Joy, those "endearing comments" were not made for fun, they were made as a very specific illustration of the idea that, although in *most* situations susceptibility is *primary* (we live in a sea of microbes, and most of them are not harmful to most of us, and many are even helpful)--but there are some microbes and some situations where most people are susceptible. And I have also tried to say that most of us have "windows" of susceptibility, so between those two factors I am not inclined to completely dismiss the role of "germs." Call it planting fear if you like, but that is not what I would call it. I don't find it fearful, only useful information.
Miasm, where did I mention that recently... No matter.
What does Hahnemann say? I assume I will be quoting nothing at you that you're not already completely familiar with, so not quite sure why the exercise, but okay... For the sake of the "students."
(Sorry for this wide-spaced formatting--I don't know how to put it back to single space.)
(1) From:
little@simillimum.com
Subject: Re: [H] Re: viruses/ Hahnemann on Cholera
Date: May 23, 2006 12:52:35 AM CDT
To:
homeopathy@homeolist.com
"Snow was a believer in the germ theory of cholera, as opposed to the
then-dominant miasma theory. He first publicised his theory in an essay On
the Mode of Communication of Cholera in 1849. In 1855 a second edition was published, with a much more elaborate investigation of the effect of the
water-supply in the Soho, London epidemic of 1854.
By talking to local residents he identified the cause of the outbreak as
the public water pump on Broad Street (now Broadwick Street), and it was
disabled by removing the pump handle. Although this action has been
popularly reported as ending the outbreak, the epidemic was already in rapid
decline, as explained by Snow himself:"
Hello all,
[...] . Hahnemann wrote the following in the Cause and Prevention of the Asiatic Cholera in 1831.
"The most striking examples of infection and rapid spread of cholera take place as it is well know, and as the pubic journals likewise inform us, in this say: On board ships-in those confined spaces, filled with mouldy watery vapours, the cholera miasm finds a favorable element for its multiplication, and grows into an enormously increased brood of the excessively minute, invisible, living creatures, so inimical to human life, of which, the contagious matter of the cholera most probably consists - on board these ships, I say, this concentrated aggravated miasm kills several of the crew; the others, however, being frequently exposed to the danger of infections and thus gradually habituated to it, at length become fortified against it, and no longer liable to be infected.
In this article Hahnemann raises several interesting ideas. The first is that the infections agent of cholera are "excessively minute, invisible creatures" that can multiply in the right conditions. He also notes that some persons seem to become immune to the infection. [...]
(2) The fact that he named two of the three major miasms as "venereal" would seem to indicate that he considered them contagious, wouldn't it?
There are more examples, but these should be enough to make my point--that, although he emphatically placed the greatest emphasis upon the "terrain", susceptibility, he also did "believe in" both contagion and also little noxious beasties that today we call (various sorts of) microbes. Some of the things that we now ascribe to microbes, he considered to be "energetic"--well hey, nobody's perfect.
Shannon