PREFACE

PREFACE

Dr Herbert Alfred ROBERTS

     THE first question asked of us who profess to uphold Hahnemann's teaching is this: What is Homœopathy? Why is Homœopathy preferable to other methods of medical practice?

     How shall we answer it? Is it true that we can answer it by saying: Homœopathy is a system of medicine? The thoughtful, conscientious homœopathic physician will feel that a more comprehensive answer must be given, an answer that will appeal to the sense of logic in the mind of the questioner.

     We believe that Homœopathy has no standing if it cannot be definitely proven that it stands firmly upon the basis of fundamental natural laws. In this book the author has tried to show the "logical reasonableness of homœopathy," as Carroll Dunham termed it.

     Here an attempt has been made to correlate the principles that govern the homœopathic methods of healing with those principles and laws that govern all life: i.e. motion, growth, development. No one realizes more than the author that these efforts are imperfect and incomplete, but if they serve to inspire further research along the lines of the fundamental oneness of Homœopathy with Universal Law, his object will have been attained.

     To Sir J. C. Bose, R. A. Millikan, A. H. Compton and others, the author is indebted for the use of material, the fruit of their labours.

     In one group of chapters, the student of homœopathic philosophy will note that few original thoughts have been incorporated; he will be able to trace the source of many of these thoughts, and even paragraphs, to Hahnemannian students who have put into clear, concise phrases the teaching that best reaches the novice, and that appeals to the seasoned homœopathician as the best testimony that could be offered. Many of the choicest bits of homœopathic philosophy are scattered through homœopathic literature, and it is to gather these into compact form, and so place the best thought upon homœopathic philosophy in accessible place for student and physician alike, that this work has been attempted.

     The author of this book has spent many fruitful hours in searching the printed records left by many stalwarts in the homœopathic vanguard, and not only have the printed works of individual authors been closely scanned for the material found here, but old volumes of homœopathic magazines long since out of print have yielded valuable material.

     It has been our experience of several years that when the principles of Hahnemannian homœopathy have been set before the student in a manner that appeals to his sense of logic, he readily grasps it and is able to incorporate it into practical application. It has been our aim in this book so to set forth the principles underlying the practice of Hahnemannian homœopathy that they could be grasped and made of practical application in the healing art.

     To Hahnemann, Bœnninghausen, Hering, Joslin, Lippe, Fincke, Carroll Dunham, P. P. Wells, A. R. Morgan, T. F. Allen, H. C. Allen, J. H. Allen, James Tyler Kent, Stuart Close, C. M. Boger, and others: and to the members of the International Hahnemannian Association, who by precept and example have stimulated thought, the author is deeply indebted for the source of material. If any profit from this book, let him remember the hosts of people healed by these physicians who staked their whole method of practice on the fundamental laws of healing, and be encouraged thereby in the knowledge that to him also is the same power, and in exactly the same degree in which he employs these fundamental laws.

H. A. ROBERTS.

Derby, Conn.
January, 10th, 1936.