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and we trust that the subject will he dul y and not tardily considered . The People ' s Institute for Westminster and Pimlico might he made an excellent model and beginning .
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THE MEDICAL QUESTION OF THE DAY . The attentive reader will remember that , early in the present year , we devoted three articles to the explanation of the twofold idea of Homoeopathy , thinking ( as we certainly did and do ) that the Hahnemannian movement in Medicine had become a subject of vast public importance . That article had scarcely been published when ( as
the spirit of coincidence would have it ) there commenced a struggle between the old and new schools of practical medicine , originating in a spasmodic effort on the part of the former to put the latter down . It appears that the young heresy had been actually making inroads into the membership of the College of Physicians at Edinburgh , formerly a professionguild of doctors enjoying a monopoly of practice in the Candlemakers ' -row and other streets or closes
of Auld Reekie , and now a sort of honorary club of such medicos as are able and willing to pay down £ 100 , &c . " Well , the professor of Pathology in the College at Edinburgh , a former treasurer of the College of Physicians itself ( whom it had even delighted to honour with a service of plate ) , a London physician , and the superintendent of the water-cure hospital at Benrhydding , being all fellows of the Royal College , have ( notwithstanding their £ 100 honours !) dared to investigate and accept the theory of specifics and the practice of infinitesimal doses . It has , therefore , behoved the orthodox majority to express its disgust at the conduct of its recusant associates . Thanks to the
constitution of the College and the dreadful common sense of a possible Scottish jury , however , it could not expel the four offenders without incurring the risk of as many actions of damages . They proposed and passed a series of resolutions against Homoeopathy and Homoeopathists , and all such lukev / arm brethren as should have any dealings with Homoeopathists . These resolutions were chiefly remarkable for being supercilious and
illcomposed , lhe secretary , Mr . Alexander Wood , tried to add insult to injury ; addressing a copy of said resolutions , for example , to Professor Henderson , under the designation of " Practitioner of Homoeopathy . " The resolutions were proposed by Dr . Christison , the well-known professor of the old Materia Medica , whose peculiar craft is in danger from the progress of the Maieria Medica Pura of Hahnemann ; but their syntax is too loose and absurd for his practised pen .
It is worthy of notice that persons holding by the majority which carried those resolutions , brought the fact of their having been carried before the public in the Witness newspaper , an organ which , however , did the Homoeopaths the justice of letting them speak for themselves in its columns . At all even Is , it was thus the Allopathic party that first thrust the question into the popular arena , where , it must be confessed , they have been fairly beaten . It is \ innccessary to follow the successive steps of this orthodox rise to crush poor Homoeopathy , for everybody must be more or loss familiar with them ; and there is a sameness in all those measures of
resistance to the aggressions of discovery , which is sufficiently uninteresting to the student of scientific ( and especially medical ) history , as well as very uninstructive to the general reader . Suffice it that the Edinburgh College of Surgeons soon sent forth a feeble echo of its elder sister ' s denunciation . Then the West of England Provincial Medical Association , apparently as favourable a specimen of the Plebs Medica as could well he gathered together , met at Brighton , and congratulated the Edinburgh colleges on their noble stand . Nor did the provincials fail to outdo the metropolitans in all the courtesies of medical conflict , like the Abigail of a railing mistress . A London association joined
in the crusade . Next cume the rejection , commonly called the plucking , of a candidate for graduation by the Medical Faculty of the University of Edinburgh , because of his adhesion to Homoeo pathy ; fallowed by the homologation of the princip le of such rejection by the faculty containing a Kinglo medical professor , but one so luminous that they call him Day ! of St . Andrew ' s , and also that of King ' s College , at Aberdeen . It is alleged that the Clasgow cxaminators are inclined to be as exclusive ; ho that Scottish medicine is fairly in arms against the upstart ! This movement of the orthodox majority is peculiarly unwise in every point of view . If Iloinav pathy bo false , they may be nuro that it will
speedily die . If it be partly true and partly false , their opposition can only perpetuate the adhesion of error with which it is encumbered . If it be tme—vce victis ! But in any case their angry and contemptuous recriminations have only consolidated the numerous existing followers of Hornceopathy , brought the latent power of the new doctrine very prominently before the public , interested not a few medical men and thousands of the laity in the therapeutical question , conveyed a deep impression of their own intolerance and highhandedness to the public mind , and in every way
promoted the cause they have wished to extinguish . Ten years ago there were some ten homoeopathic practitioners in Great Britain , now there are some two hundred ; in ten years there will be two thousand , at the same rate of increment . Right or wrong , Homoeopathy has the ball at its feet for many years to come , thanks to those of the opposite faction . If wrong , posterity will blame the colleges almost as much as the sectaries themselves . If right , it will just be one instance more of God ' s making the wrath of man to praise Him—that is all 1
Out of all this commotion there has arisen , amongst other things , a society for the protection of Homoeopathic students ; and we wish to say a moderate word about it and its object . Long custom has made it necessary to obtain either a doctor ' s degree , or a surgeon ' s diploma , as the indispensable preliminary to entering upon the practice * of medicine . The public looks for . it as a guarantee of the bearer ' s having really and regularly
studied medicine . It accordingly does seem very hard that a young man , who has passed through a full curriculum of medical study according to rule , should be refused his diploma , because he is a Homoeopathist . One ' s sense of justice revolts against it . Homoeopathists have risen as one roan to resent it . Yet there is something to be said on the other side of the question too . It is far from an easy knot to loose .
