4     "Where experience showed the curative power of homœopathically acting remedies, whose mode of action could not be explained, the difficulty was avoided by calling them specific, and further investigation was stifled by this actually unmeaning word. The homogeneous excitant remedies, the specific (homœopathic), medicines, however, had long previously been prohibited as of very injurious influence."—Rau, On the Value of the Homœopathic Method of Treatment, Heidelberg, 1824, pp. 101, 102.