The power of
infinitesimals recognised by non-homeopathic authorities.
By John Henry Clarke, M. D.
Presented by Sylvain Cazalet
Dr John H. ClarkeHahnemann has been
desired for his assertion that metallic bodies like flint and copper
become, after being triturated to the fourth centesimal degree, so far
soluble as to yield up their dynamic powers to a watery solution, and
beyond that to solution in alcohol. That such is the fact, the efforts
of these solution on healthy and diseased human being, who have taken
them, abundantly prove; and now we have plenty of evidence from the
opposite camp to confirm Hahnemann’s observations. The late Professor
Stokvis, of Amsterdam, at the International Medical Congress, held at
Rome in April 1894, practically acknowledged the truth of it. Professor
Stokvis’s address appeared in an English translation in the Lancet of
April 26th of that year, and from this I willmake three quotations, the
italics being my own : –“How are we to
understand the fact that the ingestion of infinitesimal quantities of
certain substances which pass through the organism with out causing in
it the least change can provoke such disordered chemical actions as to
occasion death? How are we to understand the fact that different parts
of the organism seem to be able to distinguish these substances one from
the other? We must admit special elective functions proper to the life
of the cells.How are we to
understand the facts that nothing but a change in the quantity of their
dosage, the duration of their administration, and the method of their
application suffices to make of certain toxic substances stimulants or
paralysants? How are we to understand the fact that insoluble substances
like arsenic, copper, and lead can defy that well known axiom, Corpora
non agunt nisi soluta (substances do not act except in a state of
solution), and manifest therapeutic and toxic action? We must admit the
presence and agency of some unknown power within the living cell. How,
again are we to understand the therapeutic power exhibited by solutions
of iodine and bromine which have apparently been diluted to the
deprivation of all chemical action, unless we attribute to the living
cell the power of liberating the iodine and the bromine from such dilute
solutions? ““By warming pure
chlorate of pottasium we obtain pure oxygen, but the presence of the
smallest quantity of chloride of pottasium is sufficient to change part
of the oxygen into ozone. In giving rise to this development of ozone,
the choride of pottasium remains itself completely unaltered; but, what
is more remarkable yet, this chloride of pottasium itself has, like
peroxide of manganese -which acts in an identical manner- the property
of destroying ozone.”“As for the
manifestations of therpeutic and toxic action by bodies considered to be
insoluble, of which Nageli, in a posthumous work, has made so prefound a
study, they are also capable of the simplest interpretations. The
insolubility of these bodies is not absolute, but only relative. If we
throw, for example, metallic copper into water and wait for some days,
we shall find that a certain proportion of the copper has dissolved –
i.e., one part to seventy-seven million parts of water. “If Professor Stokvis
can account for the power of copper to produce symptoms in the human
body by its being soluble in 77,000,000 parts of water, where is he to
stop? The only answer to this is, that there is no stopping anywhere. If
“every atom extends throughout the whole solar system,” there
is no possibility of our finding the limits of its capacity for being
attenuated.But Professor Stokvis
was far within the mark in ascribing an active power to a solution of
the strength of one in seventy-seven millions. Dr. William
P.Wesselhoeft, in a paper published in the Journal of Homeopathics of
September 1898, tells how Nageli demonstrated the presence of an active
copper force, which he termed Oligodynamis, in solutions ranging from
one in 100,000,000 to one in 1,000,000,000. Nageli showed that when once
a glass vessel has been “infected” with “oligodynamic
water” it is almost impossible to get rid of the force by simply
diluting it. “He distilled one litre of water in glass retorts,
suspended four clean copper coins in this water during four days, and
found that this solution killed his Spirogyra plants in a very few
minutes. When this water was poured away, the glass rinsed and washed
carefully, and again refilled with neutral water, the Spirogyra also
died in a very short time. If, however, the glass was washed out with
diluted nitric acid, and refilled with fresh neutral water, the plants
flourished and remained healthy. This proved conclusively that a copper
force was imparted to water from the walls of the glass vessel. Rinsing,
washing, brushing and even boiling had little effect upon the glass; not
until a mineral acid had been used did the glass vessel lose its
oligodynamic properties. Again, he found that this oligodynamic water
poured into a new, clean glass vessel transferred its poisonous
properties to the walls of the glass, and this, in turn, was again able
to medicate neutral distilled water. He says: – ‘Glasses with
oligodynamic after-effects (nachwirkung), lose their power very slowly
after being repeatedly refilled with neutral water, which is allowed
into stand in them for a while, and somewhat more rapidly if they are
boiled in neutral water.’ ” This refers to the direct action of
the copper force on small vegetable organisms. But the human organism is
infinitely more sensitive; and experience has shown that when dilution
has been carried beyond the point of direct poisoning power, a
health-restoring dynamics remains in undiminished force, which the
homeopathic law enables us with certainly to direct.In this connection I
may refer to Drawin’s researches with the fly-catching plant, Drosera,
or Sun-dew. Darwin found that solutions of certain salts of ammonia
stimulated the glands of the tentacles and caused the latter to turn
inwards. He made this solution more and more dilute, but still the plant
was able to detect the presence of salt Darwin was almost frightened by
his results. Writing to Dodders he says: –“The 1/4,000,000th
of a grain absorbed by a gland clearly makes the tentacle which bears
the gland becomes inflected; and I am fully convinced that
1-20,000,000th of a grain of the crystallised salt(i.e., containing
about one-third of its weight of water of crystallisation) does the
same. Now I am quite unhappy at the thought of having to publish such a
statement.”Poor Darwin! Where
would homeopathy have been if Hahnemann had been so difficult about
publishing proved but unpalatable facts? And Darwin, it should be
remembered, was once under the care of a homeopath, the late Dr.Gully,
the father of the present Speaker of the House of Commons, and derived
much benefit from his treatment.The world is moving
rapidly, and since the above-named observations on the power of the
infinitesimal were made, they have been eclipsed and illuminated by the
astounding discoveries in relation to radio-activity. These were well
summed up by Dr. Burford in his address as President of the British
homeopathic congress of 1904. Dr. Burford’s authority is the well
known work on Radium by Professor Rutherford, who has shown that
“these radio-active bodies are continually forming in their own
interstices a product, which in the case of radium is many thousand
times more active than radium itself; which, moreover, induces the same
radio-activity in all bodies exposed for some time to it, and which, to
the extent of 1/20000th of its original potency, remains a new and
permanent property of the acquiring body. These processes are above and
beyond the cognisance and scope of the most refined chemical methods.
