INTRODUCTION TO TASTES GROUP REMEDIES

- TESTE A, GROUP REMEDIES,
 - The work which is here offered to the public, is not the production of a trifling mind, but of a man who made it his business to reflect deeply on the present character of the Homoeopathic Materia Medica. He Felt, with a host of other intelligent practitioners, that the present arrangement of our drug-symptoms, that the present arrangement of our drug-symptoms, which constitute our guides in the use of drugs as remedial agents, is exceedingly arbitrary and complicated, and that it is therefore eminently desirable to simplify the Materia Medica, by expunging all such symptoms, or even drugs, as have proved useless in practice, or by substituting for the present incoherent arrangement of our materials, a system of symptomatic relations based upon subjective analogies. Pursuing this mode of investigation, Tests was gradually led to arrange the principal remedies of our Materia Medica into twenty classes, which he terms groups. Each group is headed by a leading remedy or type, to which the other members of the group are related, not only by a similarity of symptoms, but likewise, the internal affinities of  the drug-disease which these remedies are respectively capable of exciting in the healthy organism.
 - The plan of presenting our drugs as a coherent series of groups, is somewhat novel, but neither fanciful nor repulsive to the reason. On the contrary, it is fair to inquire : If all the creations of nature constitute orders of varieties, why should medicinal substances form an exception to this general law ? And if it should be true that drugs and their effects upon the healthy body, likewise constitute a generalization of natural phenomena, would not this simplify their study and their application to the treatment of disease ? The first question, then, would be, to investigate the law under which drugs and their dynamic properties are combined into a series; a knowledge of this law would imply, or lead to, a knowledge of their orderly application in the treatment of disease, and would put a stop to the unjustifiable abuse which many homoeopathic practitioners are guilty of, in prescribing a number of remedies not only successively, but simultaneously, in a case where one or two only, would prove amply sufficient in the hands of a scientific physician. Teste is one of the few inquirers in our School, who consider it their duty to simplify the Materia Medica by expunging all that seems unworthy of confidence, and classifying all our reliable drugs and symptoms in accordance with the unmistakeable analogies which the proving of these drugs upon the healthy, has revealed to us. The present work gives us the results of our author's investigations and discoveries in this direction. Whether he has discovered the whole truth, or only a part thereof, experience will decide. This much is certain : that his work is a treasure of interesting facts, observations and reasonings, and that every physician will find it to his interest and to the eminent advantage of his patients, to study the present work with care and attention.
 - A most interesting portion of the work are the contributions from Old-school literature. A history of the empirical use of the drug is given in every case, and it will be uniformly found, that, wherever a drug had the reputation of being a specific in a certain disease, and really did effect, striking, rapid and permanent cures, such a result was invariably attributable to the homoeopathicity of the drug-action with the nature of the malady.
 - Speaking of the homoeopathicity of a drug to a disease, the reader will not fail to observe that, according to our author's mode of viewing it, a drug is only homoeopathic to a disease when the drug-disease is analogous to the natural malady. Both the primary and the secondary action of the drug must correspond to the primary and the secondary action of the natural malady. An inflammatory fever, for instance, first commences with a chill ; this is its primary symptom. The bounding pulse, the hot and dry skin, constitute symptoms of vital reaction, and the drug which is to be truly homoeopathic to this disease, must not only have the chill, but likewise, corresponding symptoms of reaction, or commonly termed, secondary symptoms. It is well known that Aconite has both the chill and the heat and dryness of the skin, together with the bounding pulse, and that it is, therefore, equally homoeopathic to the primary as well as to the secondary symptoms of fever. In the books, Aconite is generally recommended for the secondary symptoms only, namely, for the bounding pulse, heat and dryness of the skin, thirst, etc. It might therefore seem, if we were called to a patient who was still under the influence of the primary chill, as though Aconite could only be administered upon the principle of contraria contrariis ; but this would simply be a seeming antagonism ; for Aconite would not only hasten the vital reaction, but might have to be continued after this reaction had fully set in, until the primary as well as the secondary phenomena of the natural malady should have been subdued. A similar rule applies to the use of every other drug in our Materia Medica, and can, of course, only be properly applied where both the primary and the secondary action of the drug is positively known. It is our author's aim to furnish many useful hints, instructive suggestions, and positive indications concerning this important point in the pharmaco-dynamics of our school.
 - One word as regards the translation. I have endeavored as much as possible, to preserve the expression of the original, except where a strictly literal rendering of the text was incompatible with English grammar and a correct and fluent style. In all such cases, I have deemed it my privilege so to modify the original text, as would leave the author's meaning unimpaired, and, at the same time, be considered an acceptable phraseology in our own language.
 - It may be proper to state in this place, that the business of translating is not as easy of accomplishment as some may be disposed to imagine. The several extracts which Teste was obliged to make in the course of his work from other authors, and more particularly from Jourdan's translations of Hahnemann's Organon, and his Material Medica, contain a number of important errors. In his preface to Aconite, for instance, Hahnemann mentions as one of most characteristic indications for the use of Aconite, ``ein agonizirendes Umherwerfen.'' The meaning of this is, ``a tossing about as if the patient were in great agony:'' but in Jourdan's translation, as well as in various English publications, it is rendered, ``a tossing about such as characterizes Aconite.'' The translators were evidently misled into this absurd mistake by the apparent similarity of the spelling of ``agonizirendes'' and ``Aconite;'' not to mention a variety of equally interesting misapprehensions of Hahnemann's text. Being perfectly acquainted with Hahnemann's original expressions, I have, of course, avoided a repetition of all such errors. In connection with this subject, I must be permitted to state that several reviews of Teste's work have been recently laid before me, which are filled, from beginning to end, with the most absurd misconceptions of the author's meaning, and evince a shocking ignorance of his language. Ne sutor ultra crepidom !
 - With these brief remarks, I recommend this work to the careful study of the profession, and sincerely trust, that is may stimulate others to similar efforts in the noble task of imparting to our art a universally acknowledged scientific basis.
 - CHARLESS J. HEMPEL.
 - NEW YORK,
 - January 1854.


 - TO DOCTOR PCTRUI
 - I HUMBLY DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO YOU, MY TEACHER AND FRIEND ;TO YOU WHO HAVE DONE SO MUCH FO THE PROPAGATION OF A DOCTRINE THE TRUTH OF WHICH HAS BEEN SO OFTEN AND SO LOUDLY PROCLAIMED BY YOUR SUCCESS IN THE TREATMENT OF DISEASE :
 - TO YOU WHOM I DO NOT HESITATE TO regard AS THE MOST EXPERIENCED OF ALL HOMOEOPATHIC PRACTITIONERS, AS A MOST SKILLFUL DIAGNOSTICIAN, AND, IN ONE WORD, AS ONE OF THE GREATEST PHYSICIANS OF OUR TIME.
 - ALPHONSE TESTE.