This little work was prepared for my own use as a labour-saver, and as a receptacle for clinical observations, and for gleanings from others and from the periodicals.
It has been the work of old moments and little remnants of time, redeemed from busy days.
Even the young physician, of a single summer’s experience, must have felt want of such a work, particularly, when dealing with the frequently occurring and obstinate diarrhoeas of infants. It was the difficulty of treating these that first awakened the desire to possess in one little work all that was known of our Materia Medica as applied to lose evacuations of the bowels.
It has not been intended to include every remedy that has been known to purge, but only every remedy But only every remedy of which enough is known, either of its stools, or conditions, or concomitants, to distinguish it from any other remedy.
People having Boenninghausen on cough, on fever and on headache, will not ask this question. Certainly, they will desire that the work go until we possess such special aids in the treatment of all affections that most tax the busy practitioner.
The present work is now printed because colleagues, who had seen it, desired to possess a copy - one going so far as to copy it himself - because Mr. Tafel, who had seen it, desired to print it, and because the work had already repaid me for the time and labour it cost in the same coin, and I was therefore happy to believe that it would be of like use to others. The clinical test will be found to disclose many valuable symptoms not to be met with elsewhere, and, alas, doubtless, many errors.
It would be a grateful task to indicate throughout the work the sources from which many valuable symptoms were drawn, but this would detract from its practical character as a work of reference.
The material for a new edition of this little work has been collected ever since the first was published, and such an edition has long been called for, but I do not think it would have ever seen the light had I not persuaded my friend and successor Dr. W.T.Laird, late of Watertown, N.Y. to undertake its preparation for the press. He has also added much from his own collection of material, and to him, is due the entire remodelling of the Repertory, which in the first edition was quite defective.
My former partner, Dr. T.M.Dillingham, had kindly made a partial revision of the work, but went abroad before its completion.
It may be necessary to add, by way of personal explanation that y ‘specialty’ lies in quite another redirection that ‘Diarrhoea’ or Materia Medica, and it is only as a lover of sound therapeutics that I have taken up these subjects.
Dr. ad. Lippe has contributed two annotated copies and many suggestions, and I wish to tender my thanks to him and to all who have added any observations to its pages, as well, also to the great numbers in the profession who have so kindly and heartily commended the book. To me, the only merit is its practical application of the principles of Heinemann and I am rejoiced therefore, that so many still hold firmly to those principles and seek to be guided by them.
In the revision of a monograph like the present work, after the lapse of twelve years, many new remedies demand recognition. These may be conveniently divided into four classes.
In the first, we place those which have been thoroughly proved and repeatedly verified in practice.
The second consists of drugs, which have also been well proved, but whose symptoms, as yet, lack clinical confirmation.
The third embraces the medicines of which we possess only fragmentary and imperfect pathogeneses. These may be styled "the suggestive remedies" and include such drugs as Coto Bark, Gent. Lut., geran. Gnaph, Hura, Cenotherea, Paullinia, etc.
The fourth division contains those remedies whose indications are derived solely ab us in morbis.
Of the first and second classes, every remedy is plainly entitled to admission, "of which enough is know either of its stools, or conditions, or concomitants, to distinguish it from any other remedy."
Much of the drugs in the third class are doubtless valuable, and will prove of great service when further proving, experience and observation have developed their characteristic indications. Some of them have already been successfully used in practice. Unfortunately, however, at the present time, the symptoms of the majority of these remedies are too few and too uncertain to render their selection easy or to entitle them to a place in a work, which is intended to be purely practical.
Remedies of the fourth class-those having no basis except empiricism-must be viewed with distrust and received with great caution.
In the second edition, the same general plan has been followed as in the first, with the exception that the important symptoms are italicized, while these which are especially characteristic are printed in black type. The term "holera infantum" has been retained in many cases, which, according to strict pathology, would be more properly designated as entero-colitis and gastro-enteric catarrh. Although, this use of the term is not defensible from a scientific standpoint, it is sanctioned to such an extent by common usage that it has been thought inexpedient to make any change.
The present edition contains over 100 pp more than the first thirty-two new remedies have been added and the old ones thoroughly revised and, in some instances, entirely rewritten.
Numerous clinical symptoms have been incorporated with the text, but only those whose genuineness is attested by trustworthy observers or which the writer has frequently verified in his own practice. Many others have been rejected on the ground of insufficient evidence.
The writer lays no claim to originality in the additions he has made to this work. His task has been mainly one of compilation he has gleamed from our literature all that he deemed valuable, and has conscientiously endeavoured to make the book as accurate and complete as possible; yet none can be more painfully aware of the many imperfections and errors of omission which it must necessarily contain. It ;is especially to be regretted, in this connection, that the request for contributions, printed in our journals, has met with such meagre responses from the profession; for it is only by unity of effort that we can hope to attain the best results.
The writer would greatly acknowledge his indebtedness to Drs. W P Wesselhoeft and Ad. Lippe for valuable notes and suggestions; to Prof. E A Farrington for important information, and also for his kine permission to make free use of very complete notes of his lectures on Materia Medica, and to Dr. F.F.Laird for assistance in preparing this manuscript.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
Acupuncture & Acupressure (199)
Gem Therapy (22)
Homeopathy (495)
Massage (22)
Naturopathy (432)
Original Texts (218)
Reiki (59)
Therapy & Treatment (169)
Tibetan Healing (130)
Yoga (42)
हिन्दी (1087)
Ayurveda (3082)
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