Page:Quackery Unmasked.djvu/149

Rh Now let us see how this doctrine compares with the present state of medical science. Psora or itch has been ascertained to be a local disease, which never arises from any constitutional affection, but is produced by a minute insect called acarus scabiei, which burrows in the derma, beneath the cuticle, and produces the irritation, itching and eruption which characterize that disorder. This little parasitic animal often passes from one person to another by personal contact, or in some article of clothing, and is the sole and only cause of psora or itch. In order to cure the itch, therefore, this animal must be destroyed, and this is effected by topical applications alone. When this is done, the patient is cured. Hahnemann spent twelve of the best years of his life in searching for the common cause of chronic diseases, and the fruit of all that labor was nothing but the absurd and ridiculous idea of a hereditary itch miasm, and ocular demonstration shows that to be utterly false. He and his disciples gloried in this discovery; it laid a foundation for their pathology and therapeutics in all, or nearly all, chronic diseases. But it