AKr-: IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // 'j^.'ftSv'?;sii^iSS: "■■s>%ft^'S\'J?*(*:$3^ 1.0 I.I 1^ 1^ IIIM 1^ 112.2 1^ 1^ IIIIIM 1.8 ' 1.25 |||.4 1.6 < 6" ► <^ /J ^/. 7 /A Photographic Sdences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14S80 (716) 872-4503 IL o I CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notas techniques et bibliographiques The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Features of this copy which may be bibliographically unique, which may alter any of the images in the reproduction, or which may significantly change the usual method of filming, are checked below. D D D D n Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur r~~\ Covers damaged/ Couverture endommagie Covers restored and/or laminated/ Couverture restaurio et/ou peiliculie □ Cover title missing/ Le titre de couverture manque r~l Coloured maps/ D Cartes giographiques en couleur Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bieue ou noire) Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur Bound with other material/ Relii avec d'autres documents Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion along interior margin/ La re liure serree peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distorsion le long de la marge intirieura Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajouties lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, mais, lorsque eels 6tait possible, ces pages n'ont pas iti filmAes. Additional comments:/ Commentaires supplimentaires; L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a iti possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-itre uniques du point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite. ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dans la mithode normale de filmage sont indiquds ci-dessous. □ Coloured pages/ Pages de couleur □ Pages damaged/ Pages endommagies □ Pages restored and/or laminated/ Pages restauries et/ou pelliculAes Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Pages d^colories, tacheties ou piquees a Pages detached/ Pages ditachees T r~~] Showthrough/ D Transparence Quality of print varies/ Qualiti inigale de I'impression Includes supplementary material/ Comprend du matiriel supplimentaire Only edition available/ Seuie Mition disponible T P o fi G b tl ti o fi •i o T tl T vt N dl •I bi ri r« IT Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata slips, tissues, etc.. have been refilmed to ensure the best possible image/ Les pages totalement ou partiellement obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata. une pelure, etc., cnt 4t6 filmies i nouveau de facon i obtenir la meilleure image possible. This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est filmi au taux de reduction indiqui ci-dessous. 10X 14X 18X 22X 12X 16X J 20X 26X 30X 24X 28X ] 32X itails I du odifier une mage Th« copy film«d h«r« has b««n raproducMl thanks to tha ganarosity of: McLennan Library .'.'■ '■■^'''-S' ■" '^■'':'''- '^■■^'>- McGill University T\' ''''■■■''■■'''■-:.-'■ i:C''''-\ Montreal Tha imagaa appaaring hara ara tha bast quality possibia considaring tha condition and iaJEiibiiity of tha original copy and in Icaaping with tha filming contract spaeifications. L'axampiaira filmA fut raproduit grica i la gAnirosIt* da: McLennan Library McGill University Montreal Laa Imagaa suhrantaa ont 4ti raproduitas avac la piua grand soin. compta tanu da ia condition at da la nattatA da l'axampiaira film*, at an conformiti avac laa conditiona du contrat da fiimaga. Original copiaa in printad papar covars ara fiimad baglnning with tha front covar and anding on tha last paga with a printad or llluatratad impraa- sion, or tha bacic covar whan appropriata. Ail othar original copias ara fiimad baginning on tha first paga with a printad or llluatratad impras* sion, and anding on tha laat paga with a printad or llluatratad impraasion. Las axamplairas originaux dont la couvartura wt paplar aat ImprimAa sont filmte an comman^nt par la pramiar plat at an tarminant soit par la darniAra paga qui comporta una amprainta d'Impraaaion ou d'illuatration, soit par la sacond plat, salon la eas. Toua las autraa axamplairaa originaux sont fllmAs an commandant par la pramiAra paga qui comporta una amprainta d'Impraaaion ou d'llluatratlon at an tarminant par la darnlAra paga qui comporta una taila amprainta. Tha laat racordad frama on aaeh microfieha shall contain tha symbol — •^' (moaning "CON- TINUED"), or tha symbol ▼ (moaning "END"), whichavar appiiaa. Un daa symboiaa suivants apparattra sur la damlAra imaga da chaqua microfieha, salon la caa: la symbols — ^signifia "A SUIVRE". la symbols ▼ slgnifia "FIN". rrata pelure, 1 i 32X Maps, platas. charts, ate., may ba fiimad at diffarant reduction ratios. Thoaa too large to ba entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand comer, left to right and top to bottom, aa many framae aa required. The following diegrams illustrate the method: t t 3 Lee cartea, planclwe. tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre filmAa A dee taux do rAduction diffArents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reprodult en un seul clichA, 11 est filmA A partir da I'angia supArieur gauche, do gauclie A droite, et do haut en bee, en prenent le nombre d'Imeges nAcesseire. Les diagrammas suivants illustrant la mAthode. t 2 S 4 A 6 LETTERS DISCUSSING HOMEOPATHY A LECTURE ON THE LIFE AND INSTINCTS OF ORGANISMS. BV JOHN WANLESS' M.B. M.D. ETC, ETC. "VT". DK.'Y'SDJ^IjE &c CO. / m) ) S 2,5 32 Letter from Dr. Wanless, in reply to Sir Banjamiii iBrodies attack on the Homoeopathic School . (To the Editor of the Free Presn). Sir, — I have observed a letter in your daily on the subject of Ilomceopathy, written by Sir Benjamin Rrodie, which was represented as being copied from Fraser's Magazine, Sir Benjamin Brodie lias long occupied a high position in the medical profession, and anything which he writes for the public will have, on that account, great weight for good or evil amongst all who speak the English language ; but as I conceive that the opinion of Sir Benjamin Brodie, however high he may stand, is founded on a wrong basis, I hope you will afTord me some space to show why I liave formed this opinion, as there can be no sub- ject of greater importance to the people than a knowledge of what is true and false in the department of medical education, called by u xlical men the practice of physic. Sir Benjamin, in his opening remarks, makes mention cf young men being generally more fond of new theories than old men. lie might have added that apprentices of all kinds gener- ally presumed to know more than their masters and a first year's student is generally bolder in his assertions than when he becomes maturer in years. These i"emarksaie immaterial as to the truth or falsehood of homoeopathy, but it is very important to know how Sir Ben- jamin 15rodie has examined the subject, which he takes upon himself to denounce with so much assumed love of science. Sir Benjamin says : " I have made myself sufficiently acquainted with several Morks which profess to disclose the system of homcuopathy, espe- cially that of Hahnemann, the founder of the homccopattiic sect, and those of Dr. Curiie and Mr. Sharpe, er'c." lie then refers those who \\n\c good sense to the same books, ar.d anticipates that those who have good sense and caution in scientific investij^ations will arrive at the same conclusion as he himself has done, but of coui'se those who do not arrive at the same conclusion as Sir Benjamin will neither have good sense nor crution. This infer- ence is very apparent. Sir Benjamin Bi-odie, from having read those books only, and not having tested their truth by experiment, concludes that homoeopathy is of no value. In chemical science, Fowne, for instance, states that a white salt, such as iodide of potassium, dissolved in dis- tilled water, and poured into a vessel containing another white salt, bichloride of mercury, will produce a red salt, per iodide of mercury. Suppose Sir B. Brodie to be rather credu- lous in chemistry too, and anxious to know whether Fowne's statement, that two white salts would make a red one or not, would, without first putting the statement to the test, simply pronounce Fowne to be an impostor, and that Fowne's statement was of no value. It would be said at once that Sir Benjamin's assertions were of no value as to whether the two white salts would make a red salt or not, because he had neglected to fulfil the condi- tion implied, viz., to demonstrate to his own senses, independent of any foregone conclu- sion, whether the two white salts would make a red one or not. This is precisely the con- dition Sir Benjamin occupies with regard to homoeopathy ; Hahnemann, Currie and Shaipe state that there is a principle of cure of as wonderful results as that two white salts would make a red one. Sir Benjamin has not put this principle of similia similibus cnrantur to the test. He has simply stated a priori, that it is of no value, as a person would have stated a priori ihai two while salts would not make a red one. It has been proved by experiment that these two white salts which I have named do make a red salt, and a most lieautiful red one too, and that they will continue to make a red one under similar conditions while the world lasts. It has, likewise, been proved by hosts of men of as high medical and scientific attainments as Sir benjamin IJrcdie, and the most reliable statistics, that the principle of homoeopathy, when put in practice, will be attended with the results stated by Hahnemann, Currie, and Sharpe, and will continue to be attended with similar results, under similar conditions, while the world lasts. Therefore, Sir Uenjamin IJrodie, having made a bold assertion without having substantiated it by demonstration, which is necessary in inductive science, has proved himself in this instance to have departed from the mode acknowledged to be necessary in the investigation of a scientific truth. Therefore, Sir Benjamin IJrodie's assertion, being based upon an error, is utterly valueless, and is stamped with the mark of empiricism, fully proven from his own lips, confirming the old adage, that it is often the greatest empiric who first cries out empiric the loudest. Again, Sir Benjamin ■denounces another rule which he says some homoeopathic writers hold to be of great impor- tance, viz., " the infinitesimal close." An infinitesimal dose is not the principle involved at all; a medicine may act homceopathically, without necessarily being infinitesimal. How- ever, we will grant, for the sake of following Sir Benjamin in his assertions, that the homoe- opathic dose is infinitesimal — therefore, according to Sir Benjamin, "no treatment at all." llie homoeopathic mode of reducing medicines by trituration and attenuation is, by the decimal or centesimal attenuation ; the centesimal is by taking one grain or minum of a medicinal substance, and mixing it with 99 of another vehicle ; this would produce the first attenuation ; one drop of this first attenuation is again taken and reduced, by being mixed with another 99 of a vehicle, and this would be the second attenuation ; and so on, so that the 30th attenuation would be reached without requiring more than seven ounces of water, or 2,970 drops of vehicle to one of medicine, instead of " gallons and hogsheads," as Sir Benjamin has erroneously stated, for effect — but we will say ('infinitesimal" to please Sir Benjamin, until the dose becomes as fine as the imprint of an idea on the encephalon of a boy, and then dilute this imprint further by having it remain throughout the boy's life, for four score years and ten, and still the imprint lasts, although it is alleged that the matter upon which the original imprint was made has been 'entirely changed every seven years. I would think that this imprint was a more infinitesi- mial dose than even Sir Benjamin's one drop in a hogshead of water. ]}y parity of reason- ing, Sir Benjamin Brodie would say a priori that because of the infinitesimal nature ot memory there is no memory that whosoever says that there is memory is an impostor and a ■quack, but it is proven and known to be an every-day fact, wonderful as it may be, that the imprint called memory exists through life, therefore Sir Benjamin Brodie's assertions, with- out test, that an infinitisimal dose has no effect is just as absurd and unscientific as when he said that the law of sitnilia similibus cnrantur was of no value, for we have thus proven in both instances that Sir Benjamin Brodie has acted unwarrantably in a scientific matter. His assertions are contrary to known facts, and are, therefore, absurd and puny. Life itself is infinitesimal, 3-et how vast its power over matter ; so with other powers, gravitation, heat, cold, electricity, malaria, (S^c. One grain of strychnine will impart bitterness to forty thousand parts of water. One five thousandth part of a grain of strychnine will cause tetanic convulsions in young frogs. One part of iodine will impart a brown color to seven thousand parts of water. By this dilution it is seen that the iodine is spread over a larger surface, and by virtue of being 4^ \ would have n proved by and a most ar conditions igli medical ics, that the ts staled by ilar results, odie, having is necessary im the mode lerefore, Sir is stamped adage, that ir Benjamin jreat impor- : involved at nal. How- t the homcc- lent at all." n is, by the minum of a produce the dj by being lation ; and more than 3f "gallons ve will say the imprint >y having it nprint lasts, ide has been re infinitesi- y ofreason- il nature ot lostor and a be, that the tions, with- is when he s proven in ific matter. Life itself ation, heat, ater. One 3ung frogs. r- By this e of being I thus spread over a larger surf.ice wdl have a move powerful effect oa l.iO system than if the original portion had been given in a crude state. Tliis will be apparent. Hence the benefit of higli attenuation in iionifcopalhic medicines, whose power over disease is just as well proven as tiiat opium relieves pain in allopathic do.ses. I have liilherto tliought tliat Sir iJenjamin IJrodie knew that a foregone conclusion was tlic very worst condition in wliich a sciei'tific truth was to be investigated, but now I must alter my opinion regarding Sir lien- jamin, for his conduct in this respect is utterly at variance with liis high status as a man of sc ience. The most invisible and inllnite causes are often tiie most p )wei'ful, not the gross and ponderous. Sir Benjamin may not be able to see through his telescope wliy or how the ]ioniceoi)atliic doses perform their curative mission, but it is sufficient to know by the evidence of our senses that tiiey do perform it, and that much more satisfactorily than do the big doses of ailopatliy, at wliich nature .so revolts that when given eitiier externally or internally the whole stniggle of the system seems to be e.xerted to get rid of the pernicious things {/h/si'/y c,i/L\/ ciirntive) as soon as possible. Unlike the tambourine, guitar and (iddle-llying of spirit notoriety, which we were asked to investigate some years ago in a dark room, with our hands tied, a cord passed through our button hole, and our remaining senses required to be passive while we shut our eyes and looked with our mouths at the e.