Homeopathy and “The Progress of Science”

Cullen William , A treatise of materia medica (Edinburgh, 1789); Cullen William , Abhandlung über die Materia medika, transl. by Hahnemann S. (Leipzig, 1790). Cited in the standard life: Haehl Richard , Samuel Hahnemann: His life and work, transl. by Wheeler Marie M. Grundy W. H. R. (London, 1927), i, 35.

For a recent estimate of Hufeland's stature see Habrich Christa , “Characteristic features of eighteenth-century therapeutics in Germany”, in Bynum W. F. Nutton Vivian (eds), Essays in the history of therapeutics (Amsterdam, 1991), 39–49. His opinion of Hahnemann was prefaced to: Anon. [ Hahnemann Samuel ], “Fragmentarische Bemerkungen zu Brown's Elements of Medicine”, Neues Journal der practischen Arzneykunde und Wundarzneykunst, xii (1801), 52–76.

Hufbauer Karl , The formation of the German chemical community (1720–1795) (Berkeley, 1982), 91. See also: Schmidt Josef M. , “Die Publikationen Samuel Hahnemann”, Sudhoff's Archiv, lxxii (1988), 14–36; Schmidt Josef M. , Bibliographie der Schriften Samuel Hahnemanns (Rauenberg, 1989).

Demachy J. F. , Laborant im Großen, oder Kunst die chemischen Produkte fabrikmäßig zu verfertigen, transl. by Hahnemann S. (Leipzig, 1784). Review in Chemische Annalen, ii (1785), 77, cited in Haehl , Samuel Hahnemann (ref. 1), i, 28.

Hahnemann Samuel , Apotheker Lexikon (4 vols, Leipzig, 1793–99). Three reviews cited in Haehl , Samuel Hahnemann (ref. 1), ii, 49.

Rickmann Christian , Einfluß der Arzneiwissenschaft auf das Wohl des Staats und dem besten Mittel zur Rettung des Lebens (Jena, 1771); Frank J. P. , System einer vollständigen medizinischen Polizey (Mannheim, Tübingen and Vienna, 1779–1819); Hahnemann Samuel , Freund der Gesundheit (vol. i, Frankfurt am Main, 1792; vol. ii, Leipzig, 1795).

Holmes O. W. , Homoeópathy and its kindred delusions: Two lectures delivered before the Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (Boston, 1842).

Guy W. A. , “Croonian Lectures on the numerical method, and its application to the science and art of medicine. v”, British medical journal, n.s., no. 186, 21 July 1860, 553–5.

Spooner J. W. , “The relations of the fellows of the Massachussets Medical Society to homeopathy and homeopaths”, Boston medical and surgical journal, no. 107 (1882), 73–77, p. 76.

Although Hahnemann's sources are identified in everything he wrote, they have not been dealt with adequately by historians outside the homeopathic profession. For sources and precursors of the fundamental homeopathic principle, see Boyd Linn J. , A study of the simile in medicine (Philadelphia, 1936). For Hahnemann's system as a whole, see: Coulter Harris , Divided legacy (II): The origins of modern Western medicine: J. B. Van Helmont to Claude Bernard (Washington, DC, 1977), 304–430. For an examination of the origins of Hahnemann's research methods, pharmacology and disease theories, see: Dean Michael E. , “Homeopathy and alchemy: (1) A pharmacological gold standard”, The homeopath, no. 79 (2000), 22–27, and “Homeopathy and alchemy: (2) Contagion from miasms”, ibid., no. 80 (2001), 26–33. For subsequent influence on medicine, see: Coulter Harris , “Homoeopathic influences in nineteenth century allopathic therapeutics: A historical and philosophical study”, Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy, lxv (1972), 139–81, 207–44; Nicholls Phillip A. , Homoeopathy and the medical profession (London, 1988); Haller John S. , “Aconite: A case study in doctrinal conflict and the meaning of scientific medicine”, Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, lx (1984), 888–904; Fye W. B. , “Vasodilator therapy for angina pectoris: The intersection of homeopathy and scientific medicine”, Journal of the history of medicine and allied sciences, xlv (1990), 317–40. For Hahnemann's use of within-patient placebo controls, see: Dean Michael E. , “A homeopathic origin for placebo controls: ‘An invaluable gift of God’”, Alternative therapies in health and medicine, vi (2000), 58–66, and subsequent debate: Dean Michael E. Kaptchuk Ted J. , “Debate over the history of placebos in medicine”, Alternative therapies in health and medicine, vi (2000), 18–20.

