Chapter XIV
Potentiation and the Infinitesimal DoseHomœopathic potentiation is a
mathematico-mechanical process for the reduction, according to scale, of crude, inert or
poisonous medical substances to a state of physical solubility, physiological assimilability
and therapeutic activity and harmlessness, for use as homœopathic healing remedies.The primary object of potentiation
is to reduce all substances -designed for therapeutic use to “a state of approximately
perfect solution or complete ionization, which is fully accomplished only by infinite
dilution.” (Arrhenius.) The greater the dilution, the higher the degree of ionization
until, at infinite dilution, ionization is complete and therapeutic activity conditionally greatest.For the reduction of minerals and inorganic
substances and certain other substances, it employs mechanical trituration of one part of
the substance with nine, or ninety-nine part of pure -crystalline sugar of milk, according
as the decimal or centesimal scale of dilution is used. This process is continued long
enough and in such a manner as to reduce them to an approximately impalpable powder, soluble
in water. These, and all other soluble substances it reduces to liquids, or tinctures, which
it still further reduces by dilution with water or alcohol in the same proportions -of drug
to vehicle (one to, nine, or one to ninety-nine) to, any degree determined upon, recording,
numbering each step of the process in order that the degree of dilution and potentiation of
each preparation may be known.The resulting products of these operations
we known as “potencies” or “dilutions,” bearing the name of the medicine
and the number of the dilution.Originally all homœopathic remedies were
prepared by hand, using the ancient and time honored mortar and pestle and the ordinary
glass vial. Hand made potencies are still regarded by some as most reliable; but the
products of time saving triturating and diluting machines, which have been invented and
improved from time to time, are used by the majority of homœopathic pharmacists or potency
makers.By this process the most virulent and
deadly poisons, even the serpent venoms, are not only rendered harmless but are transformed
into beneficent healing remedies. Substances which are medicinally inert in their crude
natural state, such as the minerals, charcoal, or lycopodium, are thus rendered active and
effective for healing the sick. Other drugs, more or less active in their natural state,
have their medicinal qualities enhanced and their sphere of action broadened by being
submitted to the process.Arithmetical enumeration of the particles
or proportions into which potentiation is supposed to divide a given quantity of the drug is
insufficient and misleading. The facts go to show that the result of the process is not only
a division of the matter into particles, but a series of
differentiations and progressions by which successive reproduction or propagations of the
medical properties of the drug take place. The powers and qualities of the drug
are progressively transferred to the diluting medium. Recognizing this fact, Garth Wilkinson
proposed to call them “transmissions.”Dr Bernhardt Fincke
Fincke explained the action and efficiency
of infinitesimal doses by applying the “law of the least quantity,” discovered by
Maupertuis, the great French mathematician and accepted in science as a fundamental
principle of the universe. That principle is stated as follows: “the
quantity of action necessary to effect any change in nature is the least possible.”“According to this general
principle,” says Dr. Fincke, “the decisive moment is always a minimum, an
infinitesimal.” And to our therapeutics it will be perceived that the least possible is
always the highest potency sufficient to bring about reaction and effect the cure, provided
always that the selection of the remedy is homœopathically correct. “The Law of the
Least Action (Maxima Minimis) appears to be an essential
and necessary complement of the Law of Similars (Similia Similibus and
coordinate with it.”“According to this principle the
curative properties and action of the homœopathic remedy are governed by its preparation
and application; in other words, the quality of the action of a
homœopathic remedy is determined by its quantity. Consequently, the law of the
least action must be acknowledged as the posological principle of homœopathy.”Potentiation and the minimum dose is a
subject upon which it is exceedingly easy to form hasty and incorrect notions-no, subject in
homœopathy more so. It is one of those subjects upon which the average medical mind seems
to have a peculiar natural bent for forming opinions without due knowledge and examination
in one word, prejudice. It may be said, however, that when the philosophy of homœopathy is
understood, and its method of selecting the curative remedy has been mastered, decision as
to the matter of the dose may be left safely to individual judgment, based upon observation
and experience. The whole range of potencies is and should be open to every man. The
beginner need be no more afraid of a thirtieth potency than of a third when he has decided
upon the similar remedy; for be may be sure of this – neither will
cure if not indicated. No one can make up his
shortcomings as an accurate prescriber by increasing the size or frequency of his doses.The idea of potentiation, or dynamization,
as it is sometimes called, did not, like Minerva, spring “full armed and grown from her
father’s brain;” nor was the idea, like Minerva, “immediately admitted to the
assembly of the gods.” It was a gradual growth, a development. In some other respects,
however, the idea was like Minerva. “The power of Minerva,” we are told, “was
great in heaven; she could hurl the thunders of Jupiter, prolong
the life of men, bestow the gift of prophecy and was the only one of all the divinities
whose authority and consequence were equal to those of Jupiter.”The greatest and keenest minds
in homœopathy, the minds which have possessed insight in the highest degree, have always
recognized the vital, importance and fundamental relation of the doctrine of potentiation to
homœopathy It is at the same time the most vital and
most vulnerable part, the very heart of homœopathyTo quote only one of many authors, Prof.
Samuel A. Jones of Ann Arbor: As long ago as 1872, when editor of the American Homœopathic
Observer, he wrote these prophetic words, which have since been literally fulfilled.