\i>ectc(l appearances. Ilomoeopatliy takes higher grour.d than that ; she courts investiga- tion in open day, above board, with all our senses fully active to see the demonstrations of the pillule and attenuation assisting nature with a power, performing Us office as quietly as los'e. Sir Benjamin Brodie states that in the great majority of cases nature will cure her- self. I agree with him in this respect. Me likewise states that homccopathic globules are no better than distilled water in those cases which require the interference of art. I pre- sume that those globules are no worse tlinn distilled water either ; this is a higher com- mendation than allopathy can receive, for its principle involves dislurbrince and destruction, more or less, of normal tissues. It is not satisfactory to say, according to our allopathic authors, that we may use purges, diuretics, (liajihoritics and blisters, because nature some- times perforins such functions to relieve her.-elf in diseases, for allopathists puige without knowing beforthand whether the local instincts of the intestinal canal have resolved to adopt this coursj as the best fjr ilischarging what may be the result of infinite living chemis- try. To give purgatives before nature indicates that this is to be her mode maybe, instead of assistin;^ nature, interrupting her in her quiet but powerfully beneficial procedure before it is completed, as it would be in cholera, er'c, when nature discharges the elTete tissues by the intestinal canal, which should have been di.-charged by way of the kidneys. Nature doe? her work generally in a most admirable way, and we have no symptoms in internal disease to tell beforehand whether nature is to choose the skin, kidneys, luiigs, liver or bowels to get off the offending abnormality. How do we know, in cases of pneumonia, when the chlorates are not discharged by the urine, in what way nature is resolving to dis- charge them ? Can Sir Benjamin lell in any given case be fore liand in which way she is to do it ? I think that he cannot scientifically do so, but he may a priori unwarrantably con- clude without proof (as he has done in hoimcopathy), and drench mischievously the epithe- lium from the tubuli uriniferi by diuretics, and yet not induce nature to discharge the chlorates or other effete or poisonous substances ir any other manner than was intended by the local instincts of organs— by their power of lismg chemistry, thereby missing his mark, while he may ruin the constitutions of his patients. A medicine given in a drug dose to a healthy person will so act upon the local instincts as that these instincts will set up a certain train of symptoms. Now, if these same kind of il G symptoms arc produced in a dynamic disease, it is but rational to infer tliat the same local instincts are affected in loth cases. Medicines t;ivtn, then, nccoriling to the law of similia sitiiilitus curaulur, and capal)le> as above stated, of producing symi)tums similar to the disease which it jirofesses to cure, testify inconlestably that the local instincts which produce a dynamic disease will be affected by the admin'slration of the homa-opathic medicine. Ilomo'opathy prompts the local instincts of abnormal organism to a return to their normal condition, in conformity with, not contrary to, the natural living laws of those organs. The highest medical in.ellects, who have been duly trained to think, reason, and examine, after having qualified themselves by their drinking deeply at the fountains of inorganic and organic chemistry, jihysiology, anatomy, and all the collateral branches to the practice of physic, have become disgusted with the old school system of that practice, and they now bear testimony in favor of the great success of honutopathy in the most acute as well as in chronic diseases. This the most carefully prepared statistics amply show. Homoeopathy ha-i its chairs, its journals, its cliniques, its profess )rs, who teach, and its public, who not only listen an 1 b.-lieve, but rejoice in the marvellous potency of the pillule ; it is a natural law, of necessity true, and it cannot be set aside, because the experience of those who fairly test the homavipathic principle is every day establishing it as a fact, and facts are stubborn things, which cannot be done away with except by a countcrfact, and that requires to be brought forward ; well sustained by credible evidence, not by an assertion without proof. Sir I'enjamin again states " ihat there are numerous cases in which spontaneous recovery is out of the question, in which sometimes the life or death of the jiatient, and at other times the comfort or discomfort of his existence for a long time to come, depends upon the prom]it application of judicious remedies. Now the question arises, what are those cases, and what is the judicious treatment in Sir Ik-njnmin's school which he thus sets forth as the true scientific palladium of cure. I have to confess that I entered the practice of the pro. fession more than a quaitcr of a century ago, and my old teacher. Dr. Mcintosh, of Edinburgh, then held that he was the man who held the only judicious treatment in his palm. I went forth with zeal, inijiarted to me by our beloved preceptor, as it was imparted doubtless to my fellow-students, but 1 soon found that Dr. Mcintosh's judicious treatment in those cases where spontaneous cures were out of the question became, in course of time, very injudicious tieatiiient in consequence of the ever-vnr)iiig nature of old scliuol practice. I remember well in 1835, '" ^ ^^^^^ of pneumonia \\liicii 1 treated when I had neglected to have my lancets with me, how I ]ierspired with horrid fear lest some of my brethren would come to know that I had not bled my jiatienl, but my patient recovered better without bleeding than many I had had of a similar nature befoie had done with bkeiling, and from that day to this I have never bled in cases of pneumonia. J was called a quack about 18 years ago, in th's city, for not bleeding a patient, by a medical friend, \\ho would not now bleed a patient himself in a similar case. J have not bled in any case for the last 12 years, finding more success than when I did. I'hysiology now teaches that bleeding never can c-ure inflammation ; as it is with bleeding so it is with other treatment, and as I was early accustimied to view the differences of treatment by different medical men in a large hospital in early life, I was forced to observe tlie results of their practice and my own, as it was develojied in the study of the natural history of diseases, undeterred by the grandmother cry of quack, well knowing that there would be no advancement in mechanics or arts or science of any kind if these epithets, unsupported by reason, were considered of any weight. It was from my own experience in looking upon the old method of the practice of physic that I resolved, five or six years ago, to try to discover a principle of action somewhere, as * lie same local nnd capable* esses to cure, II l)e affeclcd tlieir normal hose organs, uid examine, lorganic and e practice of id they now IS well as in lomoeopathy ic, who not is a natural e who fairly re stubborn quires to be lliout proof, us recovery ind at other Is upon the those cases, forth as the of the pro. Iclniosh, of iicnt in his as imparted s treatment sc of lime, ol practice, eglected to iren would ter without , and from k about 1 8 Id not now t 12 years, never can was early je hospital as it was ndmother or arts or ly weight, of physic where, as ^. there was no principle in the old method that I could discover but individual egotism, except chemical antidotes, when proved to act in the living machinery, and specifics. When I was in the Dundee Royal Infirmary, 30 years ago, the greatest braggart and the most heroic practitioner showed much the greater amount of deaths as the result of his practice than any of the other hospital attendants who treated their patients more mildly, when correct statistics where obtained, per case book, I began to test homceopathy, with a view to ridicule it, six years ago, but I got converted to its truth instead. But what do men of eminence say about the judicious treatment of the present day in the allopathic school, which is a heterogenous absurdity, consisting of Sydenham's notion, Hoffman's, Van Swieten's, Boerhaave's and Ikoujsai's, having no fixed principle of action, well described in the confession of faith drawn up by the famous and erudite Dr. Lettsom : " When people's ill they comes to I I purges, bleeds and sweats 'em — Sometimes they live, sometimes they die — Wh.-it's that to I— I Lettsom." Mr. Leeson, an opponent of hymceopathy, says, " That there are 410 preparations in the pharmacopjjeia of the Royal College of Physicians, which that body considers worthy of use. It is from these that the medical youths of the country are instructed to cull their remedies, and apply them in every form of disease. Nearly all the waters, spirits, unctions have little or no influence over any form of disease, when used as internal or external remedies. Many of the mineral preparations are absolutely injurious in their effect under every circumstance, while the retention of other remedies is burlesque and nonsense." Dr. Hufeland, of Berlin, says, " My opinion is, that more harm than good is done by physicians ; and thi.t I am convinced that, had I left my patients to nature, instead of prescribing drugs to them, more would have been saved. Dr. Paris, the head of the Royal College of Physicians, says, " The file of every apothecary would furnish a volume of instances where the ingredients were fighting in the dark." Professor Widekind says, " We may get grey, and if God pleases, white hair, but never experience from our present mixture practice. If, however, homoeupalhy induces us to give less medicine, to change it less frequently, and not to mix many drugs together, we may some day, with useful obser- vations, glory in medical ex])erience, which we unhappily cannot at present, when the only result of experience is a confirmation of error." Dr. Reid makes the horrifying con- fession, "That more infantile subjects are, perhaps, diurnally destroyed by the mortar and pestle than in the ancient Bethlehem fell victims in one day to the Herodian massacre." Frank says, " It is not considered that thousands are slaughtered in the quiet sick room," and complains that government looks far less after the practice of this dangerous art and the murders committed in it, than after the lowest tragedy ; while Dr. James Johnston declares that, " it is his conscientious opinion that if there were not a single physician, or surgeon, or apothecary, or man widwife,or chemist, or druggist, or drug in the world, there would be less mortality amongst mankind than there is now." Dr. Gorth, in the poem of " The Dispensary," says : — " The piercing caustics ply their spiteful power, Emetics wrench, and ke?n cathartics scour ; The deadly drugs in double doses fly , And pestals peal a martial symphony." Dr. Dickson says, " So far as my experience goes, few people are permitted to die of disease ; the orthodox fashion is to die of the doctor," Sir Astley Cooper says, " The 8 science of medicine was founded on conjecture, and improved by murder." Dr. Coombe, on reviewing the present state of medical practice, says " In fact, medicine, so often prac- tised by men of undoubted respectability, is made so much of a mystery, and is so nearly allied, if not identified, with quackery, tiiat it would puzzle many a rational on-looker to tell which is the one and which is the other ; " while Dr., now Sir John Forbes, one of her Majesty's court [physicians, and a gentleman of European celebrity, does not hesitate to say, " Tliat things have arrived at such a pitch that they cannot be worse ; they must either end or mend." With individual practitioners belonging to the old school, every one is more loud than his neighbour (if possible) in proclaiming that orthodoxy is his province, while heterodoxy is liis neighbour's, and it is generally the smallest who stretch their neck the most for pre-eminence in this respect, and while each one in liis arrogance lays hold of the name of science, he performs acls most unwortliy of it. I have known one of those kind of practitioners hen called to see, en passant, a dying patient of another practitioner, step forward and 'give opium to soothe tiie way to death, when tiie same kind of medicine had been given for the same purpose not a quarter of an hour before. Now that is tlie science and these are the practitioners of it, whom Sir Benjamin Brodie would wish to place as the rulers of the healing art in tlie world. No wonder that the great and First Napoleon, when discussing witji his doctor regarding the practice of medicine, said, "Doctor, no physicing ; we are a machine made to live, we are organized for that purpose, a!.