Kant Immanuel , “Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung?”, Berlinische Monatsschrifte, no. 4, 12 December 1784, 481–94; Kant Immanuel , Political writings, 2nd edn, ed. by Reiss Hans , transl. by Nisbet H. B. (Cambridge, 1991), 54.

Cited in: Gay Peter . The Enlightenment: An interpretation (London, 1970): Ii, The science of freedom, 17.

Cited in: Risse Guenter B. , “Kant, Schelling, and the early search for a philosophical ‘science’ of medicine in Germany”, Journal of the history of medicine and allied sciences, xxvii (1972), 145–58.

Brown John , Elementa medicinae (London, 1780).

Brown John , The elements of medicine, or, A translation of the Elementa Medicinae Brunonis, with large notes, illustrations, and comments (Philadelphia, 1791), i, 32, cited in: Conner Eugene H. , “Anesthetics in the treatment of cholera”, Bulletin of the history of medicine, xl (1966), 52–58.

Hegel G. W. F. , Philosophy of nature, ed. by Petry M. J. (London, 1970), iii, 379.

Ibid.

Baumes Jean Baptiste , Essai d'un système chimique de la science de l'homme (Nîmes, 1798).

Roeschlaub Andreas , “Einige Bemerkungen ueber die Definition und Eintheilung der Medizin”, Magazin zur Vervollkommnung der theoretischen und practischen Heilkunde, i (1799), 279–302.

Cited in: Jacob Grimm Wilhelm , Deutsches Wörterbuch, ed. by Heyne Moriz , iv (Leipzig, 1862).

von Schelling Friedrich W. J. , Einleitung zu seinem Entwurf eines Systems der Naturphilosophie, oder ueber den Entwurf der speculativen Physik und die innere Organisation eines Systems dieser Wissenschaft (Jena and Leipzig, 1799).

Porter Roy , The greatest benefit to mankind: A medical history of humanity from Antiquity to the present (London, 1997), 674.

Hahnemann Samuel , “Versuch über ein neues Prinzip zur Auffindung der Heilkrafte der Arzneisubstanzen, nebst einigen Blicken auf die bisherigen”, Journal der practischen Arzneykunde und Wundarzneykunst, ii (1796), 391–439, 465–561; also in: Hahnemann Samuel , Kleine medicinische Schriften, ed. by Stapf Ernst (Dresden and Leipzig, 1829); Hahnemann Samuel , The lesser writings, transl. and ed. by Dudgeon R. E. (London, 1852).

Hahnemann Samuel , “Ueber die Kraft kleiner Gaben der Arzneien überhaupt und der Belladonna insbesondre”, Neues Journal der practischen Arzneykunde und Wundarzneykunst, xiii (1801), 152–9. Other notable articles by Hahnemann that appeared in Hufeland's Journal are: “Fragmentarische Bemerkungen zu Brown's Elements of Medicine” (ref. 2); “Monita über die drey gangbaren Kurarten”, xi (1801), 3–64; “Heilkunde der Erfahrung”, xxii (1805), 5–99; “Was sind Gifte? Was sind Arzneien?”, xxiv (1806), 40–57; “Fingerzeige auf den homöopathischen Gebrauch der Arzneien in der bisherigen Praxis”, xxvi (1807), 5–43. All except the last two are collected in: Hahnemann , Kleine medicinische Schriften ; Hahnemann , The lesser writings (ref. 23).

House of Commons, Return to an Address of the Honourable House of Commons, Sessional Papers, no. 255, xlv (1854–55), 189–226.

Shryock Richard H. , The development of modern medicine: An interpretation of the social and scientific factors involved, 2nd edn (London, 1948), 138; King Lester S. , The medical world of the eighteenth century (Chicago, 1958), 156–91.

Faber Knut , “Nosography in modern internal medicine”, Annals of medical history, iv (1921), 1–63; Temkin Owsei , “The scientific approach to disease: Specific entity and individual sickness”, in Crombie A. C. (ed.), Scientific change (London, 1963), 629–47.

Hahnemann , “Heilkunde der Erfahrung” (ref. 24).