Here is a demonstration : A tube out of which a perfectly invisible
emanation from radium, and possessing absolutely no weight, has been
emptied, is next washed out with an acid ; this is evaporated, leaving a
radio-active residue more potent in some respects than radium itself,
requiring 200 years to decay half value. Moreover, in rooms where radium
has been exposed to the air, an invisible radio-activity, perfectly
indetectable by the balance or the spectroscope, is produced on the
walls of the apartment, persisting even though the radium has been
removed for some time.”“Now,” says
Dr. Burford, “facts parallel to these, but where the human body, in
certain defined states of diseases, acted with similar susceptibility to
the electroscope in the former instance,were observed Hahnemann a
century ago, and have been confirmed by innumerable observations since.
That matter too attenuated to be obvious to the test of the balance, or
analysis should yet be detected by a suitably sensitive instrument, that
of diseased proto-plasmic condition ; that initiation of new conditions
may be effeted in a responsive state by inconsiderable material
agencies, and bearing absolutely no relation in point of quantity to the
effects produced ; that transmission of specific qualities through a
series of indifferent media may be effected,leaving the ultimate product
still potent to act; that media thus used for transmission of specific
qualities through a series of indifferent media may be effected or
leaving the ultimate product still potent to act ; that media thus used
for transmission retain permanently their new character; and that a
specific and definite parallelism controls the interaction of remedy and
organism – these facts, I say, have been known to homeopaths since
Hahnemann, and may be verified by any competent observer who cares to
take the trouble.”Dr. Burford does well
to point out that the phenomena of radium illustrate how it is that
“indifferent media” like water, spirit, or sugar of milk, once
having been infected, as it were, with the power of a remedy can
transmit that drug-power to the patient who takes it. Radium can
transmit its own power to indifferent media that come in contact with
its emanation, can endow these with its own properties without itself
appreciably losing either power or substance.Thus have the
observations of physicists demonstrated the truth of Hahnemann’s
teaching from another side. Homeopathic attenuations have been described
as “bottle washings.” Well, Professor Rutherford practically
tells us that once a bottle has held radium or its intangible,
unweighable emanation, no amount of bottle-washing can get it out. The
bottle may be filled and emptied a million times and the power of radium
will be still present. Homeopathy who have seen the power of remedies,
which have been attenuated in the same way, manifested in their
patients, find nothing starting in this. But it is well that it should
be put clearly before the public. On the professional mind I do not
anticipate that it will have any effect at all. The ray has not yet been
invented which can pierce that.Hahnemann’s
conception of the “dynamic,” spirit-like, vital force
animating the material organism as being the primary seat of all
disorders which appear outwardly in the symptoms of disease, makes it
easy for his followers to apprehend the potency of medicines in the
“dynamised” form.
Dr Paul Francis
CurieBefore quitting this
part of my subject it may be interesting to point out that M.Pierre
Curie, the joint discoverer of radium comes of a good homeopathic stock.
His father, with whom he now lives, is a retired hameopathic
practitioner. His grandfather was the celebrated Paul Francis Curie,
who, apparently on Hahnemann’s nomination, was induced by Mr. William
Leaf to settle in England for the purpose of introducing homeopathy to
the British public and to British medical men. Dr.Curie administered the
first homeopathic dispensary in London under medical auspices; and,
later, when the Hahnemann Hospital was established, he was appointed one
of the physicians. There he delivered his well-known lectures. He died
in London, and was buried in Norwood Cemetery. A cousin of M.Pierre
Curie – Dr.Depoully – is a respected homeopathic practitioner of Paris
at the present time.Copyright © Sylvain
Cazalet 2001