“Let us guard our homœopathic heritage most jealously. The provings on the healthy,
the simillimum as the remedy, the single remedy, the reduced dose,
may be and will be filled from us one by one and christened with new names to bide the
theft. What will become of homœopathy? It will live, despite them, in Hahnemann’s posology. The very infinitesimals which many are so
ready to throw away are all that will save us.”This is only the recognition that in its
highest aspects, the doctrine and the fact of
potentiation is one of those “mysteries of the faith” which have ever been the
strength and at the same time the weakness, of every great church or school of thought; the
strength because in their highest and broadest reaches they exercise the highest powers of
the human mind; the weakest because they are the most liable to misunderstanding and
perversion.We may always rely upon our enemies to
discover and attack the most vital and weakest part of our defenses, The proof of this
statement lies in the fact that the doctrine of potentiation and the infinitesimal dose has
always been the central point of attack -upon homœopathy by its enemies.Homœopathy was not created by the
discovery of the law of similars. Many before Hahnemann, from Hippocrates down, had glimpses
of the law, and some had tried to make use of it therapeutically; but all had failed because
of their inability to properly graduate and adapt the dose. The principle of similia was of
no practical use until the related principle of potentiation and the minimum dose was
discovered; and that was not until Hahnemann, anticipating by a hundred years the modern
conceptions of matter and force, hit upon the mathematico-mechanical expedient of preparing
the drug by dilution according to scale in a definite proportion of drug to inert vehicle. Homœopathy became
practicable at the moment that discovery was made and not before. But for that Hahnemann
would have progressed no further than Hippocrates.The tremendous scope and importance of his
invention did not dawn upon Hahnemann at once. For a number of years in his original medical
practice be had used drugs in the usual form and in ordinary doses. But as soon as he began
applying medicine in such doses under the newly developed homœopathic principle, he found
that aggravation and injury followed their use. Naturally this led him to reduce the size of
the doses.“Naturally,” we say, although no
one up to that time had ever thought of so simple and apparently obvious an expedient to
overcome the obstacles to successful homœopathic practice. Finding that he obtained better
results he continued to reduce the dose.Hahnemann’s idea at first was simply to
reduce the “strength” or material mass of his drug, but his passion for accuracy
led him to adopt a scale, that he might always be sure of the degree of reduction and
establish a standard of comparison. Under certain conditions he found, perhaps to his
surprise, that instead of weakening the drug he was actually increasing its curative power.
In reducing the density of the mass he perceived that he was setting free powers previously
latent, and that these powers were the greatest and most efficient for their therapeutic
purposes, when the remedy so prepared was applied under the
principle of symptom similarity.Struck by the idea of the
development of latent powers through what he had at first considered merely as dilution, he
ceased calling the process “dilution,” and named it “potentization” or
“potentiation,” which it truly is – a process of rendering potent, or powerful,
that which was previously impotent.Familiar to all is the trend of modern
scientific thought away from the crudely materialistic notions of the early physical
scientists, toward a higher conception of the constitution of matter.Describing his conception of the nature and
constitution of matter, Sir Isaac Newton quaintly said: “It seems probable to me that
God in the beginning formed matter in solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, movable particles, of such sizes and
figures, and with such other properties and in such proportion to space as most to conduce
to the end for which he formed them; even so very hard as never to
wear or break in pieces; no ordinary power being able to divide what God Himself
made one in the first creation.”To Newton, light consisted of a perfect
hail of these minute material atoms thrown off from the light producing body. In the
exercise of his scientific imagination he saw these little particles of matter flying off in
every direction at incredible speed.Later came the conception of the
luminiferous ether. Physicists think now of a ray of light as the pulsation or vibration of
an intangible substance which acts like a solid, but
which let’s ordinary matter pass through it without interference.The marvels of electricity as developed in
such inventions as the dynamo, the electric motor, the electric light, the telegraph and
telephone, and later the X-Ray and the wireless telegraph and radio, have done much to
incline men toward the acceptance of a more spiritual interpretation of the universe. He who
accepts without question the operations of this invisible, intangible force, the real nature
of which no man knows, to say nothing of the phenomena of radio-activity, gravitation and
chemical affinity, should not stumble over the homœopathic high potencies which he may make
and demonstrate for himself any day.Carl Snyder, in “New Conceptions in
Science,” points out how many advances in science and the arts have been made possible
by the discovery of a new mechanical appliance. That homœopathy
was thus made possible has not heretofore been recognized.Snyder says:-“The phrase, ‘mechanical
appliance’ is used broadly, as including all that may contribute to exact measurement and to
the extension of our primitive, senses in any direction. In this sense the calculus, or the
reactions of the chemists test-tube must be reckoned as mechanical no less than the
thermometer, the microscope or the balance, It also includes such aids to calculation as the
use of the zero (or more, strictly speaking, a decimal system of counting); algebra, the,
inventions of fluxions, logarithms and the slide rule.”“We have all heard the story of how
Archimedes detected the alloy in King Hiero’s crown; how a certain weight of gold had been
given by the King to an artificer to make over into a crown; how the King, suspecting a
cheat, asked his friend Archimedes if he could tell whether base metal had been out in with
the gold; how Archimedes, sorely puzzled, stepped one day into his bath, observed how the
water ran over, forgot everything and ran home naked through the streets of Syracuse
shouting, Eureka!“Archimedes’ discovery was simply
this; that a body in water displaces a quantity of water