For homeopathy as a reaction to Brunonianism, see: Schwanitz Hans Joachim , Homöopathie und Brownianismus, 1795–1844 (Stuttgart, 1983); as empiricism's final answer to 1500 years of Galenic rationalism, see: Coulter , Divided legacy (II) (ref. 10).

Hahnemann , “Fragmentarische Bemerkungen zu Brown's Elements of Medicine” (ref. 2).

Hahnemann Samuel , “Ueber den Werth der speculativen Arzneysysteme, besonders im Gegenhalt der mit ihnen gepaarten, gewöhnlichen Praxis”, Allgemeiner Anzeiger der Deutschen, ii (1808), 2841–52, 2857–68, collected in Hahnemann , Kleine medicinische Schriften ; Hahnemann , The lesser writings (ref. 23).

Albury W. R. , “French nosologies around 1800 and their relationship with chemistry”, in Forbes E. G. (ed.), Proceedings of the XVth International Congress of the History of Science (Edinburgh, 1977), 502–17.

See: Hahnemann , “Monita über die drey gangbaren Kurarten” (ref. 24); “Examination of the sources of the common materia medica”, in Lesser writings (ref. 23), transl. from: Hahnemann Samuel , Reine Arzneimittellehre, iii (Dresden, 1817).

Bacon Francis , Novum organum (London, 1620), i, § 95.

Hahnemann , “Monita über die drey gangbaren Kurarten” (ref. 24).

Hahnemann , “Examination of the sources of the ordinary materia medica” (ref. 33).

Hegel , Philosophy of nature (ref. 16), iii, 206.

Guttentag Otto E. , “Trends toward homeopathy: Present and past”, Bulletin of the history of medicine, viii (1940), 1172–93.

Peirce Charles Sanders , Collected papers (Cambridge, MA, 1935), vi, 522–8.

Hanson Norman R. , Patterns of discovery: An inquiry into the conceptual foundations of science (Cambridge, 1958), 70ff.

Hahnemann's footnote to: Cullen , Abhandlung über die Materia medika (ref. 1), ii, 108; he had seen many cases of malarial fever while practising in Transylvania in 1777–79 (ibid., 114).

Atran Scott , Cognitive foundations of natural history: Towards an anthropology of science (Cambridge, 1990), 89ff.

Cullen , Abhandlung über die Materia medika (ref. 1), ii, 108.

Hahnemann Samuel , Fragmenta de viribus medicamentorum positivis sive in sano corpore humano observatis. Pars prima: Textus. Pars secunda: Index (Leipzig, 1805).

Hahnemann Samuel , Organon der rationellen Heilkunde (Dresden, 1810). The text of that edition can be found most easily, along with the texts of the five subsequent revised editions, in: Hahnemann Samuel , Organon-Synopse: Die 6 Auflagen von 1810–1842 im Überblick, ed. by Luft Bernhard Wischner Matthias (Heidelberg, 2000). Quotations are taken from: Samuel Hahnemann, Organon of the rational healing art, transl. by Wheeler C. E. from the 1st German edn of 1810 (London, 1913), adjusted where necessary.

Hahnemann , “Heilkunde der Erfahrung” (ref. 24).

Even a medical instrument: Rumsey Walter , Organon salutis. An instrument to cleanse the stomach, as also divers new experiments of the virtue of tobacco and coffee: How much they conduce to preserve humane health (London, 1657).

Lambert Johann Heinrich , Neues Organon oder Gedanken über die Erforschung und Bezeichnung des Wahren und dessen Unterscheidung vom Irrthum und Schein (Leipzig, 1764).

Henle F. G. J. , Handbuch der rationellen Pathologie (Braunschweig, 1846).

Leaving an identifiable gap: Rudolf Carnap, Karl Popper and others complained that psychoanalysis and Marxism did not deserve their self-descriptions as scientific — wissenschaftlich. The disappearance of the original meaning of rationell might even have been a factor in the foregrounding of the demarcation problem by the Vienna Circle.

Die Wahrheit, die wir alle nöthig haben, Die uns als Menschen glücklich macht, Ward von der weisen Hand, die sie uns zugedacht, Nur leicht verdeckt, nicht tief vergraben. I have adjusted the translation in: Hahnemann Samuel , Organon of medicine, 2nd edn, transl. and ed. by Dudgeon Robert E. from the 5th German edn (London, 1893; reprinted Calcutta, 1961), 155.