(l such is our nature. Do not counteract the living principle ; let it alone • leave it the liberty of defending itself ; it will do better than your drugs." This sentiment of Napoleon is in accordance with the profoundest knowledge of living chemistry and the physiology of organs. The homoeopa- thic law is llie one cliosen by Llie Creator of man for the cure of dynamic diseases ; it is the only artificial remedial principle worthy of the name of Science ; it is consistant with the local instincts of organs, in their wonderful living cliemical and physiological functions. Again, Sir B. Brodie remarks that it is the diagnosis of disease, which is of so much importance. No doubt it is if the cure depends upon particular reniidies being given to individual cases— but how far short we come here as the practitioners of d science. Dr. A. V ill diagnose almost every case in which he is consulted as deseased liver — hence the everlasting blue pill and black draught, " to put right the portal system," without stating how. Dr. B. will diagnose almost every case as diseased heart — hence digitalis and anta- gonistic prescriptions ad nauseum, er-'c. Dr. C. will diagnose remittent fever for worms and bronchitis, abscess in the groin for hernia, &'c. ; and to confirm his statement, will a.ssei* that he is the highest man in the city, who lias (untruly) any -'amount of similar cas ler treatment, all round." These diseases would be inverted liy eacli practitioner, if the one superseded the other, and tlie last nan in attendance almost always pronounces his predecessor the aJminisirahir 0/ pojsou, and tosses any delinquent medicine observed out of the fir.=t window with holy horror, as poison. No wonder that people have become disgusted with allopatliy ; the practitioners of it destroy themselves unintentionally. The medicines in the allopathic prescriptions, wliich are found to be most useful in the curing of diseases, will be found by those who take the trouble to e.\amine them, to be homoeopa- thic to the disease which they cure because nature herself cures disease by another disease, which is similar and not contrary to the original one. Purgatives, diaphoretics, diuretics, expectorants, blisters, &-'c,, are ever the ready remedies in the old school, whatever be the diagnosis. Now, I challenge Sir Benjamin, or any other of his school on this side the Atlantic, to produce testimony how they know that they assist nature, when administering their drugs, which have ever been varying since I entered the profession — the latest ortho- dox drug displacing the first, for no other reason than that the one just set aside, and which ® was introdu inert. Fas and hoops, infinitesima Parr. Hot those very 1 essence of medicine, \ their fellow hood and inquiry, an they were Jenner was It would Si greater th if it toucl like all tn law of na physician countries, invites a verdict w be in nci principle upon that That tria highest ill And what of old (an threatens have seen upon him pie but 1 of poison of nature doing ha and com (^he hand has gro scourgec from tht of the o hitherto phecy, " magn threat c asked ? poison 9 Dr. Coombe, o often prac- is so nearly on-looker to s, one of her hesitate to ' must either y one is more vince, while uir neck the liold of the f those kind itioner, step ledicine had tlie science place as the oleon, when ) physicing ; our nature, iding itself; ce with the homaopa- ;eases ; it is ■iistant with 1 functions, of so much ig given to :e. Dr. A. -hence the lout stating s and anta- for worms aient, will of similar ractitioner, pronounces : observed ve become ally. The the curing liomcEopa- er disease, diuretics, ver be the s side the linistering est ortho- and which was introduced ten years ago in the Lancet with a sound of trumpets, is now found to be inert. Fashion and not science rules the roast, like tight stays, bad Tentilation, no exercise and hoops. Homoeopathy is neither a quack nostrum, nor the giving of a necessarily infinitesimal quantity of medicine ; it iias no relation to the tribe of Snooks, Ilolloway or Parr, llomceopathy gives us to understand that diseases in the sick are ."dually cured by those very medicines which are capable of producing similar syaiptoms in the healthy. The essence of quackery is secrecy, like tiie conduct of some old braggarts in the practice of medicine, whose principle in obtaining practice for themselves mainly consists in stabbing their fellow piactitioners assassin-like in the daik, by inuendoes, shakes of the head, false- hood and ridicule, ilomoeopalhy has no secrets to disclcse ; instead of this it courts inquiry, and entreats its opponents to investigate it, as Jenner and Hervey did before, when' they were persecuted and condemned by the whole profession of physic of their day. Jenner was told that cow's horns would giow upon baby's heads if they were vaccinated. It would seem that a trutli in science is sometimes looked upon like a trutli in law — the greater the truth the greater the libel ; so the greater the truth in science, especially if it touches on vested interests, tlie greater is tlie persecution it will meet with ; but, like all truth, homceopatliy raises its head, and will continue to do so, as an intelligible law of nature, capable of proof by ordinary evidence. It is a simple guide to the physician in the clioice of tiie medicine to be given, applicable at all times, in all countries, and in all cases. It challenges investigation side by side with allopathy ; invites a fair trial and no favor ; defies refutation, and is willing to abide by the verdict which an intelligent and impartial pulilic shall give, provided only that verdict be in accordance witli the evitlence jiroduced, according to lllackstone's fundamental principle of law, viz : — " That as well the best nicthotl of tri;il as the best evidence upon that trial which the nnture of the case al'brds, nr:d no other shall be admitted.'' That trial has been made with hunux'opathy, and Ih.e experinent has i)rovcd to the highest intellectual and most inipartial scientific men, that homcoopathy is a fixed fact. And what does Sir Benjamin Brodie threaten the establishment of that fact with? — not, as of old (and that is an improvcnunt in our lime), with tl'.e prison and the pillory; but he threatens the professors of honKoupatl^.y with pains of avoidance and non-constdtation. We have seen what an unsatisfactory slate the practice of medicine which Sir Denjamin takes upon hiiiicelf to call a science is in— its jumble of conflicting theories, without any princi- ple but routine for its guiilnnce, having effects injurious to the systf i, and called the art of poisoning by its very members Iloinoccpathy is a system which has an unerring law of nature for its guidance, coupletl with a means of application beyond the possibility of doing harm — a system which has w ithstood the fiercest opposition, the most unblushing and continuous misre[)resentation, the keenest ridicule, and the most violent aspersions at jhe hands of its detractors — a system which notwithstatuiing these adverse circumstances^ has grown and increased like the sturdy oak, whose boughs, rocketl l)y the storm and scourged by the blast, only strikes its roots deeper into the ground, and gathers strength from the sweep of the hurricane, till it has taken a firm hold upon the minds of every class of the community — a system N\hich at no distant date, will assuredly supersede nny other hitherto practised, and which even now can utter to its antagi nist the sure word of pro- phecy, "Thou must decrease, but I shall increase," and this for the simple reason that " magna est Veritas et prrcvalebit " — great is the truth, and it shall prevail. What can the threat of an allopath in refusing a consultation with a homccoiiath amount to, even when asked ? The sick patient will not lose anything because he is relieved from his eiread of poison ; the homceopathist cannot lose when the two principles are compared. Sir Ben- 10 jamin and the craft will ba the only losing parties, because they only continue to remain in Mie (lark, when they might see the light with a new telescope. So there I leave them until they gather more wisdom, and become able to take truth from whatever quarter it may come. Until then they wdl only appear like the sulky and arrogant child, who refuses food intended for his own jjood. With the homoeopathist, your refusal to consult) Sir 15enjamin, can only result in your own discredit, like that which resulted to the persecutors of Ilervey. Yours, truly, JOHN WANLESS. Hitchcock-street, London, Ontario, Nov. 1 6, 1 86 1. M. B. EXPLANATORY The following letters have ai)peaied in the Montreal Transcript. The communication was over an anonymous signature from a desire that the question of Homoeopathy should be divested of all personal relations, and thus left to be dealt with on its own merits. Two letters over the signature of ,/«^/-/////«/'«^ having appeared, one of which professed to deal with facts, it appeared desirable that secrecy should no longer exist. "Anti Humbug" having also promised a tliiid letter, " Homoeopathy"' felt it would be better that the cor- respundence sliould h.niceforlh l:)e over the writer's real name. That promised third letter has not appeared, and it must therefore be inferred that " Anti-Humbug " feels himself silenced. Resting upon the solid base of Nature's law, that like cures like, the Homoeo- patii has not the sliglUest fear of discussion with the adherents of a practice of Medicine in which all is doubtful and uncertain, only so far as it accords with that law. The tiue Honi.e. ipath has no desire to injure the practice of any regular professional medical man, but only urges upon liie latter as a bounden duty to himself, to God and to suffering human- ity, llint he test fairly and honestly tlie great law upon which all curative action rests. There are now thousands of regularly educated Piiysicians and Surgeons who have given up the uncertainties and injuiious treatment of Allopathy for the safe and reliable practice of Honia'opalhy. Under its treatment acute cases yield and recover with a rajiidity which amazes the most exjierienced practitioner, while many chronic cases are greatly relieved, or entirely cured, whicli resisted the .skill and attention of Allopathic physicians f^r years. In some instances the same medical man, who tbund his eflforts baffled wiiile an Allopath, met with almost immediate success after adopting the true method of cure. Tlie correspondence is now placed in a complete form before the public, and intelligent men are a.sked to give their serious attention to a matter which relates so closely to their own comfort, and to the interests of Humanity. MoMRLAi,, August, 1S64. Anli-IIumb'.ig was the late Professor Hall of McGill University, and Editor of the only Medical Journal then published in Montreal. GOLD Ml To the EditX Sir,— In I McGill Unii generous hej Students at The hope] exertion in worthy of t| ' sity. One young giiidj ^ theories of '■■ and Practic In this ' peculiar me consists of of cauteries application the body oi secretions c mustard, re believe that Accordir the body a administeri worn out li -v less and in M routine sul '% nition of a '% If the \ Montreal should be and the bt Canada, t most dili^ a chair to Homoeop 1st. 1^( practice u 2nd. 1 not injur' 3rd. 1 itself, an' 4th. 1 % 11 •e to remain in I leave them ever quarter i t int child, who sal to consulti !sulted to the i:ss. GOLD MEDAL— FACULTY OF MEDICINE AND HOMCEOPATHY. jmnninicaticn ipathy should merits. Two jfessed to deal iti Humbug" that the cor- d third letter feels himself the Momoeo- r Medicine in i^'- The tiue iiedical man, eringhuman- lests. Tliere ;iven up the - practice of I'idity whicli reheved, or "■ years. In lloi)ath, met 1 intelh'gent sely to their of the only To the Editor of the Montreal Transcript. Sir, — In looking over your report of the proceedings of the late Convocation of the McGill University, I noticed that the Medical Faculty was desirous that some liberal and generous hearted citizen should come forward with a Gold Medal, to be competed for by the Students at the Annual Medical Examinations of the Univer ity. The hope of obtaining a gold medal has been, and is considered, a good spur to mental exertion in all departments of knowledge, but it seemed that there are other things well worthy of the attention of the liberal hearted citizen and the Medical Faculty of the Univer- sity. One of these is well calculated to advance the ultimate aim and usefulness of the young graduates in medicine, who are about to put into practice on suffering humanity the theories of their school, in that department of medicine commonly termed the " Theory and Practice of Physic" to which other branches of medical education are collateral. In this '* Theory and Practice of Physic" one Professor is the teacher; and there is one peculiar method of practice taught in the University for the cure of diseases, wiiich mainly consists of bleeding, leeching, the administration of purgatives, emetics, diuretics, the use of cauteries, setons, moxas, and the raising of pustular eruptions on the healthy skin by the application of croton oil and tartar emetic ointment. In fact torturing the healtliy parts of the body outside or inside for tlie cure of the diseased part, and interrupting the natural secretions of the healthy skin by periodically painting with iodme, burning with turpentine, mustard, red or white hot irons. Spanish flies, er'c., which conduct makes many patients believe tliat something energetic and heroic has lieen accomplished. According to the teachings of this class of Practitioner-, diseases situated in one organ of the body are lliouglit to be alleviated by exciting a disease in another organ, and by administering substances in large quantities which cannot be made use of as clen.ents of worn out tissue, and which aie consequently rejected by the assimilative organs as worth- less and injurious to the general economy, 'i'iiose substances are varied occasionally as routine suggests, but in their administration, for the alleviation of t'isease, there is no recog- nition of a curative law in nature. If the Medical Faculty of McClill University, or any liberal and piogressive citizens of Montreal are anxious that the young graduates emanating yearly from tliis Medical School, should be in possession of a larger amount of knowledge to fit them for their arduous task, and tlie best known means of alleviating the distress of their fellow creatures throughout Canada, tiiey should not rest satisfied with the mere presentation of a Gold Medal to the most diligent, or jierhaps the most taltnted student, but they slioukl do tlieirbest to establish a chair to teach the '' Practice of Physic," according to the " Doctrines and teachings of Homoeopathy." For the following reasons : — 1st. Because IIoma:opathy possesses a universal /a'V of ciin', and therefore raises the practice of physic to a science. 