of equal weight, and not according to its bulk, as one
might believe at first thought. With it he established the idea of specific gravity.By this he not only exposed the tricky
goldsmith, but was led to all sorts of investigations, and finally to the discovery of the
Lever.”In a similar way Hahnemann, groping
about in his study of the action of homœopathic drugs on the healthy human organism,
perplexed by the aggravations resulting from ordinary doses, seeking to find a dose so small
that it would not endanger life and desiring to accurately measure his degree of dilution so
that he might repeat or retrace his steps, invented or adopted the
centesimaI scale of mensuration. Immediately he found ready to his hand the means
of solving the problem in which so many others before him had failed.He had devised a process, simple in the
extreme, by which, with nothing but a mortar and pestle, a series of small glass vials and a
small quantity of sugar of milk, or of pure water or alcohol, he could not only modify toxic
substances so that they were rendered harmless without destroying their curative powers, but
develop and measure the inherent, latent medicinal energy of inert substances to any extent
desired.Substances which were entirely inert
(physiologically or pathogenetically) in their natural state, such as the minerals, charcoal
and lycopodium were by the newly invented process of trituration, solution and subsequent
liquid potentiation, developed into medicines of remarkable power.Homœopathy, as a practical art, thus
became possible and Hahnemann passed on, leaving Hippocrates, Galen and all the other
competitors in the race far behind.And this was all brought about by the
invention of a simple mathematical scale of measurements. It is so simple that only very
few, even yet, begin to grasp its tremendous significance. ‘One of the greatest physicists
who ever lived, after reflection upon it, said that the Hahnemann theory of potentiation
would ultimately lead to an entirely new conception of the constitution of matter. And so it
has. Newton’s “hard, massy, material atom” and even the atom of later physicists,
is no more as an ultimate conception. It has given place to the immaterial electrical
corpuscle, or electron, infinitely smaller and more active than the atom.Historically, homœopathic potentiation is
a development of very old and very common pharmaceutical processes. The mortar and pestle
are as old as medicine. Minerals and inorganic substance are commonly prepared for
therapeutic use by methods not only closely analogous, in its first stage, to the
homœopathic method, but having their origin in the same fundamental necessity; namely, the
necessity for rendering such substances soluble, capable of being taken up by the absorbents
and appropriated by the sentient nerves of the living organism. Metals like mercury, lead
and iron are entirely inert medicinally until they have been submitted to some process,
physical or chemical, by which their mass is broken up and rendered soluble, and their
latent medicinal energy thereby set free. It matters not by what name we call such a
process, it is essentially a potentiation; and homœopathic potentiation is nothing more or
less than a physical process by which the dynamic energy, latent in
crude substances, is liberated, developed and modified for use as medicines.Hahnemann, recognizing that the
therapeutic action of a drug is the direct opposite of its physiological or toxic action,
saw the possibility and necessity of extending this process, by perfectly simple, reliable
and accurate means, so that it shall not only release the latent energy, but render it
available for the higher purposes of healing by depriving it of its destructive or toxic
action, while at the same time developing its purely therapeutic qualities and broadening
its field of action.It is perhaps not quite fair to, imply that
the dominant school has not recognized such a possibility. That it has done so is evidenced
by its, attempts to prepare certain morbid products, mostly of animal origin, for use as
therapeutic agents by submitting them to a biological process which may be regarded as
somewhat analogous to homœopathic potentiation. I refer to the processes by which the
various serums and vaccines are prepared. The old time vaccination in which the patient was
inoculated directly with the so-called “humanized” vaccine virus, represents its
first attempt in this direction. So many evils arose from the practice that it was soon
discontinued, and the more modern method devised. By this method an animal, usually a calf,
was inoculated with pus from a fully developed human smallpox pustule. After the ensuing
disease thus set up in the animal had developed, serum or pus from one of the resulting
pustules was again inoculated into another healthy animal to undergo the same or similar
organic modifications. This process having been repeated a varying number of times, through
a series of animals, the final product was used to inoculate human beings. With many
technical modifications and extensions this is essentially the process used to-day in the
preparation of the sera and vaccines.The basic idea is to so modify a primarily
virulent animal virus, toxin, or other pathological product, that it may be used safely for
therapeutic or prophylactic purposes. In that respect it may be regarded as a crude analogue
or imitation of homœopathic mechanical potentiation.Considered as a technical process such a
method is highly objectionable because it involves so many uncertainties. The living
organism is an infinitely complex thing, when we consider the almost innumerable mechanical,
chemical and vital processes going On within its constantly changing fluids and solids. Many
of these processes are very imperfectly understood. There are no means of accurately
registering and measuring all these activities; no means of determining exactly what these
changes am; nor how My are modified by the introduction of the foreign morbid substance
used.In comparing this method with the Hahnemann
process it is only necessary to point out:1. The Hahnemannian process is purely physical, objective and
mechanical.2. It does not involve any uncertain, unseen, unreliable nor
unmeasurable factor. Its elements are simply the substance or drug to be potentiated, a
vehicle consisting of sugar of milk, alcohol, or water, in certain quantities and
definite proportions; manipulation under conditions which are entirely under control and
so Ample that a child could comply with them.3. The resulting product is stable, or may easily be made so; in fact
it is almost indestructible; and the experience of a century, in its we under homœopathic
methods and principles has proved it to be efficient and reliable in the treatment of