Pp. v–xlviii, previously published as: Hahnemann , “Fingerzeige auf den homöopathischen Gebrauch der Arzneien in der bisherigen Praxis” (ref. 24); first English translation: Hahnemann Samuel , The homoeopathic medical doctrine, or, ‘Organon of the Healing Art;’ A new system of physic, transl. by Devrient Charles H. from the fourth German edn of 1829, with notes by Samuel Stratten (Dublin, 1833), 48–101.

Hahnemann , “Monita über die drey gangbaren Kurarten” (ref. 24); Hahnemann , “Ueber den Werth der speculativen Arzneysysteme” (ref. 31).

Hahnemann , “Heilkunde der Erfahrung” (ref. 24).

Dean , “Homeopathy and alchemy: (2)” (ref. 10).

Hahnemann , Organon der rationellen Heilkunde (ref. 45); Roeschlaub , “Einige Bemerkungen ueber die Definition und Eintheilung der Medizin” (ref. 19).

Ackerknecht Erwin A. , “Diathesis: The word and the concept in medical history”, Bulletin of the history of medicine, lvi (1982), 317–25.

Hahnemann , Organon (ref. 45), § 6.

Ibid. § 32.

Ibid. § 43.

Ibid. § 45.

Ibid. §§ 62–69.

Ibid. § 79–81.

Hahnemann , Fragmenta de viribus (ref. 44); Hahnemann Samuel , Reine Arzneimittellehre (6 vols, Dresden, 1811–21); 2nd edn (Dresden, 1822–27); 3rd edn (2 vols, Dresden, 1830–33), transl. by Dudgeon R. E. (ed.) as Materia medica pura (2 vols, London, 1880); Hahnemann Samuel , Die chronischen Krankheiten, ihre eigenthümliche Natur und homöopathische Heilung (4 vols, Dresden and Leipzig, 1828–30); 2nd edn (5 vols, Dresden and Leipzig, and Düsseldorf, 1835–39), transl. by Tafel L. as The chronic diseases: Their peculiar nature and their homoeopathic cure (2 vols, Philadelphia, 1896). For tabulated analysis of the development and publication history of Hahnemann's materia medica, see: Hughes Richard , A manual of pharmacodynamics, 6th edn (London, 1893), 17–39.

Hahnemann , Organon (ref. 45), § 121.

Ibid., § 115.

Ibid., § 129.

Ibid., § 186.

Ibid., § 189.

Hahnemann Samuel , “Cases illustrative of homoeopathic practice” (1817), in The lesser writings (ref. 23), 766–73.

Ibid.

The follow-up to this case is interesting. Hahnemann prescribed a drop of (undiluted) Bryonia tincture in the customary single dose and asked Frau Sch— To see him in 48 hours, telling a colleague present at the time that she would be better the next day. She never returned, and when the colleague sought her out later from curiosity, she replied: “What was the use of going back? The very next day I was quite well, and could start my washing again. I am extremely obliged to the doctor, but the likes of us have no time to leave off our work. For three weeks previously my illness prevented me from earning anything” (ibid.).

Ibid.

Hegel , Philosophy of nature (ref. 16), iii, 205.

Hahnemann , Organon (ref. 45), § 79.

Hahnemann Samuel , Dissertatio historico-medica de helleborismo veterum [Habilitation] (Leipzig, 1812); also in Kleine medicinische Schriften and Lesser writings (ref. 23).

King , The medical world of the eighteenth century (ref. 26), 173.

Jardine Nicholas , The scenes of inquiry: On the reality of questions in the sciences (Oxford, 1991), 111ff, citing von Seemen H. , Kenntnis der Medizinhistorie in der deutschen Romantik (Zürich, 1926).

See: Haehl , Samuel Hahnemann (ref. 1), i, 89ff.

von Kieser Dietrich George , System der Medizin (Halle, 1817–19), cited in Schenk H. G. , The mind of the European romantics: An essay in cultural history (London, 1966), 180.

