Dr. Hartmann’s response in reply to N. G., F. T. S.][1]
WHAT SYSTEM OF MEDICINE IS THE BEST?
You are perhaps aware that I am by profession a medical practitioner besides being the teacher of Medicine in the local Medical School. It is therefore of the greatest importance that I should know the true laws of cure and learn to distinguish between what is good, and what is indifferent in each system of medicine, and also between a sound and a false system.
Will you therefore kindly take the trouble to ask any of our Revered Mahatmas whether
Allopathy.
Homœpathy.
Mesmerism.
Electropathy.
Hakeemee or the Greece-Arabic system.
Ayurveda as taught in Charaka and Susruta, or
Ayurveda as taught in Tantras and later Hindo works, is to be preferred as being based on true principles. In case there be truths in each of the above systems, I am anxious to know in what diseases each System is superior to the others.
Yours fraternally,
G., F. T. S.
To comply with the request of our brother, to tell him in what diseases each system of medicine is superior to another, it would ho necessary to write a complete work on Therapeutics. If a person needs mechanical treatment, the Homœopathic plan of salvation would be of little use; while in other cases Homœopathic treatment would do less harm than the heroic practice of Dr. Sangrado. Electricity may do good or may do harm, according to the manner in which it is applied, and while the magnetism of a pure and unselfish mesmeriser can do no harm, that of a selfish and ignorant magnetiser is always injurious.
Shakespeare says: “There is good in every thing.” We would therefore advise our brother to study the nature of disease, and then practise that system, which he understands best.
B.
Notes:
[1] What System of Medicine is the Best? A.B. [American Buddhist; Franz Hartmann’s response in reply to the question.] The Theosophist 5, no. 8 (May 1884), 203. {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos, by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}