all forms of disease amenable to medication.4. The process is practically illimitable. Potentiation of medicine
by this method may be carried to any extent desired or required.To argue about a question which can
be settled promptly by the actual test of experience is a waste of time and energy, for
nothing is gained by it and we must come to the test of experience in the end. To rehearse
the theories, speculations, mathematical computations, illustrations from analogy and
comparisons with similar processes used in the allied arts and sciences, put forth by
authors and disputants in discussing the pros and cons of the potentiation theory since it
was first propounded by Hahnemann, might be interesting to some, but probably no one who has
allowed himself to become prejudiced against homœopathic high potencies would be convinced
by all the arguments thus stated.But when a sincere investigator sees an
expert examine and prescribe for a case under the methods and principles taught in the
Organon and witnesses the therapeutic effects of the various potencies, he has seen a
demonstration which he can repeat for himself until he is convinced that Hahnemann was right
when he said; (par. 279) “Experience proves that the dose of a homœopathically
selected remedy cannot be reduced so far as to be inferior is strength to the natural
disease and to lose its power of extinguishing and curing at least a portion of the same, provided that the dose, immediately after having been taken, is capable of
causing a slight intensification of symptoms
of the similar natural disease.”The results of the use of
potentiated medicines have led careful students of the principles and conscientious
practitioners of the methods of homœopathy, to gradually rise in the scale of potencies
until many have come to use most frequently the higher potencies. This is because they are
found to act more gently, more deeply, more rapidly and more thoroughly than the crude drug
or the low dilutions, in the great majority of cases; and because it is impossible to cure
certain forms of disease without them.We have already seen how the idea of
potentiation was made practical by the invention of what was essentially a new mechanical
appliance, the centesimal scale of mensuration, just as the mechanical performance of the
mathematical processes of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division was made
possible by the invention of the slide rule.Unfortunately, when this discovery was
first announced, attention was immediately focused upon the subject of quantity, rather than upon quality,
proportionality and the laws of relation, under
which homœopathic medicines act. Objectors at once began to make arithmetical calculations
of the quantity of the original drug to be found in the
various potencies and to be staggered by the size of the denominators of the vulgar
fractions which were, supposed to express that quantity. To arithmetically express the
fraction of the original drop of the “mother tincture” contained in one drop of
the thirtieth centesimal potency requires a numerator of one, over a denominator of one,
with sixty ciphers added!That such an infinitesimal quantity of
medicine could have any effect was for some, unthinkable. Thus, merely because of a seeming
improbability, based upon a priori reasoning, without experiment, Opposition to the new
doctrine arose.It never occurs to such minds to study the laws of relation, nor to
ascertain experimentally whether such a potency really does act when brought into proper
relations with the living organism. They refuse to submit it to the actual test of
experience. To a scientific mind such an objection is not worthy of consideration. The
objection of “improbability” in matters of fact is always childish. On such
grounds every notable invention of the last century would be rejected. What more improbable
than the assertion that a man, sitting in his office, could audibly converse with his friend
three thousand miles away across the continent? But there stands the telephone on his desk
ready for the demonstration.The efficiency of homœopathic potencies is
not to be determined by calculation, but by actual trial upon the living organism. If one
desires to be convinced that there is power in the thirtieth potency of Arsenic, let him put
ten drops of it in a half pint of water and begin taking tablespoonful doses of it every
three hours. Convincing proof of its power will be experienced inside of three days.To the mind of the mathematician, the
astronomer, or the modern physicist, accustomed to think in the terms of the infinitesimal,
such quantities present no difficulties, but to the unscientific mind, with its crude
conception of the constitution of matter, they are unthinkable and incredible. It did not
occur to the objectors to view the subject from the standpoint of the
laws of relation under which such powers and quantities act, nor would their
prejudices permit them to submit the matter to the simple test of practical experiment by
which it could have been settled at once. Homœopathy, therefore, almost from the beginning,
found its progress opposed by a prejudice based merely upon a seeming improbability.The discovery of spectrum analysis, which
revealed the presence of the drug as far as the twelfth centesimal potency, lent to the
infinitely small quantities a significance not yet fully recognized in its bearing upon homœopathy;
but even this, while it confirmed the fact of the
presence of the drug, could not explain the relation of
imponderable substances to the living organism.The fact, as pointed out by Ozanam, is that
Hahnemann, by his discovery of potentiation, raised homœopathy; to a level with, other
natural sciences, since he created for it a method which is analogous to the infinitesimal
calculus of mathematics, upon which is based the atomic theory of chemistry. It illustrates
and harmonizes with the “theory of the interatomic ether of space;” the
“theory of the radiant state of matter,” the theory of the electric potential of
present day physics, and with the chemico-cellular theory of physiology and pathological
anatomy. It agrees with modern bacteriology in its explanation of the action of pathogenic
micro-organisms as being due to the infinitesimal quantities of their secreted poisons. It
is, in harmony with the latest conclusions of modern psychology.Von Grauvogl has shown that “the
absorption of inorganic substances by the living organism regulates itself chiefly according to the organic need, hence such substances are taken
into the organism only in very small quantities and is soluble form. Iron offers a good
illustration. The physiological school found by experience that the natural Chalybeate
springs were most efficacious in chlorotic-anæmic conditions, and yet the very strongest of
