Driven from all these points of attack, the enemies to homo- CHAP. XIV. opathy begin, as people generally do, when reason refuses to acknowledge them, to abuse, to call names, to misstate facts.

"It

They cry out, "Oh, there is no science in homœopathy." is," says Dr. M'Naughten, "a system of physic made easy to the meanest capacity." Well, if it were, surely that would be no great evil to society. It is no objection to the dignity of mathematical and astronomical sciences, that the common sailor is able, by the aid of the tables, which these sciences have presented to him, to find out the geographical position of his vessel, and steer it accordingly.

Homœopathy, however, is not the easy practice represented. It is a certain, a sure practice; but, to obtain its certainty, requires great skill, most extensive and minute knowledge.

To cure a disease, two things are required; the first is, a perfect picture of the disease: nothing ought to be left out: considerable mental power is required to take in all the facts, to classify them in their several relationships, and according to their individual importance. The second is to obtain a remedy that, in its pathogenetic effects, presents a similar picture. Here a vast extent of knowledge is required. Indeed, any one who practises homœopathy knows that each complicated disease is a complex problem to be solved, and is so difficult, that only the great satisfaction connected with the high exercise of mind in grappling with a difficulty, and the reward, the result of such grappling-namely, certainty-could afford sufficient inducement to persevere in mastering its details.

But is not allopathy physic made easy to the meanest capacity? Do not chemists prescribe every day? Any man, who has capital enough to dissolve some blue vitriol in a glass bottle,

success.

worse as to call for other assistance, which have been treated homoeopathically with The writer attends the sisters of a surgeon who is deemed eminent, and he attends the family of a married sister of a physician, who is physician to one of the metropolitan hospitals; and yet such is the vindictiveness of these two parties against homoeopathists, that the patients are forced to seek homeopathic aid without the knowledge of these professional relatives. He has prescribed lately for a servant, as a gratuitous patient, of the most scientific physician in London.

* Pathogenetic is used as indicative of the effects, produced by a medicine, taken by a healthy person, upon that person.

U

CHAP. XIV. which he puts in his window, and to obtain some blue pill, salts, tincture of rhubarb, and a few other articles, begins to prescribe for the diseased. Are not quacks found who practise allopathy; and do not uneducated quacks succeed where the educated fail? Is not the public press filled with the professed remedies of every disease, to which the human body is subject? Did not this occur before homoeopathy was heard of? How could these uneducated men get a footing, unless there were so much facility and uncertainty in allopathy, thus affording such abundant ground for daring attempts, that IT is physic made easy to these ignorant fools, to these audacious scoundrels?

Finding this objection fail, the enemies of homœopathy say, OH, THE HOMEOPATHISTS ARE CHEATS. They take patients when we have cured them: though the stupid people think they are worse than when they came under our care, and leave us because they think so: then they go to the homœopathist, and he gives them medicine, and, because they get well, they say that the homoeopathic medicines cured them: whereas we were they who effected the cure: but the people are so ignorant: they are blind, they cannot see.

Such manifestation of unfairness is not unusual. Men generally do not like to find a man putting a machine in order, in the attempt to do which they had failed. I cannot do it, therefore none can, is the natural dictum of selfish conceit and such things will be uttered as long as selfish conceit exists: at least, until people are so enlightened that the ignorance of such talkers is seen to be self-conceit; and then they will have to live on their self-conceit, until the loss of their occupation humbles them to become the disciples of truth. This condition, as likely to occur with such objectors, reminds of an objection urged by some, that persons who have failed of success in connexion with the allopathic system, have recourse to homœopathy.

Even allowing this, for the sake of meeting the objection, were the case, it does not imply that the homœopathic truth is any less a truth. It does not follow, because Watt did not succeed in his first experiments in the application of steam, that his after applications were not effectual. It does not follow, because Newton's first calculations were not correct, that his after calcu

lations, which demonstrated the law of gravitation, were incor- CHAP. XIV. rect. Indeed, the unsuccessfulness may be regarded as the source of the successfulness. The unsuccessfulness is peculiarly the source of this success in connexion with men of strong minds; weak minds, in despair, would have given up the further examination and further efforts. The strong-minded are urged by the very unsuccessfulness to more strenuous efforts; they investigate the cause of their unsuccessfulness, and thus, guided by the detection of the source of fallacy, they are led, in the subsequent investigation, into the right channel.

The users of this argument are generally persons, whose skill would never give them a place in the profession, but whose want of skill is made up by family and pecuniary influence, and they look with envy on any one, who, practising another system, succeeds better even than they do, although unaided by the appliances which the objectors possess.

CHAPTER XV.

-The

Objection, Homœopathy has been tried and found wanting.— Dr. Bally's statements.-Drs. Simon and Curie's statements.-Dr. Andral's refusal to examine a cure. proceedings of the Parisian Academy of Medicine. — Objection that homeopathy came from Germany.

CHAP. XV.

But, say they, HOMEOPATHY HAS BEEN TRIED AND FOUND

WANTING.

It was tried, say they, in Paris, in Russia, and it failed.

Yes, it has been tried and found wanting by those who wanted to find it wanting, and who themselves wanted the necessary knowledge to be able to ascertain whether its wanting was real

or not.

In 1834, the Homœopathic Society of Paris memorialized the Minister of Public Instruction to legalize their constitution, to give them authority to found dispensaries, and to give gratuitous medicines and advice to the poor, and also to found an hospital as soon as they had funds sufficient.

The minister referred the matter to the Academy of Medicine, which appointed a commission to inquire into the claims of homœopathy.

The Academy condemned the doctrine of Hahnemann, reporting that they did not think it proper to recommend the minister to allow homœopathic dispensaries to be established.

The decision of the committee was founded on the reports of Dr. Bally and of Dr. Andral (junior). Dr. Bally maintained that no success attended the homoeopathic treatment.

Dr. Bally, at the Hotel Dieu, had assigned some patients to CHAP. XV. Dr. Simon and Dr. Curie, of whom the latter (a member of the English Homœopathic Association) is now practising homœopathy with great success in this metropolis.

In regard to these patients, it is to be remembered, that they were assigned by an opponent. Drs. Simon and Curie were not allowed to select their own patients; and the patients assigned were so diseased, that Drs. Simon and Curie sent a letter to Dr. Bally, stating that they were almost all incurable, and that, unless they had a more fair selection, they must decline to continue the treatment.

Why take such cases? it may be asked. The zeal of these gentlemen misled them. They considered it also a great step gained to have an opportunity of practising in the largest hospital in Paris: they hoped that their communication might obtain for them pupils of a different class: and they felt, that even with the worst, something might be done.

Dr. Bally did not, however, present them with better cases: he was busy at the time, experimenting on the virtues of kreosote, and kept all the favourable patients to himself.

Dr. Bally made his report to the Academy, that Drs. Simon and Curie cured only two patients.-(Appendix, "Homœopathy and its Progress."

This was not a fair report: for, though two patients only were cured, others, deemed incurable, had their cases so much relieved, that the patients left the hospital at their own request.

The record of all the cases was kept in Dr. Bally's note book: Dr. Bally was requested to give a copy of the cases from his note book, so that the whole of the facts might be published; but, strange to say, "the note book has been mislaid."

In addition to this, it is asserted that Dr. Andral tried several experiments with homoeopathic medicines and did not find any results. Dr. Andral did try his experiments, and read a paper regarding the same to the Academy of Medicine; the paper itself demonstrates that Andral was so far ignorant of the effects of the medicine, and of the method by which the application of these medicines in disease is regulated, that it is perfectly certain that no effects could have resulted. Dr. Andral did not wish