Page:Quackery Unmasked.djvu/28

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QUACKERY UNMASKED.

world had not yet dawned. He appears to have imbibed the wild, visionary spirit of Galen, and like him to have manifested a haughty contempt for the doctrines and opinions of all other men. Instead of setting himself at work to correct errors, reform abuses, and enlighten and improve the profession, he cast it all aside at a single dash, repudiated all the truths that observation and experience had established, and set at naught every principle of philosophy and common sense. Bitterly prejudiced against all that had been taught him at the schools, and inheriting an intellect in the highest degree chimerical, he made a bold attempt to set up a scheme of his own. This was based upon two prominent ideas—the first of which is comprised in the Latin phrase, "similia similibus curantur"—likes cures like. This did not originate with Hahnemann, but was embraced in the old adage which had been current for centuries before his time, viz., that "the hair of the same dog will cure the bite." Hahnemann amplified this idea, and attempted to prove it by facts and observations. He discovered nothing, but mere-