these contains less than a grain of iron in sixteen ounces of water.” In these later
days, dependence is largely placed in so-called “organic iron” preparations
derived from certain plants which contain very much less iron, and that existent in a highly
vitalized or colloidal state.A blood cell among its other necessary
constituents, contains a part or proportion of chloride of calcium which requires for its
arithmetical expression a decimal of twenty-two places, corresponding to the eleventh
centesimal potency. We are reminded by this of the remark of the celebrated physiologist,
Valentin, who. said; “The extreme minuteness and the immense quantity of the ultimate
elements, everywhere engage our attention. The smallest image observable by the eye
originates in millions of atmospheric vibrations. A grain of salt hardly large enough to
taste, contains billions of groups of atoms, which no mortal eye can ever grasp. Nature works everywhere with an infinite multitude of infinitely small
magnitudes, which become appreciable to on comparatively
dull senses in their ultimate masses only.”Baron Liebig, the celebrated
chemist, denied and attempted to controvert homœopathic principles, especially the doctrine
of potentiation, saying that it was absurd to suppose that decreasing quantity would
increase efficiency. But when he found that common salt does not become suitable as a
function remedy until attenuated in fifty times its own weight of water, he in fact
potentiated it as Hahnemann did. Liebig contradicted himself many times on this subject in
his writings. In his Chemical Letters, be says: “the heaviest manuring with the earthy
phosphates and coarse powder can hardly be compared, in
its effect, with a far smaller quantity on a minutely divided
state, for, from this latter, we have the effect that a particle of manure is to
be found in all parts of each small bit of soil. A single root-fibre requires infinitely little from the ground which it touches, but it is
necessary, for its function and its existence, that this minimum should
he present at the very spot.”Even the soil itself can only
receive and yield its chemical constituents in the form of a solution. As Liebig says,
“If rain water, which contains ammonia, potash, phosphoric acid, silicic acid, in a
state of solution, is brought into contact with the soil, then these substances leave the
solution almost at once; the soil appropriates them from the water. If the soil did not
possess this property, then these three chief nutritive substances could
not be kept in the earth.”Thus, Liebig, the great opponent
of homœopathy, gives involuntary testimony to the truth of the doctrine which specially
excited his ire. Similar testimony abounds in all departments of :science down to the
present day.The Relation of
Inorganic Substances to the Living Organism. – Chemistry and physiology teach
that many inorganic :substances enter into the composition and structure of the living
organism, and that the ordinary and normal source of these substances, as proximate
principles, is the food and drink, and the air and light which we take to supply the
processes of growth, nutrition and repair. These processes depend upon the vital functions
of respiration, absorption, circulation, digestion, assimilation, secretion and excretion.The inorganic elements or substances, with
the exception of air, water and light, are not appropriated directly from the inorganic
realm, but indirectly or immediately through the vegetable kingdom; or, once further
removed, through the animal kingdom. The animal organism cannot assimilate inorganic
substances in their natural state. They must first be modified; raised to a higher plane of
existence, as it were; rendered more similar or assimilable to the substance of the animal
organism, before they can be appropriated. In other words they must be potentiated, dynamized or vitalized-that
is, raised to the plane of life by passing through the
intermediate vegetable kingdom. Homœopathic potentiation is an artificial method of
accomplishing this and for therapeutic purposes.The living organism, vegetable or animal,
can only assimilate that which is similar to itself, that is, similar to the elements of its
own structure. The entire process of growth and assimilation, as it progresses from lower to
higher forms, is simply like appropriating like; whether
it be the blade of grass appropriating the molecule of silica, the ox appropriating the
blade of grass, or man appropriating the flesh of ox in the form of juicy beefsteak. Even
the blade of grass can only assimilate the silica in the form of silicic acid, which is
practically silica dissolved in rain water! These processes represent natural physiological
or organic potentiation. Air and light being imponderable, and water being fluid, or
semiponderable, represent an intermediate scale of natural potencies. We can hardly call
them high potencies, because there are so many other potencies in nature’s realm of finer
forces that are so much higher. They are high enough, or far enough removed from the grosser
forms of inorganic substances, however, to be assimilable by the living organism and are
rendered so by a sort of natural potentiation. We may get some idea of the relative
importance of these degrees of potentiation to the living organism by recalling that a man
may live forty days without food; he may live five to ten days without water, but he cannot
live ten minutes without air.Between each of the four realms of nature,
mineral, vegetable, animal and spiritual, there is a chasm to be bridged; so that the
representative organism of each realm consists of what might be called the machinery
necessary for transforming the material of the next lower realm into the likeness of its own
substance.In all these transmissions, transformations
and progressions the operation of the principle of similia
is discernible. We also see the operation of the law of potentiation, for each step or
degree of advance from a lower to a higher form or state of existence is, in reality, a
potentiation-a development of the inherent powers and qualities of the elements. Under the
transforming power of life in the blade of grass the inert molecule of silica is raised from
the inorganic to the organic realm and itself becomes living
matter. The forces which were latent in the inorganic become active and radiant
in the organic. Gravitation, cohesion and chemical affinity, which held the silica in their
grasp, yield to the chemistry of life. And so, when the succulent blade of grass is eaten,
digested and assimilated by the sheep or the ox, or when the nourishing grain, or vegetable
or fruit is assimilated by man; the process of transformation from the lower to the higher
is always essentially a potentiation, ruled by similar and mediated by the infinitesimal.
