Dr. B. Mure's Materia Medica

Part 1

DR. B. MURE’S MATERIA MEDICA, OR Provings of the principal Animal and Vegetable Poisons OF THE BRAZILIAN EMPIRE; AND THEIR APPLICATION IN THE TREATMENT OF DISEASE.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH AND ARRANGED ACCORDING TO HAHNEMANN’S METHOD, BY CHARLES J. HEMPEL, M.D. FELLOW AND CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE PENNSYLVANIA HOMŒOPATHIC COLLEGE; HONORARY MEMBER OF THE HAHNEMANN SOCIETY OF LONDON, &C., &C.

NEW-YORK: WILLIAM RADDE, No. 322 BROADWAY, PHILADELPHIA: RADEMACHER & SHEEK.—BOSTON: OTIS CLAPP.—ST. LOUIS: J. G. WESSELHOEFT.—LONDON: JAMES EPPS, 112 GREAT RUSSELL-STREET, BLOOMSBURY.—MANCHESTER: H. TURNER, 41 PICCADILLY. 1854.

ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by WILLIAM RADDE, In the Clerk’s Office, of the District Court, for the Southern District of New-York.

HENRY LUDWIG, Printer, 45 Vesey-street.

TO THE BRAZILIAN PEOPLE.

Though the precious metals hidden in the Brazilian soil, may be never so abundant; though the splendor of its precious stones, may be never so brilliant; though the crops which the soil yields to the farmer, may be never so rich: yet there are, in the Brazilian empire, treasures of a far, greater importance, and infinitely more necessary to human happiness. They are the powerful means which this vast country furnishes for the cure of disease.

Previous to Hahnemann’s discovery, we were ignorant of a positive method of determining the use of drugs. We knew that they existed, but we did not know how to use them; and popular experience, more successful than the wisdom of the School, had alone picked up a few stray fragments from the rich harvest which had been abandoned for want of the proper means of gathering. Providence at last permitted Hahnemann and his disciples to discover the method of applying remedies to diseases in a positive and efficacious manner. The dominion of mere palliatives is at an end.—Homœopathy, by attacking the cause of disease, destroys the chronic miasms, which are transmitted from generation to generation; dries up the fountain-heads of epidemic and contagious diseases; enables the infant-body, by a positive hygiene, to resist the deleterious influences to which it might be exposed in the course of its existence; and, by preserving human life, which is the most precious capital of nations and the first element of their greatness, Homœopathy will insure their prosperity, provided they adopt it without reserve.

We admire the bold hunter who skims the sharp points of the rocks, for the purpose of snatching the down from the little ones of the eider; the indefatigable diver, who, by dint of patient toil, succeeds in bringing up the diamond from the sands of the river, or the pearl from the bosom of the sea. Should not the people of Brazil sympathise with the patient and courageous experimenters, who, under the auspices of Hahnemann, discover a world of wonderful uses in the neglected products of this country?

The work which we here offer to the Brazilian people, is not a work of fiction intended to amuse, but a serious work detailing a series of painful sensations voluntarily endured by a few devoted men, who were desirous of finding out the therapeutic uses of the poisonous animals and plants, the pathogenetic symptoms of which will be found described in this volume. We shall be amply compensated for the patience and devotedness which the composition of such a work requires, by the consciousness that it will do its share in diminishing the sufferings of mankind.

B. MURE, Rio Janeiro.

NOTE TO THE READER:—The symptoms in the following work, are arranged in groups of five; the figures in the text indicate the numerical order of these groups.—ED.

CROTALUS CASCAVELLA.

We commence the publication of our provings by the symptoms of the Crotalus Cascavella, not so much on account of the importance of the symptoms which the poison of this dangerous reptile produces on the healthy body; but because the unfortunate experiment which was attempted a few years ago, on a sick person, offers a fair opportunity of contrasting the hazardous and uncertain results of a merely clinical experimentation, with the positive advantages of Hahnemann’s method of proving.