Hahnemann Samuel , “Nota bene for my reviewers”, Lesser writings (ref. 23), 659–64; translated from: Hahnemann , Reine Arzneimittellehre , 2nd edn (ref. 64), iii. Perhaps it was a sign of the times, or just of his normal impatience, that he pushed the historical review to the end of the Organon's Introduction in the 4th edition of 1829, and preceded it with an equally lengthy recension of his medical critique. The history of homeopathy's precursors was reduced to a handful of examples in the 5th edition of 1833. Hahnemann's extensive annotations and revisions to the 5th edition were not published until 1921: Hahnemann Samuel , Organon der Heilkunst, 6th edn, Haehl Richard (ed.) (Leipzig, 1921).

Kant , “Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung?” (ref. 11).

Hahnemann later translated Rousseau: Handbuch für Mütter, oder Grundsätze der ersten Erziehung der Kinder, transl. by Hahnemann S. from Principes de Jean-Jacques Rousseau, sur l'éducation des enfants [Paris, 1793] (Leipzig, 1796).

Hahnemann Samuel , Anleitung alte Schaeden und faeule Geschwuere gruendlich zu heilen (Leipzig, 1784), 179.

Hahnemann , The homoeopathic medical doctrine (ref. 52), 101.

I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer for this journal who drew my attention to the historiographical survival of the term in Die Apologie der Heilkunst: Eine griechische Sophistenrede des fünften vorchristlichen Jahrhunderts, transl., ed. and annotated by Gomperz Theodor (Leipzig, 1890).

Dietl Josef , “Praktische Wahrnehmungen nach den Ergebnissen im Wiednerbezirkskrankenhause”, Zeitschrift der k.u.k. Gesellschaft der Aertze zu Wien, i/2 (1845), 9, cited in Lachmund Jens , “Between scrutiny and treatment: Physical diagnosis and the restructuring of 19th century medical practice”, Sociology of health & illness, xx (1998), 779–801.

Jütte Robert , “The paradox of professionalisation: Homeopathy and hydropathy as unorthodoxy in Germany in the 19th and early 20th century”, in Jütte Robert Risse Guenter B. Woodward John (eds). Culture, knowledge and healing: Historical perspectives of homoeopathic medicine in Europe and North America (Sheffield, 1998), 65–88. Naturheilkunde survives as naturopathy; see: Wiesenauer M. Groh P. Haussler S. , “Naturheilkunde als Beitrag zur Kostendampfung: Versuch einer Kostenanalyse”, Fortschritte der Medizin, cx/17 (1992), 311–14, for evidence that it might even be rationell, in the modern sense of economically efficient.

Hahnemann , Organon der Heilkunst, 5th edn (ref. 45), § 222; Lachmund , “Between scrutiny and treatment” (ref. 87).

Hahnemann , Organon (ref. 45).

Bier August , “Wie sollen wir uns zu der Homoeopathie stellen?”, Münchener medizinische Wochenschrift, lxxii/1 (1925), 713–17, 773–6.

Weatherall Miles , “Drug therapies”, in Bynum W. F. Porter Roy (eds), Companion encyclopaedia of the history of medicine (London, 1994), 915–38, especially pp. 918f, 936. Between 1805 and 1837, Hahnemann published provings of nearly 100 drugs that he had personally conducted or directed (ref. 64).

Hahnemann , “Ueber die Kraft kleiner Gaben der Arzneien überhaupt und der Belladonna insbesondre” (ref. 24). See: Hughes , A manual of pharmacodynamics (ref. 64), 930–9, for a chronological review of Hahnemann's posology.

Hahnemann Samuel , “How can small doses of such very attenuated medicine as homoeopathy employs still possess great power?”, in Hahnemann , The lesser writings (ref. 23), 728–34, transl. from Hahnemann , Reine Arzneimittellehre , 2nd edn (ref. 64), vi; “Magnes”, Reine Arzneimittellehre, 3rd edn (ref. 64), i.

Shryock , The development of modern medicine (ref. 26), 138.

With the consequence that occult and Paracelsan ideas are still regularly imputed to Hahnemann even by post-positivist historians: Flaherty Gloria , “The non-normal sciences: Survivals of Renaissance thought in the eighteenth century”, in Fox C. Porter R. Wokler R. (eds), Inventing human science: Eighteenth century domains (Berkeley, 1995), 271–91. For a corrective to this view, see: Dean , “Homeopathy and alchemy: (I) and (II)” (ref. 10). Notable content-based exceptions are: Schmidt Josef M. , Die philosophischen Vorstellungen Samuel Hahnemanns bei der Begründung der Homöopathie (Munich, 1990); Dellmour Friedrich , “Homöopathie und Lebenskraft. Begriffe bei Samuel Hahnemann”, in Swoboda Franz (ed.), Documenta homoeopathica (Vienna, 1997), 63–103. For recent social historiography of homeopathy, see: Faure Olivier (ed.), Practiciens, patients et militants de l'homéopathie (1800–1940) (Lyon, 1992); Jütte Risse Woodward (eds), Culture, knowledge and healing (ref. 88).