Thus, what we call “dead” or inanimate matter, by potentiation becomes living
matter; for every particle of inorganic substance assimilated by the living organism is no
longer dead but alive, and subject to the laws of life.In a similar way, substances which in their
natural state are unassimilable by the living organism, Eke the minerals, or substances
which are toxic or destructive, are by homœopathic mechanical potentiation, rendered in the
one case soluble, homogeneous and assimilable, and in the other case, not only harmless, but
actually beneficent for the purpose of healing, when prescribed homœopathically. They
become to the diseased organism, what food is to the healthy organism; that is,
reconstructive, in that they supply an organic need, restore order and harmony to disordered
functions and permit a resumption of normal functioning.The
Scientific Foundation of Potentiation. – The researches of modern physical
science have confirmed in a remarkable manner the century old teaching of Hahnemann in
regard to, the divisibility of matter and the power of the infinitesimal in medicine.When Hahnemann first announced cures of
disease by extremely small doses of medicine, his statements were received with incredulity
and ridicule. Such a course of procedure was contrary to prevailing custom and belief. It
did not avail to point out that the cures so effected were made by single remedies, instead
of mixtures in common use; that the remedy for each case was selected under the guidance of
a new principle in medicine; and that the remedies were prepared by a new process, by which
their curative powers were conditionally greatly increased. Hahnemann’s appeal to the
medical profession to test the new method and publish results to the world was met by active
opposition. He was forbidden to practice and was driven from his home by relentless
persecution. The opposition begun at that time has never ceased, and the doctrine and
practice have bad to make their way against obstacles that would have been insurmountable to
any but men who were firmly convinced that they were standing for a great and precious
truth.The use of the infinitesimal dose in homœopathy
was the outcome of experience, but as a doctrine, it has its foundation in the truth
embodied in the modern scientific theories of the conservation and energy and the
indestructibility of matter.In the doctrine of the conservation of energy physical science teaches that the sum
total of the energy of the universe neither diminishes nor increases, though it may assume
different forms successively. Physics, in the law of the conservation
of matter, teaches that matter, as such, is indestructible and that the total
quantity of it in the universe remains the same, regardless of the innumerable
transformations and permutations constantly taking place in its component elements.Mathematically, no limits can be assigned
to the divisibility of matter. It is impossible to reach a division so fine as to be
incapable of further sub-division. The smallest conceivable part will always contain some of the original substance and consequently some of its
powers and qualities. It cannot possibly become nothing.Practical experience with homœopathic
high potencies in the treatment of the sick confirms these fundamental postulates of
science. The highest potencies ever made by the Hahnemannian process of dilution, or by any
modification of that process, have ‘been shown to be capable of bringing about a curative
reaction in the sick, when the remedy was homœopathic to the case.Hahnemann taught, over a century ago, that “the effect of a homœopathic dose is augmented by increasing the
quantity of liquid in which the medicine is dissolved preparatory to, its
administration.” Recent scientific study of solutions, in working out in the
laboratory the theory of dissociation of molecules, has
verified the observation, and confirmed and amplified the theory of Hahnemann.According to the later theory of the
dissociation of molecules a chemical when dissolved is dissociated into parts smaller than
the atoms of which it was composed. These particles are called ions. It has been proved that
the more dilute the solution, the greater the number of ions and
the fewer the atoms. Complete ionization and absolute dissociation are possible only in
infinite dilution.The following statement was made
for the author by Mr. J. D. Burby, Chemist of the Electrical Testing Laboratories of New
York.“The theory of electrolytic
dissociation or, simply, the ionization theory, was proposed in its completed form by
Arrhenius to explain irregularities in the osmotic behavior of certain substances, notably
inorganic acids, bases and salts. The theory is briefly that:“All substances belonging to the class which in water solution
conduct electricity are, upon being dissolved in a dissociating solvent, dissociated
into ions.” Such substances are called electrolytes. It is to be particularly noted
that the passage of an electric current through such a solution is not the cause of the
dissociation, but rather, that dissociation takes place when the substance goes into
solution, and it is because the solution contains the ions that it will conduct
electricity.Regarding the quantitative side of
the theory, it need only be said that the degree of dissociation or ionization is a function
of the dilution. The greater the dilution is the greater the degree, of ionization, until at
infinite dilution ionization is complete.Further, the reactivity of electrolytes in
dilute solution is measured by the degree to which they are ionized. Each substance has the
property of dissociating to a definite extent when, the solution has a certain
concentration. Thus if equi-molecular solutions of hydrochloric, nitric, sulphuric and
hydrofluoric acids are compared as regards the speed of reaction with a second substance, it
will be found that the order in which they stand in this respect will be a measure of the
degree to which they are ionized.It would seem from this that the velocity
of all reactions, between electrolytes is greater, the greater the dilution and this is so
with certain restrictions. Theoretically, the relative reactivity is greatest at infinite
dilution because then the degree of ionization is greatest. Practically, however, there is a
limit to this, because, after a certain degree of dilution has been reached, the actual
reactivity becomes too small to be of moment.It should be further noted that
the ionization theory applies’ particularly to inorganic acids, bases and Salts, and that
most organic compounds are very little dissociated, as we understand dissociation. Also,
other solvents than water act as dissociating solvents, and among others may be mentioned
liquid ammonia, liquid sulphur dioxide, and certain organic solvents.”In chemistry a molecule
is defined as the smallest part of a. compound substance that can exist separately and SEA
retain its composition and properties; the smallest combination of atoms that will form a
chemical compound.In physics, the
structural unity (molecule) is distinguished from the atom, and applied to particles of
gases in the kinetic theory, independently of their relation to the chemical molecules.Lord Kelvin illustrates the size of a
molecule as follows:“Imagine a rain drop or a globe of glass as large as a pea, to
be magnified up to the size of the earth, each constituent molecule being magnified in
the same proportion. The magnified structure would be coarser grained than a heap of
small shot, but probably ‘less coarse grained than a heap of cricket balls.”The smallest material thing in the
world, the last in the series of little things known to modern science, is the electron, or electric corpuscle. It is supposed that the
chemical atoms are composed of a collection of electrons having orbital motions in a sphere
of positive electrification. The electron is conceived to be billions of times smaller than
the atom. A French scientist compares the electrons in the atom to gnats in the dome of a
cathedral.It was formerly supposed that the atom was
the smallest component part of matter. For a long time the atom had only a theoretical
existence, its existence being assumed in order to account for the chemical combinations
which take place between different elements in certain proportions. Even the
ultra-microscope, which enables us to see and count particles of gold in ruby glass
averaging six millionths of a millimeter in diameter, failed to reveal the atom. It remained
for Rutherford, studying radium with his electroscope to identify and count individual
atoms. Zeeman of Amsterdam, studying light through the spectroscope, split the spectral line
of a flame, by holding the flame between the poles of a powerful electro-magnet, proving
that light is an electric phenomenon, and showing a close relation between the activities of
atoms and the origin of light itself.Langley of the Smithsonian Institution
invented the bolometer, which measures variations of
temperature of one hundred millionth of a degree. This represents a change of temperature
about equal to that produced by a candle five miles distant.Light, traveling
through space at the rate of 186,000 miles per second, has been found to exert a distinct push or pressure. Hence, radiation, the force
opposed to gravitation, must be considered in studying the movements of matter in a state of
infinitesimal subdivision. This pressure force is measured by the radiometer, invented by
two American physicists, Professors Nichols and Hull. It is used in connection with the
bolometer, in measuring the rays from radioactive substances.Pfund, of Johns Hopkins University, in 1913
perfected a still more sensitive instrument said to be capable of measuring a degree of heat
equivalent to that given off by a candle sixty miles away.Finally, ether, the all
pervading, space filling entity, is regarded as something which is neither matter nor
energy, but which serves as the medium through which both matter and energy are transmitted.
