STATE SOCIETY PAPERS

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS OF THE COLORADO HOMŒO.

PATHIC MEDICAL SOCIETY.

ERPETUATION OF HOMOEOPATHY.

The laws

of our society specify that your president shall give an address at a definite time of each annual meeting. That time has now arrived, and if you will give me your attention I will direct you for a few moments to our needs. As our laws do not specify wha: shall be the nature of your president's address, it leaves a great leeway for topics.

As this is the annual meeting of a Homeopathic society it appears to me to be very appropriate to speak along the lines of perpetuation of homoeopthy. I will first ask my ques

tion and then try to answer it.

How many of us are parasites homoeopathically? By that I mean how many of us are calling ourselves homoeopaths and practicing homoeopathy, yet doing nothing to further the cause of homoeopathy; also when anything new is discovered which savors of homoeopathy, yet just because it varies a little from what Hahnemann taught us, do we discredit it?

Take, for example, in the electrical world, if everything was discovered when Benjamin Franklin made his first discovery, how poor indeed would we be today. But with our Edison and others new discoveries are being made which do not detract from, but rather add to, the honors of Franklin.

To my mind the same seems to be true in the realms of medicine. Hahnemann discovered a truth, but he did not discover all that pertained to that truth; the trouble lies with us not having sufficient knowledge ourselves nor being willing to accept any truths from other sources; also not trying to discover any new application of the truths that Hahnemann. gave us. Again I ask how many of us are parasites?

Are there any present who do not believe in the law of gravitation? Yet how many are there here who believe that the law of gravitation is the whole law of the universe, but without that law all would be chaos?

If you will carefully follow the different papers as read you may see new applications of the old law of similia; some of them may administer medicine in infintesimal quantities, others in larger amounts, and still others hypodermatically. If we knew all the efficacy of any drug in its different potencies you would not use one potency and I another in any given case. I wish it were in my power to bring the need of investigation so clearly before you today that each and every one of you would join hands and try to further the great truths that we possess. How many of us have had an opportunity and have availed ourselves of it of telling some member of a different school any of the good points in homoeopathy?

I have had a number of opportunities in the past year and have availed myself of them. That is one of the lesser ways. Another way is to investigate scientifically, and the best place to do that is in our own hospital. As there are now no facilities to make such careful and thorough investigation, the remedy is very apparent-when any improvement is made be very sure that such facilities of the most approved type are arranged for.

Still another way is to join the American Association of Medical Research, of which our own Dr. Krauss is the permanent secretary. If Hahnemann were alive today and had the instruments of precision to investigate with do you for a moment think he would sit idly by and say no more investigating for me, for I have discovered all there is to be known about medicine? Now, if we were to say any such thing, how long do you think he would hold his present high place as an investigator and scientist?

How many of us have done anything worthy of mention in the past year toward the advancement of Homoeopathy? I care not what line of investigation you choose to follow; all that I ask is for you and for me to be up and doing, or at the very least if we are not willing to do the work ourselves, let us certainly be wise enough and willing to recognize results from other sources and give the author due credit and praise.

Like the advancement in electricity, there has been nothing discovered which has detracted from Hahnemann's teachings, but all have added to his great truths. Have we as an organization, national or state, or as individuals, done anything worthy to merit the applause and extra confidences of the people; farther than that how many of us have decried

each new thought or discovery that has been made. I believe the people would be just as ready to give us our dues as they are to give any one else their dues.

Why can we not with our present organization, or if that is not thought feasible, with some other, either dependent or independent, take up some line of investigation and perfect it and give the results to the world? I believe that at no distant day Homoeopathy, as taught today, is going to be a thing of history if some decided steps to perpetuate it are not taken, and that very soon. I do not believe that similia will ever die, but will be known other than by the name of "Homoeopathy.'

All things in this universe do one of two things-progress or retrogress. Have we in the past year, or in the past fifty ears, done anything Homoeopathically to merit being called progressive? If no, then we surely have retrogressed. Hahnemann became recognized as progressive because of his investigations, and we, too, may become recognized the same by using the same means. To show you some of the lines of investigation I will give you a partial list of the contributions for the next meeting of the American Association of Medical Research. "On the Negri Bodies;" "On Cer ain Fluids for Tubercle Baccilli in the Urine;" "On Adjustment and Function;" " Pandemic of Malignant Encapsulated Throat Coccus;" "On the Single Remedy:" "On Diseased Conditions Expressive of Correct Diagnosis," and a great many others. Some of these topics most of us have never even heard of, much less know anything about. Why is it then that it often happens the case you think not so very sick dies, while the one you think beyond recovery gets well? If we had some means of measuring the power of the vital force of any given-patient, we could much better determine whether that particular case would or would not recover.