Hahnemann , “Ueber den Werth der speculativen Arzneysysteme” (ref. 31).

Haehl , Samuel Hahnemann (ref. 1), ii, 287.

Hahnemann , Organon (ref. 45), § 187.

Foucault Michel , La naissance du clinique (Paris, 1963); Ackerknecht Erwin A. , Medicine at the Paris Hospital 1794–1848 (Baltimore, 1967); Jewson N. D. , “The disappearance of the sick-man from medical cosmology, 1770–1870”, Sociology, x (1976), 225–44; Maulitz Russell C. , Morbid appearances: The anatomy of pathology in the early nineteenth century (Cambridge, 1987).

Lachmund , “Between scrutiny and treatment” (ref. 87).

The idea of compiled personal reactivities mystified an otherwise sympathetic commentator on a recent successful randomized placebo-controlled trial of infinitesimal doses for childhood diarrhea: Berkowitz C. D. , “Homoeopathy: Keeping an open mind”, Lancet, cccxliv (1994), 701–2, commenting on: Jacobs J. Jiménez L. M. Gloyd S. S. Gale J. L. Crothers D. , “Treatment of acute childhood diarrhea with homeopathic medicine: A randomized clinical trial in Nicaragua”, Pediatrics, xciii/5 (1994), 719–25.

For the relevance of Popper's criterion to homeopathy in falsificationism's heyday, see: Cioffi Frank , “Freud and the idea of a pseudo-science”, in Borger Robert Cioffi Frank (eds), Explanation in the behavioural sciences (Cambridge, 1970), 471–515; Campbell Anthony C. H. , “Is homoeopathy scientific? A reassessment in the light of Karl Popper's theory of scientific knowledge”, British homoeopathic journal, lxvii (1978), 77–85; Schwanitz , Homöopathie und Brownianismus, 1795–1844 (ref. 29), 177.

Kant Immanuel , Critique of pure reason, transl. by Meiklejohn J. M. D. from the 2nd German edn of 1787 (London, 1934), 384.

Hahnemann , “Nota bene for my reviewers” (ref. 81).

Suttie Ian , The origins of love and hate (Harmondsworth, 1952 [1936]), 130, original emphasis; 132.

For cholera see: Lasveaux Lucille , Traitements homéopathiques du choléra dans la France du XIXe siècle (Lyon, 1988); Leary Bernard , “Cholera 1854: Update”, British homoeopathic journal, lxxxiii (1994), 117–21; for equally startling statistics in pneumonia: Jean-Paul Tessier, Recherches cliniques sur le traitement de la pneumonie et du choléra suivant la méthode de Hahnemann, précédées d'une introduction sur l'abus de la statistique en médecine (Paris, 1850); Eidherr Martin , “Erfahrungen über die Heilwirkungen der 6., 15. und 30: Arzneiverdünnung auf die entzündete Lunge”, Zeitschrift des Vereines der homöopathischen Aertze Oesterreichs, n.s., 1/1 (1862), 1–165.

Heinroth J. C. A. , Anti-organon, oder das Irrige der Hahnemannischen Lehre im Organon der Heilkunst (Leipzig, 1825).

Editorial , Bulletin général de thérapeutique médicale et chirurgicale, vii (1834), 5–6.

Shryock , The development of modern medicine (ref. 26), 138, referring to Anon. [Maxime Vernois], “Expériences homéopathiques faites par M. Andral, à l'hôpital de la Pitié”, Bulletin général de thérapeutique médicale et chirurgicale, vi (1834), 318–21.

Vernois Maxime , Analyse complète et raisonée de la matière médicale de Samuel Hahnemann (Paris, 1835). The most comprehensive contemporary homeopathic analysis of Andral's trials is: Irvine F. W. , “M. Andral's homoeopathic experiments at la Pitié”, British journal of homoeopathy, ii/1 (1844), 49–64. See also: Dunham Carroll , “The homoeopathic experiments of M. Andral, and his past and present opinion of them”, North American journal of homoeopathy, ii (1852), 263–8, for evidence of Andral's later admission that his own trials had not been conclusive, as well as his belief that homeopathy deserved serious investigation.