2nd. l>ecause the administration of medicines, according to the llomwopathic law, does not injure any part of the healthy organism. 3rd. liecause the properly selected Homccopathic remedy acts curatively on the disease itself, and removes it, (when curative means are possible with man). 4th. liecause 'he practice of medicine accortling to the doctrines and teachings of Homcvo- 12 patliv has been, and can be amjily proved to be, attended with more recoveries in all kinds of acute and chronic diseases, when fairly tested, than the method of ])ractice called Allo- pathy, as taug.it by the Professor of the Practice of Physic in the University at present. 5th. Ikcaus ' Ilonioepathic medicine can almost always be administered easily and with- out repugnance to all classes of patients and under all circumstances. 6th. Because the sick room during the treatment of the patient may be kept always free from appearances of blood and otlier repulsive and fdthy attendants of Allopathic treat- ment. 7th. Because the study of the practice of pliysic according to the doctrines and teachings of HouKx^opatliy can be demonstrated to be a philosophical study, which becomes more and more interesting at every step of progress, and is wortliy the profoumlest scholar, the most capacious intellect, and the purest christian. 8th. Because tiie most intellectual and exjierienced of the Allopathic school have in their honesty acknowledged that Allopathy is a delusion and a snare in the treatment of Dynamic diseases. 9th. Because the best time to learn the different methods of practice is during youth, for it is a well known fact, that in the advanced years of life it is one of the most difficult tasks to unlearn that which was learned as truth — (although error) — in younger years. In 99 cases out of a loo, old men are found condeuining that wliich they do not know, because they will not spend the time necessary in investigating the truth. loth, Because lionnieopathy experiments only on healthy individuals and not on the sick. nth. Because llomuiopatliy does away with the absurd and heterogenous prescriptions of Physicians wliich often contain dozens of dilTerent and nauseous materials, calculated to disturb the processes of nature, and to figlu against each other in the dark, and which too frequently leave their unexpelled detritus to injure the living machinery for life. I2th. Because IIouKoopathy does not pander to the depraved tastes of people, who require for their money a r[uantity of coloring matter, and a taste of something tliat I'itcs, before tliey can believe a cure of their diseases possible. 13th. Because it is well known tliat young medical students would attend Ilonvx^opathic lectures on the Practice of I'hysic, in large numlers, if they were allowed to do so by the Faculty of Medicine. 14th. Because Homoeopathy will often cure diseases which are considered incurable by ordinary practice. For these reasons I would earnestly recommend the liberal and truth-loving citizens of Montreal and the Faculty of Medicine of McCiill College, to take into tlitir most serious cousideiation the establisiiment of a Homrc opathic Chair in the McGill College — (or shew cause wiiy not, like ratimial men). By establishing and endorsing such a chair, and granting a gold medal yearly for the most proficient Student in Homfr-ipai'iy, the Faculty of Medicine, or any other, would confer upon themselves lasting honor, for being amongst the first to adopt a truth in prac- tical science, which is fast revolutionising the whole Medical World, and which is now only condemned by tliose who are unacquainted with it; '.vho are interested in its downfall, or prejudiced against it. Homoeopathy is consonant with the known facts of Anatomy, Chemistry and other col- lateral brand logy more ch Anatomy, an means. To the Edito Sir,— My under the s denunciating Allopathic m fourteen reas : rather postu tumble and 5| one grain of % and any inm S fangled noti |: ever, of wh: If however mu tj dupes, there I living, by \> I different ": simal doses ; medicines ii degree was medicine ; i^ became. 1 the Homoe( medicines i sailing und we suppoaf extinct at nominal e: means. 'I with you, the value ' prove ene of serious a little m( giy two til that they will veser will infor pathy ba! J 13 ies in all kinds :e called Allo- at present. sily and with- ?pt always free lopathic treat- and teachings Decomes more it scholar, the chcol have iu le treatment of ring: youth, for difficult tasks years. In 99 know, because nd not on the ! prescriptions calculated to ^nd which too fe. ', who require t I'iL-s^ before Ioni(x>opathic do so by the incurable by S citizens of most serious ;o — (or shew early for the ^ther, would uth in prac- is now only lownfall, or other col- lateral branches, and partJikesof the truths of these. Homoeopathy serves to make physio- logy more clear, and gives a more profound appreciation of the germs of Pathological Anatomy, and should therefore have its disseminating power increased by all legitimate means. Yours truly, HOMa^.OPATHY. (Anti-IIumuug's Letter No. i.) To the £ditoj- 0/ i/ie MoKTREAh Transcrii'T. Sir, — My attention has' been called to a letter contained in your issue of 12th May last, under the signature " HomcEopathy," laudating that system of practical medicine, and denunciating in equally vigorous terms what the I/oNncofaikisis arei>\eased to designate the Allopathic mode of treatment. The writer of this letter brings to his assistance no less than fourteen reasons in support of his position, but, logically speaking, they are not reasons but rather postulates, which, if granted, the truly eclectic practice of the present day would tumble and totter to the ground. But there is little chance of that taking place, so long as one grain of sound common sense remains existent in the community. It is true that every and any innovation 'upon tried usages \\ ill find its supporters for the time being, the new fangled notion but to be discarded in its turn with those which preceded it. Despite, how- ever, of what Ilomceopathy, Hydropathy, Sympopathy, and all other pathy's may do, and however much the Professor of these " pathy's " may delude the public, and obtain willing dupes, there cannot be the least doubt that nothing but the desire of acquiring the means of living, by jjreying upon the imagination of their dupes, lies at the foundation of all these different "pathys." When Hahnemann started Homceopathy, he revelled in his infinites- simal doses, maintaining the doctrine, with "similia similibus curantur," that the energy of medicines increased with their dilution, and that a medicine attenuated to the decillionth degree was far more ])otent in its effect upon disease than an ordinary grain of the same medicine ; and in fact that the more it was attenuated, the more active and vigorous it really became. The supreme absurdity of this doctrine became soon transparent, and, accordingly, the Homocopathists soon became split up into several sects— some of which still employ medicines in their infinitessimal doses, while others use them in the ordinary doses ; thus sailing under false colors ; while a third class adopt the medium course, on the principle, we supposed, of '• in medio tutissimus ibis." Hahnemanism may indeed be said to be truly extinct at the present day ; and it is my sincere belief that nothing maintains its present nominal existence than a deficiency of earning a livelihood by more honest and legitimate means. The self glorified manner in which your Iloma^opathic practitioners will reason with you, upon your extreme incapacity of perceiving what is so palpable to__himself, viz., the value of medicines given in quantities so small that a drop of the St. Lawrence would prove energetic, may captivate as it has undoubtedly done, many minds, but those capable of serious reflection can certainly never become convinced by any such assertions. It requires a little more than the assertions of fifty years to do away with the accumulated experience of giy two thousand years and yet the Ilomoeopathists are not by any means too vain to proclaim that they are attempting it . To prevent this letter from extending to an undue length, I will reserve a few facts for " Homoeopathy " to digest for my next, and in the meanwhile, will inform him that the text of it will be his fourth postulate, that the practice of Homoeo- pathy has been, and can be amply proved to be attended with more recoveries in all kinds 14 of acute and cluonic diseases, wlien fairly tested, than the method of practice called " Allo- pathy." I do not by any means propose to enter into an argument with " Koma-opathy," as the subject is unfitted for your columns ; all I desire is to narrate, in as succinct a manner as possible, the results of a few cases which were placed under Ilomcuopathic treat- ment by the late Dr. Rosensrtein, in the wards of the Montreal General Ho-pital, ?t thrt time under tlie service of /h\ Ilall, of this city ; and in which the fullest and freest sway was afforded the practitioner. I remember well the obloquy which was cast upon the physician for his supi)osed dereliction of duty ; l)ut when it is recollected that nothing but the interests of humanity could have guided his course ; and that nothing unfortunate issued ; that tlie treatment pursued was witnessed at that time daily by almost all the leading physicians of the city ; lliat the Iloma'opatbist had the fairest possible play, and that he expiessed himself afterwards to that effect, as I am informed; what stronger proof could be adduced of tlie v.nlue of the two systems of practice. I have tiie honor to remain, Sir, Yours, truly, ANTI-HUMBUG. MONTKEAI. Transcript, ]\\\\& i,, 1S64. No. 2. To the Editor of th.' Montri".,\i. Tr.wscript, &1R,— .Some time has elapsed since my letter to you dated May 27lh, in which I pro- mised lo detail to you a few fr.cts for " Ilomrcopathy " to digest, after doing which, I pro- posed to leave him to his meditations. The inflated, even ariogant style in wliich Ids letter is couched, merits a lebuke however mild, and I trust that he will receive it in this letter in wliicli I propose to oppose yt subject of t-xperiment. Dr. Rosenstein was forthwith sent for, who after i rriving at the Hospital, stipulated as necessary to success that the patient should be placed in a ward by himself, and that he should not be tampered with in the least degree, and after the most perfect assurance on these points, the treatment was assumed at once. It is almost unnecessary to add that Dr. Rosenstein was informed by Dr. Hall, that if unfor- tunately the disease progressed, it would become the duty of the latter to take the case out of his hands. 1 have now to observe that the progress of this patient was watched with consideiable anxiety by the late Drs, Holmes, Crawford and Badgley, by Dr. Campbell, and othtr physicians of this city who were all glad of the opportunity of seeing Homoeopathy fairly tetted . Tlie result was that the disease, despite of the treatmtnt pursued, made a ecided but s pace at the i now took the mnn's life wa Shortly aft selves for adi cases were al of disease of stein was aga ment of evei who was at o the ccuri-e ol Ipiotractcd ti J imploied Dr • .elapsed with Dr. R. excl ycau' cases, n following da path's predic one, the effic: of the same Bnedicine, an charge of Dr Now, Sir, is alui.dant Hall's name .5 have a riyl Iknd whose a^ ..^lon-.oeapatli «Df treatment ■5* 0& Now, Sir W ' of Homce .g"iesin all \ % "called Ai: * " present," .A That persor H did not kno 'i practice— in * doses, and still not be ) I \\ill pr myself, you June 8, 1 I — Transcr, called " Allo- Koma-opathy," 1 as succinct a aopathic treat- o-pital, St thrt 111(1 freest sway cast upon the at nothing but rtunate issued ; ill the leading ', and that he ^r proof could I BUG. which I pro- wliich, I pro- lich his letter in this letter )use Surgeon as under the ;opathat thrt ing, is provc- enemies may lat fact, if it i'as promised opportunity le lungs in a lable, it was vithsent for, itient should least degree, led at once, hat if unfor- the case out matched with mpbell, and omoeopathy led, made a 15 decided but steady advance, until about the fourth or fifth day of treatment, from a trifling space at the upper pait of the right lung, it had invaded nearly the whole of it. Dr. Mall now took the case in his own hands, and by the adoption of energetic measure the poor mnn's life was saved, but net before serious fears of it were entertained. Shortly after this unfavorable result of Homoeopathic treatment, there presented them- selves for admistion into the Hospital no less than three cases of fever and ague. The cases were all well marked ; one case by a liver complication, the second by a complication of disease of the liver and spUen, while the third was an uncomplicated case. Dr. Rosen- stein was again sent for, and was offered the selection of the cases. Much to the astonish- ment of every one he chose the simplest case of the three, viz. : the uncomplicated case who was at once placed under his charge. The hospital books will record the fact that in iheccurFeof about a fortnight the two complicated cases were discharged, while after a piotractcd treatment of nearly six weeks the patient under homoeopatliic management imiiloied Dr. Hail to assume the treatment of his case. I remember well that one day elapsed without that young mm having had a shake (I forcet llie technical term), when ^Dr. R. exclain-.ed, " now he is cured — the difeare is checked, and will never rtturn, while your cases, ndclressing Dr. Hall, may have the disease return at any minute," — But the following day witnessed another sliake, thus shaking to their foundations all tl.e Homcco- ath's predictions. By way of exhibiting to the students then in attendance, of'iv/ioin I was \oiie, the efficacy of mere diet in mcdifying tie progress of diseafe, Dr'. Hall placed a case ^^IJDf the same disease, subfef|uently admitted, on plain milk and water, without a particle <. f ■Inedicine, ar.tl this man got on equally as well as did the case entrusted to the professional charge of Dr. Kosenstein. IS'ow, Sir, the foregoing is a truthful narrative, or it is not. That it is the foiir.er, there is alur.dant ividtnce even now in this city for its substantiation. I have freely used Dr. .Hall's nsme, a lil.eily for which I am sure he will foigive me, a]thoug,h I question much if ']^ have a right to n.'