Some work has been done towards this end, that of making a leucocytic count; still that is far from final. One good thing for us to investigate.

Another way to perpetuate Homoeopathy is to remove the umbrage that has been cast over us by our not making much of diagnosis.

To me it seems that if there is any physician qualified to make the most accurate diagnosis it should by right and training be the Homoeopath, for he is schooled in the art of ferriting out the minituia of symptoms; as disease causes these symptoms, it looks as though with this acuity of investi

gation it is only a very little step farther to name the cause of these symptoms which we are called upon to treat.

While I do not agree with the author who recently wrote that unless you can diagnose your case you cannot successfully treat the same, yet I do contend that we should exert just as much care and skill in making our diagnosis as members of any other school, which is not saying very much when a recent report of a series of post mortems showed only about forty per cent were diagnosed correctly.

While you may be able to see why you can make a successful prescription without first making a diagnosis, yet can you expect the great majority of your patients to feel the same confidence in you if you do not tell them what is the trouble and probable. duration of their condition, as they would could you give them a proper diagnosis and prognosis?

Anything that will cause the least wavering in the confidence of our patients will cause just that much less respect for Homoeopathy. By our definition, "A Homoeopathic physician is one who adds to his knowledge of medicine a special knowledge of Homoeopathic therapeutics and observes the law of similia. All that pertains to the great field of medical learning is his by tradition, by inheritance, and by right."

How many of us can say this, "all that pertains to the great field of medical learning is mine?" If that can not be said of each of us, then we are not fulfilling all that it takes to constitute a Homoeopathic physician.

I am afraid that we have been trying to believe that all it takes to constitute a Homoeopathic physician is to have a knowledge of homoeopathic therapeutics. As a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so are we only as strong medically as our weakest point. If we look around we can find so many weak points that we will have to admit that we constitute a very weak chain medically. A successful chain repairer would begin and make the weak links strong; so if we wish to become strong we must strive to reinforce our weak spots.

I have tried briefly to point out some of our weakest spots, hoping that you will see a sufficint need to put forth renewed energies and not think because Hahnemann did so much for Homoeopathy that we can keep it growing unless we strive diligently, for you know that any plant on which a sufficient number of healthy parasites are feeding will, sooner or later, perish. Now, let you and me endeavor to emulate our illustrious founder-SAMUEL HAHNEMANN.

*RABIES, THE PASTEUR TREATMENT, REPORT OF A CASE. BY DR. LEONARD E. BARTZ, NEW WINDSOR, COLO.

R

ABIES IS AN ACUTE

INFECTIOUS DISEASE

to which all mammalia, including man, are susceptible, and which is especially manifested upon the nervous system. Among the wild animals the disease is most often found in the wolf and coyote. These in turn are often primarily responsible for the spasmodic outbreak of epidemics of rabies in the western states, by transmitting the infection to the domestic dog, who, in turn, is most frequently respon sible for the transmission of the disease to man; other domestic animals, among which the cat, pig, sheep, cow and horse are the more frequent, are at rare intervals responsible for the infection.

No specific infecting germ had ever been isolated, but in 1903 Negri discovered certain peculiar bodies constantly found in the large nerve cells of the central nervous system. Later investigators have confirmed his findings, and "Negri bodies" are now regarded as essential to rabies. Microscopic examination for Negri bodies may be made directly from the fresh tissue by the smear method; small portion of the substance of the cerebral cortex, in the region of the crucial sulcus; the cortex of the cerebellum, or the hippocampus major is used. The smear is dried in the air and may be stained for quick differentiation as recommended by Williams and Lowden. "To 10 c. c. of distilled water three drops of saturated alcoholic solution of fuchsin and 2 c. c of Lofler's solution of methylene-blue are added. The smear is fixed while moist in methyl alcohol for one minute. The stain is then poured on, warmed till it steams, poured off and the smear is rinsed in water and allwed to dry." Williams and Lowden regard the Negri bodies as protozoan parasites and give the following reasons for arriving at that conclusion:

“I.—They have a definite characteristic morphology.

"2.-This morphology is constantly cyclic, i. c., certain forms always predominate in certain stages of the disease, and a definite series of forms indicating growth and multiplication can be demonstrated.

"3. The structure and staining qualities, as shown especially by the smear method of examination resemble that of certain known protozoa, notably those belonging to the sub-order Microsporidia.."

*Read before the Colorado Homoeopathic Medical Society September

25. ICI2.