Trousseau Armand Gouraud Henri , “Expériences homéopathiques tentées à l'Hôtel-Dieu de Paris”, Journal des connaissances médico-chirurgicales, viii (1834), 238–41; Pigeaux D. M. P. , “Étonnantes vertus homoeopathiques de la mie de pain: Expériences faites à l'Hôtel-Dieu”, Bulletin général de thérapeutique médicale et chirurgicale, vi (1834), 128–31. A systematic review of nineteenth-century placebo-controlled trials of homeopathy, including those such as Trousseau's that used placebo alone as homeopathy's rhetorical equivalent, is contained in: Dean , “A homeopathic origin for placebo controls” (ref. 10).

Hacking Ian , The taming of chance (Cambridge, 1990), 84.

Lilienfeld Abraham , “Ceteribus paribus: The evolution of the clinical trial”, Bulletin of the history of medicine, lvi/1 (1982), 1–18.

House of Commons, Return to an Address of the Honourable House of Commons (ref. 25), 194.

Medical Council, Report on the results of the different methods of treatment pursued in epidemic cholera, Parliamentary Papers, no. 1901, xlv (1854–55).

Hahnemann , “Monita über die drey gangbaren Kurarten” (ref. 24). As well as indicating homeopathic treatments, in 1831 Hahnemann proposed an infectious micro-organismic origin for the cholera pandemic; it would be interesting to know whether his suggested hygienic measures, including sterilization of clothing and bedlinen, were followed in homeopathic hospitals, accounting for some at least of homeopathy's apparent success in the cholera decades: Hahnemann Samuel , Aufruf an denkende Menschenfreunde über die Ansteckungsart der asiatischen Cholera (Leipzig, 1831); Heilung der asiatischen Cholera und Schützung vor derselben (Nuremberg, 1831); translated in Lesser writings (ref. 23). For the development of Hahnemann's contagionism and germ theory, including his later belief that untreated infections were a source of chronic disease, see: Dean , “Homeopathy and alchemy: (2) Contagion from miasms” (ref. 10). As with pharmacology, Hahnemann is omitted from orthodox accounts of the emergence of germ theory.

Conner , “Anesthetics in the treatment of cholera” (ref. 15).

Cited in: Guttentag Otto E. , “Homeopathy in the light of modern pharmacology”, Clinical and pharmacological therapeutics, vii (1966), 425–8.

Haas William S. , The destiny of the mind, East and West (London, 1956), 182.

For example: Harré Rom , The singular self: An introduction to the psychology of personhood (London, 1998).

For example: Marková Ivana , Paradigms, thought, and language (Chichester, 1982); Kelso J. Scott , Dynamic patterns: The self-organization of brain and behavior (Cambridge, MA, 1995).

For instance: Unschuld Paul U. , “Plausibility or truth? An essay on medicine and world view”, Science in context, viii (1995), 9–30.

For a recent substantive review which seems to endorse Hahnemann's appeals to physics (ref. 94), see: Popp F.-A. , “Hypothesis of modes of action of homoeopathy: Theoretical background and the experimental situation”, in Ernst E. Hahn E. G. (eds), Homoeopathy: A critical appraisal (Oxford, 1998), 145–52. Eskinazi D. , “Homeopathy revisited: Is homeopathy compatible with biomedical observations?”, Archives of internal medicine, clix (1999), 1981–7 advances Hahnemann's principle as an explanatory mechanism underlying many so-called ‘paradoxical effects’ of biomedical drugs.

For example: Jacobs , “Treatment of acute childhood diarrhea with homeopathic medicine” (ref. 102); May Carl Sirur Deepak , “Art, science and placebo: Incorporating homeopathy in general practice”, Sociology of health & illness, xx (1998), 168–90; Swayne Jeremy , Homeopathic method: Implications for clinical practice and medical science (Edinburgh, 1998).

Paul Jean [ Richter J. P. F. ], Zerstreuete Blätte, ii, 292, in: Sämtliche Werke, Förster E. (ed.) (Berlin, 1826–28).