthes are smooth aquatic plants, with compound umbels, variable involucres (often wanting), polyphyllian involucelles, white flowers on long pedicels inserted on the ray of the umbellule, hermaphrodite and sterile by abortion. They grow abundantly in the northern countries of the Old World, and some have been observed in America. The genus contains very numerous species; and, as it has been limited by botanists up to the present day, we reckon a score which have been divided into two grand sections.

A. Genus Enanthe (Linn.), perennial species, with fasciculated tubes, such as E. crocata, which is the one now before us.

SYNONYMS.-Enante safranée. Enanthe à suc jaune. Breton, Kéguis, Pembis, Pempes (the root having five fingers) pum bys, Welsh. At Nantes, Pensagre. Navet du diable. The flowers are white, sometimes light rose, with a fascicle of tubers; in one variety the root is white, in another reddish-purple. Without enlarging on the chemical analysis let us merely state that the plant contains amongst other matters a fixed oil, a volatile oil, a resin, a yellow colouring matter; that one may ascribe to the first three the venomous action of the plant; they exist in such abundance that in order to see them you have only to cut the root across, when the oils exude to the surface and soon lose by evaporation their aqueous parts and the highly scented volatile oil, whilst the yellow resinous juice `encrusts the surface of the section.

Obs. 1.-An inhabitant of Amsterdam, April 20th, 1677, went into his garden with a friend about 7 a.m. He pulled up some roots to eat on his return, taking them for Macedonian parsley, Bubon macedonicum. In order to ascertain at once the nature of the plant he and his friend tasted it. Soon after they felt a burning heat in the throat and stomach; and, with that, disturbance of intellect, vertigo, cardialgia, and nausea, followed by alvine evacuations. The

first had bleeding at the nose, the second violent convulsions, and the one who had eaten most died in about two hours, the other in three. The plant proved to be Enanthe crocata.

Obs. 3.-A woman of a certain age, after having eaten one of the roots along with parsneps, became almost mad and furious, as if drunk. She came to herself after having taken breath and drank a little vinegar.

Obs. 7.-Amatus Lusitanus tells us that a child of eleven who had set out from the town of Pisa after having eaten, when fasting, some tops of this plant, was seized with convulsions followed by profound sleep; on awaking she neither saw nor heard anything, and on being carried home died immediately.

Obs. 9.-In 1748 eight Irish boys, having taken this plant for water parsnep, ate several of the roots; four or five hours after the eldest fell suddenly on his back and died in convulsions; four others died that day without having been able to utter one word from the instant the poison seemed to attack the nervous system. Of the three others one went mad, but came to himself next morning; another lost his nails and hair; the third was the only one who escaped, because he had run two miles and drunk hot milk, which produced copious perspiration.

[ocr errors]

In the preceding cases we see that the roots, eaten raw, produced vertigo, nausea, madness, convulsions, and most frequently speedy death. In the following instance the root was eaten boiled as an ingredient in soup. Of all those who partook of this, some were merely very ill after it; one died.

Obs. 12.-March 30th, 1758, seventeen soldiers of the citadel of Ajaccio poisoned themselves. One of them having a mind to treat his comrades with good soup had gathered a plant of which he had cut the leaves and roots. They ate it with avidity, but in one hour some fell into syncope and convulsions. One died before the doctor arrived, two hours after supper; a second was expiring; a third showed no sign of life, but trembling and convulsions.

« PreviousContinue »