Science regards the ether as an intangible or immaterial substance, which acts like a solid,
but which allows ordinary matter to pass through it without resistance or disturbance. When
it is caused to vibrate at a certain speed or rate it becomes visible as light. Light is
defined as “an electro-magnetic disturbance of the ether.” Ordinary light is
defined as “the result of electric oscillation (or vibration) in the molecules or atoms
of hot bodies, or sometimes of bodies not hot-as in the phenomena of phosphorescence:’Sir Oliver Lodge says, “the waves of
light are not anything mechanical or material, but are something electrical and magnetic
they are, in fact, electrical disturbances periodic in space and time, and traveling with a
known and tremendous speed through the ether of space. Their very existence depends upon the
ether, their speed of propagation is its best known quantitative property.”Speaking of the ether, Lodge
says:-“the ether has not yet been brought under the domain of simple mechanics-it has
not yet been reduced to motion and force, and that probably because the force aspect of it has been so singularly elusive that it is a
question whether we ought to think of it as material at all.” * * * “Undoubtedly,
the ether belongs to the material or physical universe, but it is not ordinary matter. I
should prefer to say it is not ‘matter’ at all. It may be the substance
or substratum, or material of which matter is composed but
it would be confusing and inconvenient not to be able to discriminate between matter on the
one hand and ether ort the other.” He further says,-“we do not yet know what
electricity is, or what the ether is. We have as yet no dynamical explanation of either of
them; but the past century has taught us what seems to their student in overwhelming
quantity of facts about them, And when the present century, or the century after, lets us
deeper into their secrets, and into the secrets of some other phenomena now in course of
being rationally investigated I feel as if it would be no merely material prospect that will
be opening on our view, but some glimpse into a region of the universe which science has
never entered yet, but which has been sought from far, and perhaps blindly apprehended, by
painter and poet, by philosopher and saint.” (Lodge-The Ether or Space.)As a summary of present knowledge, Sir
Oliver defines the ether of space as “a continuous, incompressible, stationary, fundamental substance or perfect fluid with what is equivalent to
an inertia-coefficient of 1012 grammes per c.c.; that matter
is composed of modified and electrified specks, or
minute structures of ether, which are amenable to mechanical as well as to, electrical force and
add to the optical or electric density of the medium; and that elastic-rigidity and all potential energy are due to excessively fine grained ethereal circulation, with
an intrinsic kinetic energy of the order 1033 ergs per cubic centimeter.”A. Wilford Hall, Ph.D., LL.D., Founder of
the Substantial Philosophy, in The Problem of Human Life, had proved logically as early as
1875, that all the fundamental forces of the universe, including life, electricity and the
ether of space are substantial entities, incorporeal,
intangible and invisible, but capable of being perceived, measured and weighed.Modern science has practically accepted
this conclusion, for today we have Sir Oliver Lodge, the greatest living correlator and
interpreter of the facts of science, defining the ether of space, as the most tenuous and
refined substance known to science, and submitting
mathematical computations of its physical properties.Having anticipated the theory and
conclusions of the chemist and physicist by clinical experience with high potencies in the
treatment of the sick, the followers of Hahnemann are in a position to maintain, with
authority, that the curative power of a drug is not lost when it is diluted to such a degree
that a dose represents an amount of actual drug substance so small as to be practically an
unassignable quantity – in other words, an infinitesimal quantity.But the doctrine of Potentiation and the
Infinitesimal Dose has another important application in medicine.Fincke (On High Potencies) says:
“Disease originates in the specific action of noxious matter which is either produced
within the organism, or brought in from without, and it is always carried on by a process of
assimilation.”“Assimilation, everywhere, is
accompanied by potentiation; by rendering the
infinitesimal particles of matter susceptible and active, according to their inherent
affinities.”“As homœopathic remedies are obtained
by potentiation, that is by comminuting and refining drug matter, by means of a vehicle
easily assimilable; so nutritious matter appears to stand (act) as the vehicle in the natural potentiation of those noxious materials which the
organism itself prepares as remedies for its own self preservation” (antitoxins,
antibodies, etc.)“As the whole organism draws upon
digestion, as the source of its nutrition, so every part and particle of the organism draws
upon the various materials successively worked out by the different processes of animal
chemistry for its own proper nutriment, and assimilates them for its own particular use and
subsistence. Thus, the lacteals draw upon the chyle prepared by digestion; the lymphatics
upon the transudation of the capillaries, the blood upon the fluids of either of these; and
the nerves upon the blood.”“Those parts of the organism which do
not satisfy their wants are requirements by this intra-organic nutrition alone, assimilate
from the outer world whatever is necessary, not only for their own existence, but also for
their co-operation with others and for the self-preservation of the organism. Thus the blood
assimilates oxygen from the air; the eye, light; the ear, sound; the nose, olfactory matter;
the tongue, gustatory matter; the brain and nerves, phosphorus, etc.; the mind (thought or)
the operations of other minds by means of the senses, and so on; the organism continually
assimilating from the Planet and the Universe as long as it lasts. Consequently the whole
organism is the product of assimilation of matter, and its action
is the result of potentiation of matter. And so is disease. And so is health. And
so is all life.”“The hypothetical ether is, possibly, infinitesimal comminuted matter, forming, as it were, the reservoir of the high potencies required for the Universal Assimilation
or Homœosis, which is continually going on and mediating all life in the
world.”