-k it, as, at the time he was a public officer, discharging an official duty, pind whose acts were open to all kinds of criticism. — Fairer cases for testing ih.e value of |lIon-.(xapathic treatment cou'.d not by any possibility have been selected, and yet tliat mode iof treatment most signally foiled. Now, Sir, hjw far the foregoing facts can go to prove "that tie doctrines and teacliings *' of Hon;a:'' pathy have been and can be amply proved to be, attenc'ed with more recover, iesin all kinds of acute andchronic distases when faiily tested than the method of practice 1 " called Allopathy, as taught by the Professor of the Practice of Physic in the University at X " present," is what I will leave for the consideration and digestion of " Homoeopathy." i; That person will doubtless get out of the difficulty by the observation that Dr. Rosenstein ■ did not know his profession; — tl at hiS j lartice was rot a true example of Homceopathic practice — in shoit, that in comparison with others who dole out their physic in infinitesimal '^. dcses, and yet upon the principle of " similia similibus," he was a nincompoop ; it must still not be forgotten that fie -wrote a bcok. I will probably trouble )ou with a third letter, and in the meanwhile beg to subsoibe myself, yours truly, ANTI-HUMBUG. June 8, 1864. -Transcript, June 27, 1864. 16 In To the Editor of the Montreal Transcript. Sir, — In your issue of the 121I1 of May last, you were kind enough to give me space in your valuable columns for the insertion of an article regarding the establishment of u Homceopathic Chair in the Medical Faculty of McGill University. That article was replied to, by " Anti-Humbug," in two letters, with promise of a third one. My attention was directed to " Anti-Humbug's " rejoiner on the 27th of June las*, and I have patiently waited a fortnight for " Anti-Humbug's" No. 3 epistle. As his No. 3 does not appear to te forthcoming, with your permission I will endeavor to reply now to his No. i and 2. I never have admired anonymous letters. It looks to me like a soldier firing at his ■enemy from behind a hedge ; therefore, however imperfectly and feebly I may use the pen, 'I acknowledge myself not at all ashamed of Homoeopathy as the only principle of cure, of which there is abundant proof. It is to be hoped that " Anti-Humbug" will now disclose himself too. WHAT IS HOMCEOrATHY? In replying to " Anti -Humbug,'' it will be necessary, first, to define what is meant by llomceopathy, since "Anti-Humbug" has refused to define it. Homoeopathy then is a principle established in nature for the cure of dynamic diseases, and, practically, it is as follows : — Medicinal substances have certain properties which manifest themselves, on being administered to persons in health, by producing certain symptoms. When tlie first scruple dose of Ipecacuanlia, for instance, was given to a person in health. Bilious vomiting, with headache, vertigo, nausea, loss of appetite, severe pain in the stomach, dr'c., were induced. When Ipecacuanha is taken in large doses by a person in health, it may be looked upon as a general law, that the above symptoms will take place, as any one may soon satisfy him- gelf about, if there are doubts existing in hii mind. This property of Ipecac became known only by experiment. By the experiment of administering a small dose of Ipecacuanha to a person in disease attended with symptoms similar to those produced in a healthy person by a large dose of Ipecacuanha, it will be found that all those symptoms will cease, and if all the symptoms have ceased, then the disease, the cause of the symptoms, has been removed. Whoever prescribes medicine for the cure of disease upon that principle is a Homoeopathist. Ipeca- cuanha has been merely taken as an example. Homreopathists have experimented on the healthy body with over two lumdred remedies, recording the symptoms produced by each remedy, and they select Jiny one of these proved remedies, and administer it to the diseased person upon the same principle as the Ipecacuanha was selected and administered. Regard- ing the dose used by Hahnemann when he commenced to test the principle of Homoeo- pathy, it was a large one, but he gradually lessened it, as he found a smaller dose more •useful, and, like a sensible man, he adopted that which he found to be the best. Now, as then, every Homa-opathist is permitted to select the dose which he finds most successful, ** without sailing under false colors." But a person can never be a Homoeopathist who selects at random a nauseous bolus of Rhubarb, Opium, Calomel, Hyosciamus, dr'c., with- out being guided by a curative rule, and in doses sufficient to sicken a healthy horse. A large dose of medicine, HomoDopathically selected, will increase the disease ; a dynamised dose, Homoeopathically selected, will be powerful only to cure, not to destroy the body; and this is what staggers many an Allopathist. He always looks for some derangement in the healthy parts before he will believe that the disease can be cured. •' Anti-Humbug " would seem to imply that a man can not be a Homoeopathist without •confining himself to a drop of the St. Lawrence, This simply shows his utter ignorance of the subject. part of a gi ridiculous a we could n< because wc bear of dec confnrcs de life are kno low dilutioi pathists are say that tht man a righ practice of " world sti reason upoi shew me tl would beli replied that new mater water. H« of cure, b< than by an alone, whe It woulc ;r Homoeopat ^ do away w if by any mei % novelty. % the time of ^ Sanscrit p( I remedy for I similar thi J- I healed of I a not exist, ) Hoinceopa I the belief 1 I Shakesp I these news measure m 17 ve me space in jlishment of a lat article was My attention have patiently s not appear to o. I and 2. n- firing at his y use the pen, iple of cure, of II now disclose lat is meant by pathy then is a ctically, it is as lelves, on being he first scruple vomiting, with , were induced, looked upon as on satisfy him- became known rson in disease a large dose of '. the symptoms ved. Whoever lathist. Ipeca- imented on the )duced by each to the diseased ;red, Regard- >le of Homoeo- ller dose more jest. Now, as lost successful, ceopathist who iHS, 6^c., with- Ithy horse. A ; a dynamised roy the body ; lerangement in lathist without :r ignorance o*" the subject. Does he think that because a medicine is reduced to a thousandth or a millionth part of a grain, by trituration, that it does not act on account of its smallness— /^r se 1 How ridiculous and unreasonable it would be to shut our eyes so that we could not see, because we could not weigh a ray of light ; or to deny the power of life over our muscular frame because we could not weigh or chemically detect it. Life is a finer thing than even the bug- bear of decillionth parts of grains of medicines, but would " Anti-Humbug " or any of his confreres deny their own existence and strength on that account. The powers resulting from life are known by experiment ; the powers resulting from the administration of a high or low dilution of a Homoeopathic remedy are likewise known by experiment, and Homoeo- pathists are perfectly willing to leave the matter to such a test. No man has the right to say that the world does not turn round upon its own axis, without proof; neither has any man a right to say a priori that Homoeopathic remedies do not act, because the every-day practice of Homceopathists proves that they do act — ^just as demonstratively as that the " world still turns," and as clearly as life and light act. How illogically sometimes people reason upon such matters. A gentleman one day said to me : — " Doctor, if you could only shew me that a plant could live as well upon a drop of water as it would upon a pint, I would believe in Homoeopathy." This gentleman put food and medicine upon a par. I replied that Homceopathists did not feed their patients upon a grain of beef-steak to provide new materials for their worn-out organs, neither did they feed their plants upon a drop of water. Homceopathists give medicines in minute doses, selected to act according to the law of cure, because they find from experiment that diseases are subdued better by these means than by any other, but they do not find that healthy or diseased men can live upon drugs alone, whether in large or small doses. HOMCEOPATHY NOT A MODERN DISCOVERY. It would appear that " Anti-Humbug " is likewise very ignorant of the antiquity of Homoeopathy, for he says : — " It requires a little more than the assertions of fifty years to do away with the assertions of say two thousand years, and yet the Homceopathists are not by any means too vain to proclaim that they are attempting it." Homoeopathy is not a novelty. The novelties are with Allopathy, for empiricism must be always changing. In the time of Vikramadita, king of Ujain, fifty-six years before the christian era, there was a Sanscrit poem which said : " It has been heard of old time in the world that poison is the remedy for poison." In the writings attributed to Hypocrates there is the following, " By similar things disease is produced, and by similar things, administered to the sick, they are healed of their diseases. Thus the same thing which will produce stranguary, when it does not exist, will remove it when it does," that was a fact, at the time of Hypocrates. The Homoeopathic law of cure existed then, it does so now, and ever will do, independently of the belief of " Anti-Humbug " or any other man. Shakespeare was not ignorant of the principle. He says : In poison there is physic ; and these news, having been well, that would have made me sick, being sick, have in some measure made me well. Henry IV., Part 2, Act i, See. I. HOMOEOPATHY NOT QUACKERY. Neither is Homoeopathy quackery. Quackery pretends to the possession of some valu- able nostrum, some unexplained "energetic treatment " sold for private gain, but which is not disclosed for the public good. Whoever may have secrets in his "energetic treat- ments," Homoeopathy has none, no nostrum, it courts enquiry, and asks all to make a 18 thorough investigation of its claims. It is a recognised lajv of healing, and will be the means of driving away from the Profession all quacks to whatever class of medical practi- tioners ihey belong. IIOMCEOPATHY MORE SUCCESSFUL THAN ALLOPATHY. " Anti-Humbug " says, in his first epistle, " that the writer of this letter brings to his assistance no less than fourteen reasons in support of his position ; but, logically speaking, they are not reasons, but rather postulates, which, if granted, the truly eclectic practice of the present day would tumble and totter to the ground." I take "Anti-Humbug" at his word, and will endeavor to prove those *' postulates ;*' and as " Anti-Humbug" has only attempted a disproval of my 4th postulate, I will, first of all, attend to it, viz. : — " That the doctrines and teachings of Homoeopathy have been and can be amply proved to be attended with more recoveries in all kinds of acute and chronic diseases, when fairly tested, than the method of practice called Allopathy, as taught by the Professor of the Prac- lice of Physic in the University at present." Now, Mr. Editor, let us examine the mode by which "Anti-Humbug" disposes of this "postulate'^ of mine. He cites first, a most important case of Pneumonia, which occurred in the Montreal General Hospital, about the year 1845, which case was then under the care of Dr. Hall, and observed by Dr. Gibb and " Anti-Humbug " {hivtself, ivhile he was a Student of Medicine) To this important case of pneumonia, one Dr. Rosenstein, then resident in Montreal, was sent for. He it was who did battle for Homoeoi athy ; but "Anti-Humbug" would seem himself to sneer at the powers of Dr. Rosenstein — because he says in italics that Dr. Rosenstein " Wrote a Book on Homoeopathy." Now as to writing books, I have read many worthless Allopathic Books, and even some which were considered valuable in my younger days, and looked up to as the climax of proficiency twenty-five or thirty yeajs ago when I was a student in Edinburgh, are now thrown aside as useless as far as the Practice they inculcate is con- cerned. Dr. Mcintosh's Book, for instance, which advises so valiantly " Bleeding in the cold stages of Fever and Ague," and bleeding in almost every thing else to syncope, is never opened, yet we Students admired Mcintosh, and looked upon him as the first Physi- cian and the most acute, of the day — " Wrote a Book:' I have never seen Dr. Rosenstein's book , it may be good. But Burns said " that some Books were lees frae end to end, and some greet lees were never penned; even Ministers they hae been kenned, a rousing whid at times to vend, and nailt we Scripture." The writing or copying of a Book in itself may or may not be a measure of a man's ability or acquirement. So that the mere matter of proclaiming one's self the author of a book does not argue in favor of a man's competence to conduct the treatment of a case of pneumonia or any other case. Regarding the length of time required before recovery takes place in cases of Pneumonia or