A popular notion,—and the therapeutics of the Old-School was gradually built up of such notions,—attributed to the poison of the crotalus cascavella, the power of curing the elephantiasis of the Greeks, a malady which, in Brazil, goes by the name of morphea, or Lazarus’-evil. A disciple of Hahnemann might have verified this belief without any difficulty, and without endangering human life. But the Old-School who does not acknowledge our method of proving, had to remain in doubt about this curative virtue of the cascavella, until a patient and physician would be found sufficiently bold and logical to apply to a frightful disease a still more frightful remedy. Mariano José Machado, fell a victim to his heroic attempt, and, by his death, dissipated the illusory hopes founded on the curative virtue of the poison of the cascavella. Now what conclusion shall we draw from this fact? That the practitioner who advised the attempt, has been imprudent and censureable? God forbid that we should commit such an act of injustice. A patient has succumbed to a clinical experiment; let us honor the heroic courage with which he braved the serpent’s bite; let us honor the zeal of the practitioner, who persuaded him to risk a few years of a loathsome existence for the chance, though uncertain, of a cure. The unhappy Machado has been saved a few years of cruel suffering; but what a joy it would have afforded him and his miserable fellow-sufferers, if the remedy for their loathsome disease had been known! what a glory it would have been to the physician who should have conducted them to the haven of relief!

However, a homicide has been committed on this occasion, and though the perpetrators may be free from blame, yet we may justly condemn the deceitful science that has to resort to such dangerous practices, in order to augment its resources and enlarge its boundaries. Like unto the vile poisoner who, when his poisons fail him, resorts to the stiletto, as a means of gratifying his cupidity or his ambition, allopathy sacrifices human life, and, like him, will have an ignominious end. The solemn homicide, which was committed a few years ago in this capital in the name of science, may be of use to the world, by hastening the glorious recognition of the homœopathic healing art, in these distant regions. If it was permitted as recently as four years ago, when the name of Hahnemann was scarcely known in this country, to kill a man for the purpose of trying a drug, we venture to say that, at this period, nobody would either dare to propose or accept such a murderous practice.

It will be seen, in studying the symptoms which we have obtained from the poison of the crotalus, that there are very few among them which resemble the tuberculous lepra, and that this terrible malady will, therefore, have to be cured by some other means. Fortunately, homœopathy teaches us the method of discovering a suitable remedy in the place of the crotalus poison, which we now know has to be abandoned as a remedy for lepra, and the success which we have already obtained, enables us to indulge the hope, that the Brazilian lepra, as well as the elephantiasis of the Arabs, will soon disappear entirely, under the operation of the suitable dynamised homœopathic agent.

The crotalus will become a useful adjunct to the lachesis proved by Doctor Hering; it is my belief that it affects the organism longer and more thoroughly than the latter, and will effect many cures which had to remain incomplete under the use of lachesis.

The serpent from which this poison has been extracted, was caught in the province of Ceara. In this operation I was aided by the young practitioner who alone, four years ago, had protested against the dangerous experiment which was made in the hospital of the leprous patients, of which he was at that time chief physician. His noble heart revolted against the practice of risking human life, for the sake of a medical doctrine, and, soon after, he imitated the glorious example which Hahnemann had set him fifty years previous, by abandoning a lucrative practice, and the direction of two hospitals. Having first protested against the bite which the reptile was caused to inflict upon his patient, he now voluntarily exposed his own life for the purpose of extracting the poison, which was to be suitably attenuated in order to convert it into a curative agent. Several drops of the poison spirted on his face, and might have ended his life, if the inner corner of the eye had been touched as I first feared it was. At this day, when his suspicions have been abundantly confirmed by the physiological provings, Dr. J. V. Martins, is one of the firmest adherents of our rising School. May he live to see the error which he had instinctively rejected, completely extinguished by the brilliant light of medical truth.

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