Dr Bernhardt FinckeThese words were written prior to 1865-more
than fifty years ago. Does it not increase our respect and reverence for our Dr. Fincke as a
philosopher to find Sir Oliver Lodge, the foremost philosopher and scientist of Great
Britain, substantially endorsing his views in his work, “The Ether of Space,”
published in 1909?Lodge says:-“The question is often
asked, is ether material? This is largely a question of words and convenience. Undoubtedly,
the ether belongs to the material or physical universe, but it is not ordinary matter. I
should prefer to say it is not “matter” at all. It may be the substance or substratum of material of which matter is composed,
but it would be confusing and inconvenient not to be able to discriminate between matter on
the one hand and ether on the other. If you tie a knot on a bit of string, the knot is
composed of string, but the string is not composed of knots. If you have a smoke or vortex
ring in the air, the vortex ring is made of air, but the atmosphere is not a vortex ring.“The essential distinction between
matter and ether is that matter moves, in the sense that
it has the property of locomotion and can effect impact and bombardment; while ether is strained and has the property of exerting stress and recoil. All
potential energy exists in the other. It may vibrate and it may rotate, but as regards
locomotion it is stationary-the most stationary body we know; absolutely stationary, so to
speak; our standard of rest. All that we ourselves can effect, in the material universe, is
to alter the motion and configuration of masses of matter. * * *“But now comes the question. How is it
possible for matter to be composed of ether? How is it possible for a solid to be made out
of a fluid? A solid possesses the properties of rigidity, impenetrability, elasticity, and
such like; how can these be imitated by a perfect fluid such as the ether must be?”The answer is, They can be imitated by a fluid in motion; a statement which we make with confidence as
the result of a great part of Lord Kelvin’s work.“It may be illustrated by a few
experiments.”“A wheel of spokes, transparent or
permeable when stationary, becomes opaque when revolving, so that a bill thrown against it
does not go through but rebounds. The motion only affects permeability to matter;
transparency to light is unaffected.”“A flexible chain, set spinning, can
stand up on end while the motion continues.”“A jet of water at sufficient speed
can be struck with a hammer and resists being cut with a sword.” * * *“If ether can be set spinning,
therefore, we have some hope of making it imitate the properties of matter, or even of
constructing matter by its aid. But how are we to spin
the ether? Matter alone seems to have no grip on it.” * * *“But you can vibrate it electrically;
and every source of radiation does that. An electrical charge, in sufficiently rapid
vibration, is the only source of ether waves that we know; and if an electric charge is
suddenly stopped, it generates the pulses known as X-Rays, as the result of the collision.
Not speed, but sudden change of speed is the necessary condition for generating waves in the
ether by electricity.” * * *“The universe we are living in is an
extraordinary one, and our investigation of it has only begun. We know that matter has a
psychical significance, since it can constitute brain, which
links, together the physical and psychical worlds. If any one thinks that the ether, with
all its massiveness and energy, has probably no psychical significance, I find myself unable
to agree with him.”“The earliest conception of ether
regarded it as simply a medium for conveying radiation. Faraday’s experiments and
investigations led him to, believe that it had other perhaps more important uses and
properties. He conjectured that the same medium which is concerned in the propagation of
light might also be the agent in electromagnetic phenomena, and this conjecture was amply
strengthened by subsequent investigations.”Lodge now says: -“One more function is
now being discovered; the ether is being found to constitute
matter.”Prof. Sir J. J. Thomson
says:-“The whole mass of any body is just the mass
of ether surrounding the body which is carried along by the Faraday tubes associated with
the atoms of the body. In fact,
all mass is mass of the ether; all momentum, momentum of
the ether and all kinetic energy, kinetic energy of the ether. This view, it
should be said, requires the density of the ether to be immensely greater than that of any
known substance.”Thus we see that the difference between Dr.
Fincke’s conception of the constitution of the ether and that of Faraday and the later
scientists in mainly verbal. There is no appreciable difference between the ether as
“matter in a state of infinitesimal fineness of
division,” and the ether as the “substance of which matter is
composed.” Comprehension of either idea depends upon the ability to understand the
meaning of the word infinitesimal as used in the mathematical sense. “Infinitely
small,” denotes a quantity conceived as continually diminishing so. as to become less than any other quantity having an assigned value. There is
no limit assigned nor conceivable. It is finite thought carried to the utmost limit
“and then some.”The philosopher, the physicist and chemist,
each in his own way, analyzes, divides and subdivides matter until he can go no farther, and
then finds himself confronted by a mystery, incapable of solution by physical means. Shall
he stop there an hush the question that will arise in his mind when be has penetrated thus
far? Something within him rebels at the arbitrary limitation of thought. Aspiration,
intuition, reason, analogy, the logical faculty, all urge him forward. Up to this point his
investigation has revealed what can only be regarded logically as secondary causes. The
primary cause eludes him. The physician and pathologist also has his mystery. The microbe,
the bacillus, the bacterium, all forms of microorganisms and all other proximate causes of
disease carried back even to the formless bit of protoplasm or living matter, must
themselves be accounted for. That which lies beyond cannot be seen by the microscope. At
this point, it is necessary to substitute the telescope of intuitional reasoning for the
microscope of physical demonstration.
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