Inflammation of the Lungs, In, Hughes Bennet, Professor of Clinical Medicine in the University of Edinburgh, an Allopathic author of acknowledged ability, says " The majority of cases of Pneumonia of medium intensity recover between the seventh and fourteenth days," and he names the periods of recovery as between the 7th, 14th, and 2lst days, and that ** the real tests of successful practice are not to be sought for in the relief of symptoms, but in the removal of the disease when it has been established, and that treatment will be the best, which " ceteris paribus " causes fewest deaths and recovery in the shortest time." Now, it is remarkable that " Anti-Humbug," in his description of the progress and progress and 19 treatment of his great case of pneumonia, does not give us the rational and physical signs which it must have presented, when at first it was " an important case of /«r^ inflammation of the luii^s ; " nor those signs, wlien it was only a case involving " a trifling space at the upper lobe of the right lung," the signs are absent too, when the case " invaded nearly the whole of the lung," absent, too, when progressing under Dr. Hall's " energetic treatment." Well, in the absence of tiie rational and physical signs of the spreading of the inflamma- tion from the " trifling space," we must presume that that l)ai■^ of the lung which was not affected with disease when Dr. Rosenstein commenced his treatment became affected with the inflammation in four or five days afterwards, which is a very common occurrence, for it will be found that one portion of the lung, during the progress of Pneumonia, will be mani- festing the signs of the first stage of inflammation, viz. : of congestion, while another por- tion will manifest those of the second stage, or that of Hepatization, and another portion still that of the third stage, or that of Suppuration. " Anti-llumbug" as Dr. Hall must surely have known that fact. If they did, they then took in their fair trial of Homoeopathy undue advantage of Dr, Rosenstein's ignorance. If they did not know that fact then they were ignorant. But if they knew tlie fact, and would now make the public l^elieve that it was an unusual thing for one portion of an organ to be inflamed while another was becom- ing so, then "Anii-Mumbug" attempts to make dupes of the people, it is thereibre for "Anti-Humbug " to be an "eclectic" here in selecting either horn of that dilemma upon which to empale himself. ■% Regarding the progress of disease, Dr. Bennet says : "There was a time when it was |»upposed that the progress of typhus fever, small-pox, and many other diseases which are low always allowed to run their natural course, could be arrested by medical interference, ?but with regard to them there has been established the piinciple: 1st of prevention; 2nd, iwhentliis fails, of simply conducting them to a favorable termination, and that every i inflammation once formed runs througli a definite course." How does this correspond with the snatching of the case from the hands of Dr. Rosenstein ? The question, according to Dr. Bennet's principles, should have been, how did the " trifling space at the upper part of the right lung progress ? " In what different state was that small spot of inflammation at the end of the four days treatment of Dr. Rosenstein ? What were the changes of the rational and physical signs belonging to it, when Dr. Hall plucked the brand from the burn- ing ? Why did not " Anti-Humbug " tell us about these things ? When fair play to HomcEopathy is first shadowed forth, there is a case of "pure inflam- mation of the lungs." When Homoeopathy is desired ,to be made to appear of no value, " this pure inflammation of the lungs " is easily converted into occupying ♦' trifling space of upper lobe of one lung," when <* the truly eclectic practice " requires its energetic treat- ment manifested ; words are ready again, "invasion of whole lung attended with serious fears." Such cooking of the case to serve a purpose, Mr. Editor, savors strongly of an " Uncle Humbug " in the work of describing the most fair case the world has ever seen for that much loved trial of Homoiopathy, In order to test fairly the Homoeopathic treatment, a multiplicity of cases are required ; but of any given case, it must be persisted in to the end. It should have been so in that case of Pneumonia, as I shall presently prove. Tiie report of the case of Pneumonia, made use of by "Anti-Humbug" for the con- demnation of Homoeopathy, should have been attended with the record of every change of all the symptoms, rational .ind physical, as the disease progressed under both treatments, to make it of any benefit to us in a practical point of view. The remedies employed by Drs. Rosenstein and Hall should have been recorded, too in. 20 a case book kept for the purpose, and sanctioned by both parties at the time. Where is this case book ? Give us *he record. Every Hospital worthy of the name, in any country, «o records its cases, as a merchant records his transactions in his day book, and then every addition or subtraction from the record may be seen, always afterwards. Where, I ask, is the record of this, and otiier cases, in the Montreal General Hospital ? IJy the examination and study of such records, of interesting cases, students build for themselves a basis for Diagnosis and Treatment in after life, and a desire for upholding only that which is true. Without such study and examination, a habit of vague self-conceited assertion is engendered, while their defenses are loose and wriggling through life. Where is the record, I ask, Mr. Editor ? As a resident of Montreal, upon enquiry, I am ashamed to say that there has been no lecord, no case book kept hitherto in the Montreal General Hospital, for the record of symptoms and treatment of cases. There lias been no record whatever kept of the cases cited by Anti-Humbug in the Montreal General Hospital. Anti-Humbug says: "It requires a little more than the assertions of fifty years to do away with the accumulated experience of, say, two thousand years." " What would the experience of ten thousand years " of such an Hospital practice amount to ? Simply a " rope of sand 1 " The next cases ♦• Anti-Humbug refers to are some cases of Fever and Ague." Well, what was the treatment adopted, and upon what principle? The "specific principle." And what is that? " Anti- Humbug " cannot tell. What did Dr. Rosenstein give in this case of Fever and Ague, and how long did it remain in Dr. Hall's hands after Dr. Rosenstein failed? That would require to be known before we can see the superiority of Dr. Hall's treatment, perhaps both methods failed, and any method will fail ultimately in every per- son's case, at death. " Anti-Humbug " mentions a case which got on as well on milk and water as the patient of Dr. Rosenstein. Did the same case on milk and water not get on better than similar cases under Allopathic treatment ? If we are to believe Sir John Forbes, one of the heads of " Anti-Humbug's " style of practice, it ought to have got on better. " Fairer cases than these for testing the value of Homoeopathic treatment could not by any possibility have been selected, and yet that mode of treatment most signally failed," says " Anti-Humbug." I will now give, to counterpoise these most absurd and unfair cases, some in favor of Homoeopathy, and as Anti-Humbug brings forward some cases which occurred under his own cognizance, I will give a few which came under mine. I have had under my treatment in the Homoeopathic Dispensary in this city, a case of Broncho- Pneumonia, and incipient Phthisis, which resisted the treatment of the Montreal General Hospital for nine months. Tliis case recovered, by the 3vd of Bryonia and Phosphorus, — medicines Homceophathic to the disease. Another case had been dismissed without benefit from the Montreal General Hospital, after a long residence and much torture for Articular Rheumatism with metastasis to the Pericardium. When he became my patient in the Dispensary, it took him three hours and a half to walk a mile. He suffered excruciatingly over the region of the Heart. Had been burned, physicked, blistered, painted with Iodine, dr'c., dr^c, without benefit, for a long time in the Montreal General Hospital. He was cured by a few doses of Aeon, and Bell. Another person who had been for a long period in the Montreal General Hospital, burned blistered and tortured as usual for disease of the heart, complicated with Hydrothorax ascites and general dropsy, was brought to the Homoeopathic Dispensary, and cured by a few doses of Aeon, and Digitalis. I had a cp gentleman ol ICalcrea Carl I had a cas I lung and liv( and had beei pellets of ap I weeks. I ha recovered un I thancounterl Regarding Dr. Kosenste stage is now eclectics or 1 One of the I are " agent jquainled." [that these sf For the fi case has alt Ifresisted the ^^aivcly ne^l jravds. Fo Ihands of tht the patient \ from Dr. R up bravely i will becomt palhy, they sistent, but of Homoec issued" frc within the Surely ' Faculty co General H Homoeopa will shew palhic me I will dice or ig cases of 1 " Very se under tre inert, yet be judgec Allopath Bennett ^RBWaBBSK^'' I I me. Where is in any country, find then every i-Vhere, I ask, is he examination Ives a basis for which is true. s engendered, 01 il, I ask, Mr. re has been no • the record of pt of the cases ig says: "Jt e accumulated ten thousand The next what was the And what is n this case of )r. Rosenstein of Dr. Hall's in every per- il on milk and er not get on ieve Sir John have got on could not by ;nally failed," ird and unfair d some cases ider mine. I leofBroncho- treal General hosphorus, — ral Hospital, astasis to the ee hours and . Had been 1 for a long I- and Bell, ital, burned lydrothorax cured by a 21 I had a case of scrofulous ophthalmia with ulceration of the cornea, which a medical gentleman of this city pronounced a very serious one. This ulcer was cured in ten days by Calcrea Carb. I had a case of a young woman who had been treated allopathically for amenortii*ce, with lung and liver complications. She had been unable to get out of bed for seven months, and liad been shockingly tortured by the " energetic treatment " all that time- A fevr pellets of appropriate lloma'opathic remedies enabled her to come u, my office in two weeks. I have liad numerous cases which long resisted allopathic or eclectii treatment, yet recovered under the Homoeopathic. Let these suffice from my own cases, thejr will more than counterbalance " Anti-Humbug's" very unfair cases. Regarding the cases of fever and ague referred to, we know not whether the treatment of Dr. Rosenstein was the same as that adopted by Dr. Hall or not. Bleeding in the cold stage is now given up, .is the great "row/" for it, jind specifics are administered by the eclectics or allopalhists or empirics, either name will suit. And what are these specifics? One of the best authors on allopathic materia medica. Nelligan, says of them that they are " agents with the rationale of the remediate modes of action, of which we are unac- quainted." They are chosen by allopathists or eclectics, empirically, but it will be found that these specificsact upon the Hymoeopathic principle of '' Similia Similibus Curentur.'* For the fvir trial of Homoeopathy two cases were elaborately chosen. The inflammatory ase has already been disposed of, but what of the other case of fever and ague which ^resisted the treatment of Dr. Rosenstein so long without benefit. "Anti-Humbug" j^naivcly neglects to tell us how long it resisted the energetic treatment of Dr. Hall, after- '^ards. For the fair trial of Homceopathy one case was snatched unscientifically out of the hands of the experimenter in its natural progress. In the other case of ** fever and ague," the patient snatched himself out of the experimenter's hands ; but both cases were taken from Dr. Rosenstein before the diseases terminated. It is wonderful to see patients heaving up bravely under a continuance of torture, allopathically, for long periods, and yet they will become restive in a few days under Homoeopathy. Although non-believers in Homoeo- pathy, they expect to be relieved and cured at a moment's notice. Man is certainly incon- sistent, but oh, how much even these most absurd trials of ''Anti-Humbug " speak in favor of Homoeopathy, for in "Anti-Humbug's" emphatic language, "nothing unfortunate issued " from the terrible dereliction of duty of Dr. Hall permitting a Homoeopathy to be within the walls of the Hospital. Surely "Anti-Humbug" has mistaken a mole hill for a mountain. If the Medical Faculty connected with the Montreal General Hospital, or the governors of the Montreal General Hospital, have any desire to benefit humanity by giving patients the choice of the Homoeopathic treatment, I will most cheerfully assist them to accomplish that object. I will shew them not by single cases, but by ample and reliable statistics, that the Homoeo- pathic method of practice is in accordance with my 4th postulate. 1 will now give some information from other sources. Dr. Bennett, who from preju- dice or ignorance is opposed to Homoeopathy, writes the following statement regarding cases of Pneumonia, which were seen by Dr. George Balfour of Edinburgh. He says : — " Very severe cases of Pneumonia were observed in the Homoeopathic Hospital of Vienna, under treatment that no reasonable Medical man can suppose to be anything else than inert, yet most of these cases got well ?" I ask, if it is not reasonable that causes should be judged by the effects produced ? If Homoeopathy is attended with better results than Allopathy, is it reasonable to adhere to Allopathy for the cure of disease, because Dr. Bennett or " Anti-Humbug" say it is nothing ? Certainly not. According to Dr. Routh, I^ii'i 22 (Allopatliic Physician), the statistics of diseases treated Homceopathically and Allopathi- cally are as follows : — Deaths under Hoin(vopathy. Allopathy. Inflammation of the lungs 5 in 100 23 in loo Dysentery 3 in loo 22 in loo Pleurisy 3 in loo 13 in 100 Inflammation of the bowels 3 in loo 13 in loo ASIATIC CHOI-KRA. According to a document ordered to be printed on the 21st May, 1855, by the House of Commons, and which ought to be in the library of every homoeopathist and every plii- lanthropist in the world, the comparative death rate during the fearful epidemic of Asiatic Cholera in 1854 — and surely it is no trifling disease, nor " a disease of childhood^' — was under Homoeopathic treatment 16.4 per 100 Allopathic treatment 59.2 per 100 Although the statistics relating to the treatment of Asiatic Cholera at the Homoeopathic Hospital were certified by Dr. Macloughlan, Allopathic Physician, and Medical Inspector of the Genei'al Board of Health, they were suppressed by a joint resolution of Dr. Paris, the President of the Royal College of Physicians, and other members of the Medical Coun- cil. Lord R. Grosvenor (now Lord Ebury), aware that Dr. Macloughlan had inspected the Homct'opathic Hospital in Golden Square, and observing that the p^atistics of this Hos- pital were not included in the general returns made to Parliament, moved for copies of the returns that had been rejected by the Medical Council, The motion was agreed to by the House of Commons, when the above resolution, astounding to those who were not pre- viously accjuainted with Homoeopathy, was made. Dr. Horner pronounces this proceeding on the part of the Royal College of Physicians, as a " conspiracy against the truth and against humanity itself." What can be thought of a profession which suppresses such facts because they condemn its practice, while its adherents are too prejudiced to test Homoeo- pathy for themielves ? The proceedings of the Medical profession against Homoeopathy, says Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, is an extraordinary picture of prefatory panic, vulgar wonder, ignorance, obtrusive vanity, plans for profit and popularity, fatal " blunders, distracting contradic- tions, and egregious empiricisms." The mean duration of Disease, particularly Inflammation of the lungs, has been stated by Drs. Tessier and Louis of Paris; Dr. Henderson, Professor of Pathology, University of Edinburgh ; and Dr. Dietle, Allopathic Physician of Vienna, to be as follows : — Treated Homceopathically. Allopathically. Average duration of cases . 1 1 5^ days. 29 days. Expectant system, "Anti-Humbug's" milk and water system, 28 days. ALLOPATHY EXPENSIVE. St. Bartholomew's Hospital spends JE2,6oo sterling per annum, in drugs; lo,8l6 pints of black draught were admin'.stered, and 29,700 leeches applied in one year. To this catalogue must ofjcourse be added the gallons of life-blood let out l^y the lancet, and the fearful amount of suffering inflicted by blisters and other external applications— all, it will be observed, unnecessary, nay far worse than unnecessary. The death rate under Homoeopathy is much less than under Allopathy, for the duration of cases curable by both systems is a! General Ho ing hundrec wYy daysb Honioeopatl able. It is surely cann «« Arroganc bag, which I have sus communica MONTREAl 23 and AUopathi- Allopathy. 23 in 100 22 in 100 13 in loo 13 in 100 by Ihe House and every plii- ;mic of Asiatic ihi/iood'^ — was 4 per 100 2 per loo Homoeopathic lical Inspector 1 of Dr. Paris, Medical Coun- had inspected OS of this Hos- )r copies of the ;reed to by the were not pre- :his proceeding the truth and :sses such facts ) test Homoeo- Dr. Rush, of sr, ignorance, ing contradic- as been stated University of Ilopathically. ys. 29 days. ugs; 10,816 le year. To e lancet, and tions— all, it 1 rate under ible by both [ systems is as 1 1?^ for Homoeopathy against 29 days for Allopathy. Were the Montreal General Hospital converted into a HomceopDthic Hospital, it would be capable of reliev- ing hundreds of patients per annum more than at present — ^just in the proportion that 11% days bear to 29 days. The immense amount of real good which would result, if Homoeopathy were adopted instead of Allopathy throughout the world, is almost incalcul- able. It is in the nature of such a power as Homoeopathy _to be encroaching, and it surely cannot be called " arrogance " to proclaim boldly what one can defend as being true. " Arrogance,''^ I think, belongs to the .proclamation of error, and ^^ inflation " to the wind- bag, which can be easily collapsed, I have tnus disposed of postulate No. 4. I hope I have sustained it to " Anti->Iumbug's " satisfaction. I shall endeavor in my future communication to sustain me remaining postulates, seriatim, and then draw my deductions. Montreal, July 14, 1864. Yours truly, JOHN WANLESS, M.D. HOMCEOPATHSr. To the Editor of the Montreal Transcript. Sir, — With your permission I now proceed to prove what " Anti-Humbug" has pro- nounced to be rather '• postulates " than reasons. In my last communication the 4th pos- tulate was disposed of, the others will be taken up seriatim. The first reason given in favor of the establishment of a Homoeopathic chair in the Medical Faculty of McGill University was, "because Homoeopathy possesses a universal law of cure, and therefore raises the practice of physic to a science." It is a well-known circumstance that the medicines chosen by ,Homoeopathists are chosen for the cure of diseases, because the same medicine when given in a large dose to the healthy individual will produce symptoms similar to the symptoms of the disease which is to be treated. The legal way of proving that Homoeopathists select their remedies upon this law of cure would be to swear a few Homoeopathists and obtain their evidence from the witness-box. " Anti- Humbug " need not put me to this trouble, I presume. Instead of performing this feat, however, I will give him a few more instances which proves that medicines do act cura- tively and according to this law. Hippocrates said : " Give a draught from the root of mandrake, in a smaller dose than will induce mania, and it will act curatively on mania.'' The symptoms which will follow the administration of a large dose of corrosive sublimate to a healthy person — (says Taylor in his Medical Jurisprudence) — will be like those of dysentery, viz. : tenesmus and mucous discharges mixed with blood, (Sr'c, in fact inflam- mation of the stomach and bowels. " Anti-Humbug " does not think of doubting that these symptoms recorded against corrosive sublimate by Taylor are correct. Homoeopath- ists are all just as well assured that the same kind of symptoms in disease will cease upon the administration of dynamised doses of corrosive sublimate. The way to prove either is to try. I have abundantly tried it, and have found it true. Why won't " Anti-Humbug " study the matter, or allow others the privilege of being taught the doctrine of Homoeopathy. Dr. Groenevelt in 1703 published a little work full of interesting cases of Stranguary — which were cured by Spanish flies, a medicine which is well known to produce Strang- uary in a healthy individual, when given in large doses. For tlie publication of this book, the Royal College of Physicians of London committed Dr. Groenevelt to Newgate, by the warrant of their own President. " Anti-Humbug " assumes a certain form of academical 24 , persecution too. As there is a good deal of space to be occupied in proving the other postulates, let me be as brief as possible with each. These instances of the law of cure will be sufficient to prove that there is one, and if there can be one case proved that medi- cines which produce a complaint, if not there, will cure a similar complaint if it be there, then that is sufficient, for nature has never two laws for the accomplishment of the same object ; all '^.er laws are simple and of universal application for accomplishing the end in view. "It therefore raises the practice of physic to a science " is the remaining portion of the " postulate." What is a science ? ** Science is knowledge built on principles." The practice of Homoeopathy is based and built on the principle here enunciated, that medicines producing similar symptoms in health will cure similar symptoms in disease, the latin formula of which is " similia similibus curantur." " Let hkes be treated by likes." The rsl postulate is thus established. The 2nd postulate is, " Because the administration of medicines, according to the Homoeop..thic \.\w, does not injure any part of the healthy organism." I have proof from "Anti-Humbug" himself to sustain this postulate, for he says " that nothing unfortunate issued" from the administration of the homcjeopathic treatment of his great hospital cases, and the public will know that " one drop of the St. Lawrence " will not injure any one. No, Anti-Humbug, "nothing unfortunate ever issues" from the homoiopathic treatment to the living organs, their homoeopathic powers do not lie in the direction of injuring organs, they are only powerful to cure. But I know myself the difficulty of understanding this fact, and I can sympathise with Anti-Humbug when he looks at the power of medicines from an Allopatiiic point of view, from which we can never see a curative means established but through the telescope of the purgative, diaphoretic, an iodine painting, a moxa, &^c. Tiiis establishes the second postulate. The 3rd postulate " Because the properly selected homoeopathic remedy acts curatively on the disease itself and removes it (when curative means are possible with men)." Every material in nature is known by its properties. The Ipecnc, the Cantharides, Mercurius Corrosivus, — are known by their properties, and the effects resulting from the administration of these properties are likewise knov/n. The proof that disease exists is that the symptoms of the disease are present. Headache attended with Bilious Vomiting, &'c., &^c., are symptoms of a dynamic disease of the Stomach or Head. Ipecac will produce a similar disease of the Stomach oc Head. How is that known ? Because //ecnc will produce Headache, attended with Bilious Vomiting, with a thousand strings," and that it keeps in tune so long was the wonder of m\ .i..cient songster. When the outward form of the human body is not artifi- cially distorted as it often is by fashion^ it presents to the eye the most pleasing and grace- ful of lines, especially when compared with the angularities of chrystals in the mineral kingdom. 'The internal organism exhibits the most profound self-operating models of machinery, which possess in their several portions the greatest requisite strength and adaptability for the functional ends desired, and from the least proportionate amount of 80 material of any other piece of mechanism ; architects, painters, and engineers have been always discovering, in those internal structures of the human body, the types of the principles of mechanics and arts. We may well ask, what can be more admirable than the mechanism of the Heart, Liver, Stomach, Kidneys, Pancreas, Blood Vessels, Lacteals, Lymphatics, Cllands, etc., every one of which is made up of its own peculiar cells, which all perform tlieir several offices when in motion, almost altogether independently of our menial control. What subject is so much calculated to make us think, as that of an examination of the construction of the organs of sight, hearing, tabte, smell, and touch, all of which manifest so much of the infinite wisdom and skill of their original designer and upholder. How profound is the wisdom indicated, when we view the mechanical and instinctive powers wliich are given to the organs to enable them to manufacture from the food we take the elements to be given to the blood, which will circulate through every tissue of tlie body, and thus be presented in appropriate form to the most minute parts of bone, muscle, cartilage, and nerve, to be by them perceived and appropriated tor their respective sustenance and growth. It is most gratifying to look upon the structure of organs with even the naked eye, but when their minute structure is revealed by the modern microscope, we may well be amazed at this fresh threshold of knowledge, confessing our own littleness, but adoring the infinite wisdom of God with renewed ardor, while we proclaim — as we could not have done before in our previous ignorance — How great and manifold are thy works, oh, Lord ! in wisdom hast thou made them all ; tlie earth is full of thy goodness, and the infinitude of space too. I may divide the subject of discourse : 1st. Into the normal or healthy instinctive actions of tissue. 2nd, Into the effects which extraneous materials produce on those normal tissues. Dr. Sterry Hunt, in his very able address on the relations of the natural sciences, states ;irt or the \\lu)le"of the body, or perhaps, it may be saiil by some to be more ph)siologically correct, that a part or the whole of the body acts in the materials l)y having an affinity for them or a disgust to them ; but in whichever way it is, some of tlie materia's, which will be mentioned, may not be easily detected l)y the chemical analyst, but will only be known from their physiologicul action, as, for instance, a medicine which was manufactured in London, England, at one time, for the East India Company, named Piih'i.i yaccbi, or James' Powder, The East Company had found this powder very effective in the treatment of fever. Its composition was kept secret like many other popular nostrums, until the death of the Messrs. James, \. hen from philanthropic motives their successors made known the reci|)e. It was said tu be composed of oxide of lime and oxide of antimony. Soon every apothecary began to manufacture James' Powder. The East Company advertised for a large amount, which was furnished at a lower rate than by the Messrs. James,by a London manufacturer. Put the medicine entirely failed in its remedial effects. The company refused to pay the bill, and a law-suit ensued. The best chemists in the country were called to analyse the article. It was found to contain the same ingredients, in the same proportions ; but the Messrs. James compounded their phosphate of lime by calcining the bones of animals, while the London Company calcined the phosphate of lime rock from estramadura ; every chemist declared that there could be no difference in the substances, and no one believed that there could be any difference in the effects, and yet when tested therapeutically the one proved remedial, while the other was valuefses. 36 It might be asked, what was there in the animal phosphate more than in the inorganic phosphate to produce the physiological and theraiieutic power. Clieniical and other tests being of no avail to discover the power, there must have been some extremely minute division of force located somewheie. Some people have a great abhorrence to the very name o{ infinitesimal, but there must have been power of that character in the animal phosphate, although beyond chemical demonstration. There are some folks, too, who seem to have their minds so fixed upon the non-divifibility of matter, that they cannot be brought to consider power existing when crude materials are divided, say, into a thousand parts; but the divisibility of matter can be carried muciihiglier than that nevertheless, and the divisions may be seen too. It is a fact that a decigramme of copper dissolved in nitric acid, diluted with water, tinged blue with ammonia, can be divided into fifty billions of visible parts. A decigramme of carmine may be divided into a billion of visible parts. A grain of assafoetida evaporates in eleven millions of parts, all scented well. A grain of musk diffuses an odour for twenty years in the place where the air freely circulates, without apparently losing its weight, and it evaporates in three hundred quatillionths of parts. Mayerhoffer lielieves that the process of trituration is a development of the medicinal powers of drugs. He has found in one grain of tin, of the third trituration, no less than 1 15,200,000 divided, and still further divisable, parts. According to his experiments, a grain of precipitated tin can be divided physically into a quadrillion parts ; precipitated copper, platina,siiver and gold into more than a trillion parts,mercury into a billion,tin and copper foil into more than a billion, filed 01 lead foil and filled iron into a billion, and so on. In these triturations the diameters of the metallic atoms vary from i-l2ooth to i- 2000th of a cubic line, and are therefore at least sixty-four times smaller than the blood globules of the human subject, and the least part of any of them may therefore reach the smallest cell for which an affinity exists in the living body. Ehrenberg has calculated that a cubic inch of a mass of Infusoria contains forty-one billions of these animalculiu Several hundred microscopic beings can be held on the point of a needle. Marsh's apparatus can show the millionth pait of a grain of arsenic. Danger «Sr= Flandinhave discovered, by their analysis, the hundred thousandth part of a grain of copper in the living organism, and so on, as regards the ultimate divisibility of matter, and as Ctivier see has s-aid, " matter is the depository of strength, matter passes away, but strength remains.'' I shall now take some cognizance as to how divisibilities act on the living body. An English vessel whicli carried a large quantity of metallic mer- cury, by accident had some of IJie metal escaping fiom the cask in which it was put; in three weeks two innidred men weie salivated, ulcers appeared : they w ere partially paralyzed. Even the loAver animals on board were not exempt. A chemist at Tours had a fit of asthma every time a bottle of powdered Ipecacuanha was opened ; anotlier person, each time Ipecac was pulverized in the premises, had an attack of violent vomiting. A cork impregnated with chloroform has been kno\\n to cause sound and refreshing sleep to a person attacked with nervous paralysis. According to Thenord d-^ Dupuytren, a bird instantly dies in an atmosphere containing the 1,500,000th part of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, and 1,250,000th part is sufficient to kill a horse. Majendie says that the smallest drop of cyanhydric acid, placed on the mucous membrane of the cheek of strong animals, causes them to fall down stone dead, with no trace of mus- cular irritability remaining. Professo tongue of I Dr. Rob stae (a fer weight of s Darwin possible cr On the grain of thi each gland tie blade o could he dt the odoioui smaller tha In Hay 1 cient to pre cient to pr quite a ratii The grai action, say; distinclly p charged, at brought int energy of d powerfully tween the d the drug is 1 In a meni other obseij sufficient tq mercurial teits. Thd from the a| Indian tance fronj that thirt) denly bloj were alt.i these mail mals, bet infinitesiij powers 11 mitttd ill stubbv)rn| cholera, as to the known in an anl iorganic llier tests minute try name liosphate, livifibility trials are lich higher lei gram me la, can be ided into a parts, all lere the air Ee hundred medicinal less than ;nts, a grain ted copper, and copper so on. In 2oooth of a ibules of the llest cell for ns forty-one llh part of a divisibility of matter passes / divisiViilities metallic mer- it was put ; in lly paralyzed. :cacuanha was d an attack of md refreshing ;re containing ifficient to kill Dus membrane trace of mus- 3T Professor Stass killed an animal with three drops of ■ irotine, and yet found them on the tongue of the victim after death. Dr. Roberts, in some carefully conducud sets of exjjeriments, found that one part of Dir- stae (a ferment secreted by the pancreas) is sufficient to y onvert forty thousand times its weight of starch into sugar and dextrine. Darwin in "his insectinorous plants" mentions, that he made experiments with every possible care, with the phosphate of ammonia. On the plant Drosera Rotundifolia, he found that the twenty-millionth part of a grain of the phosphate of ammonia was sufficient to produce distinct physiological action in each gland of the living pl/int /);W(V,/, causing the irflection of every tenticle, and often of tleblade of the leaf; the most skilful clxmist could not detect such sn.all quantities, neither could he detect the smell of a deer, whi h a dog could do — a quarter of a mile away. Yet the odoious particles, which have aflVctcd the olfactory nerves of the dog, must be infinitely smaller than those of tlie phosphate of ammonia weighing llie one 2o,ooo,oooth of a grain. Jn Ilay Fei'er, two millionths of a grain of the pollen from tlie hay has been found suffi- cient to produce the disease, and it might be a question, if so small a quantity was suffi- cient to produce the disease, what quantity of remedial agency will be found to cure it, quite a rational enquiry to make. The granular matter of the pollen of the hay is the direct result of cell force ; its mode ot action, says Roberts, bears no resemblance to that of oidinary chemical affinity, but it is distinctly physiological in character, the powerful energy with which this matter becomes charged, at the moment of its elaboration by the cells, is changed into the active form when brought into contact with the tissue upon whicli it is capable of acting, just like the specific energy of drugs in diseased organisms, for it is known that these specifics act much more powerfully when in contact with the diseased living organism. When such affinity exists be- tween the disease and the remedy, the disease will be found to be increased if the dose of the drug is crude. In a memoir read before the Academy of Sciences by Mons. Bouchardat, he says, amongst other observations, tliat a milligramme of mercury, dissolved in twent) quarts of water, is sufficient to l\ill in a few seconds fish plunged in this fluid, and he adds this proportion of mercurial salt is so feeble (a twenty-millionth), that it escnp-rsthe most delicate chemical teits. There are many examples ol people sleeping on the holders of a marsh, who passed from the arms of sleep into those of death. Indian trave'lers affirm, says Ciaiiin, that sailors on board vessels at a considerable dis- tance from the shore have been attacked by inteimiltent fevers. It is related by Sancisi, that thirty persons who were walking near the mouth of the Tiber were met by a wind sud- denly blowing from the South, across the infectious marshes, and immediately twenty-nine were attacked by tertiary fever. No chemical tests have been able to detect the secret of these marshy and earthy exhalatiors. Some deny theexisttnce and power of those infinites! mals, because they are invisible ; they say, " they dont believe in infinitesimals," ergo the infinitesimals have no power, but we have ample proof ll.at the infinitesimals have special powers nevertheless, and the dim of eyesight, and the flaunters of disbelief, must be per- mitted in this free land of ours to retain their oiiinions, although held against stern and stubborn facts. Can the dim of eyesight, the chemical tests interrogate small-pox, nieasles, cholera, typhus fever, scarlatina, the plague, the yellow fever, ^-c. ; no. Theinterrogfiion as to the real nature of the infinite cause has not yet been revealed, but their elTects are known by the physiological tests. I'rofessor Bonnelli of Turin caused a puncture to be made in an animal with the tooth of a rattlesnake. The head of the serpent had been kept in a dry 38 Jilnce and state for fifteen years at least, and exposed to the air and dust, and moreover had previously been preserved in spirits of wine. To liis great astonishment and that of his pupils, the animal died an hour afterwards. Can the chemist or the pathologist, who takes often more pleasure in verifying his diag- nosis by post viortem examination than in his Therapeutics to prevent death, can either of them explain why a speck of vaccine lymph will protect a child from small-pox, for a period of years, while at the same time the old material of the body which has been vac- cinated has been metamorphosed and carried out of the sybtem, and new material has l)een substituted for the old ? Tiiese facts will stand when the dislieliever and the dim of eye- sight will pass away. While upon the subject of infinitesimals affecting the tissues of the body, I may mention a few cases of what by medical men is called Idiosyncracy, that is a condition which renders some persons more than others liable to inordinate impressions from certain stimuli. Some of these might be referred to thus, H>.nry III. of France could not bear a cat to come near him. Tycho Brake trembled at the sight of a hare. Erasmus was always thrown into a fever when he ate fish. Ulandislaus King of Poland ran away at the sight of an apple, and the same fruit made dc Quercito, secretary of Francis I., fall a bleeding. Garden the philosopher could not endure eggs. Crassus had an insurmountable dislike to bread. And Cardinal Hanny de Cardonne swooned at the smell of a rose, iSr-x-., (2r=c., and so there is something, whatever it is, which | asses from the orator, the musician, warrior or poet, into the life-blood of the multitude whose hearts they arouse into tumultuous action. Can the chemist detect any or all of these by tests, he has not done it as yet, but they are all facts, and these are equally strong facts, as to the effects of infinitesimal specific medicine acting curatively on abnormal cell structure. Notwithstanding bigoted disbeliefs, it would appear then from reflection upon these data, that there is a living force guiding the functions of all organism ? That force may be incomprehensible, may be beyond the tests of the chem- ist, whether it acts in health or disease, or in the growth of organs. It commences to act in the one embryo cell of about the one hundred and twentieth part of an inch in diameter, it guides the multiplication of that cell into other cells, in their forma- tion of the bones, heart, brain, kidneys, and every organ, however intricate and varied, and it guides the ceasing of that multiplication of cells, when the organs have arrived at their full strength. So you will perceive when that force has to be reached, whether residing in a single cell or an aggregation of them in any organ, which is in an abnormal condition. To that your therapeutical artillery must be directed to penetrate, for all the changes, whether in the lluids or solids in dynamic diseases, are the consequences of alterations induced by the vital force. Now I must draw to a close by stating that there is a difference in the structure of all organic tissue, each organ performs its own duty, in its nutritive, formative and secre- tary functions, in its own peculiar way. The mucous membrane of the mouth has its peculiar structure, whereby it pours out mucous, the salivary glands from their peculiar structure select from the blood and secrete saliva; the epithelial or villous lining of the stomach permits the digestive juice to flow, the liver to form its bile and grape sugar, the kidneys to discharge the duty of selecting the worn-out or effete tissues from the llood of the body which passes through them, and so on, every organ having its own characteristic and admirable structuie for the end in view, and these organs all made in their intricacy, by characteristic cell growth, originated by the 39 jverliad it of his lis iViag- ;ither of 3X,for a jeen vac- has been n of eye- [iicnlion a h venders li. lear a cat IS always the sight , bleeding. e dislike to , &c., and warrior or ous action, they are all c medicine fs, it would he functions ofthechem- enibryo cell, or protoplast, but the functions of these are performed independently of our will, or as the physiological poet has it : Here the villi dip their noses, Gifted with a wondrous power Not of smell , but of pelec tion, Of acceptance or rejection Of the products of tlie hour. Noblevilli, who instructs ye Thus to choose our boon or •)anc, How do ye secure your treasure, How transmit it, at your leisure, Questions, yet to ask is vain. See that particle of butter Now an oil globe on its way, The saliva lightly kissed it, And the purling stream has whisked it In a duodenal bay. There coquetting with a portion Of the undigested rice, The Hepatic fluid meets them, Pancreatic juices greet them And they're married in a trice. 'entieth part their forma- ,'aried, and it A at their full ng in a single ion. To that .vhether in the :d by the vital \e structure of ive and secre- it pours out Dd and secrete ; juice to flow, 3f selecting the letn, and so on, id in view, and ginated by the