It must not be forgotten by the Homoeopathists , and it will not long be forgotten by the public , that the Allopathic School with its venerable names has a conscience as well as Hahnemann and his disciples . The men of the old faith sincerely and even devoutly believe in their hearts of hearts that this exhibition of infinitesimals is an awful delusion , awful in relation to the patient , and awful as regards the progress of medical science .
Disbelieving it , they must view it with something like horror . They must lament , despise , and oppugn it . We do not say they have acted scientifically by the alleged discovery of Hahnemann ; we think they have not ; but , conceiving Homoeopathy as they do , they are bound in honour to do all they can to quench it ; and so all in honour they do . They no more persecute the Ilomceopathists than these persecute them . The only difference is that they nave the power more in their hands—the Universities and what not .
Now , if a young Homoeopath present himself for examination before an Allopathic professor of the practice of physic , he must answer him as a Homoeopath ; and , answered homoeopathically , the professor is bound to reject him . It is the professor ' s profound opinion that the candidate is ignorant of the true art of healing , that , in fact , he cannot practise physic , and he must report him incapable . It has been speciously said that such a candidate may answer his examinator impersonally . Away with such a thought 1 Far be such Jesuitry
from the courts of science ! No ; the implicit , if not the explicit formula of such an examination iH , What would you do in this case and in that ? And the man of honour who has accepted Homoeopathy , can answer the formula in only one way . He can only say , the Allopathic- method in such a case is so-and-so ; but , being a Iloinoeopathist , I should follow my own rule of treatment . In short , it is our unhesitating opinion that it is competent for an orthodox examinator in the practice of physic , or the Materia Medica to reject a
Homoeopathic aspirant ; and also that no such aspirant has a moral right to a diploma from any existing board an at present constituted . We think it a thousand pities that such examinators should not see that even so great a difference in opinion and practice is quite compatible with the idea of both Allopath and Iloinoeopath enjoying their honours and emoluments nide by Hide ; but now the question is mooted , we cannot but see and uKscrt that there i » no protection possible to the homoeopathic candidate , according to the prevailing HVfltein of degrees and diplomas . Just suppose that the profcsHOia of Edinburgh College , ami the
majority of the students were Hahnemannian in conviction and in practice . If a candidate came before the former , denying his sacred Homoeopathy and asserting the rights of the fatal lancet and the poisonous drug , he would surely send him back as a dangerous person , and wholly unfit to practise the beneficent profession of healing . At all events if the faculty should recklessly let such a heretic loose upon society , wearing their testimonial to his
having truly and usefully studied medicine , the public would assuredly be struck into suspicion by their latitudinarian notion of the art of healing , and take it for granted that the whole affair was a juggle . Such is precisely the position of the Edinburgh faculty with their degree , mutatis mutandis . There is no escape from their dilemma except the frank profession of absolute scepticismomen quod Dii avertant !
What , then , is to be done in this emergency ? Since young Homoeopathic physicians must have some sort of doctorship or diploma , by way of general certificate to the public , how shall it be accorded them ? Three several plans have occurred to us as meeting the difficulties of the case . The first condition of all and several of these three plans is that Government , in consideration of the large number of responsible and influential British subjects adhering to Homoeopathy , put forth her authority in the matter .
1 . Two Homoeopathic examinators , one in the practice of physic and the other in the Materia Medica , might easily be added to some one or more of the existing boards ( that of University College , for instance ) , and Homoeopathic students entitled to claim examination on these subjects at their hands . This is done at several universities in Germany , we understand ; but the British , having more practical faith in their systems , and , therefore , more bigotry against whatever comes in the guise of a critic or a rival , may not be capable of working so reasonable a scheme . It is to be feared that
there would be resistance to the death on the part of any existing board here , against any proposal of this sort . It is too rational , and also too fast-and-loose looking for faithful , fighting , plainspoken , unrefining , single-eyed John Bull . II . The Homoeopathists might have an examining board of their own empowered to grant diplomas of some sort , physicians' diplomas , analogous to surgeons' ones , as accorded by the various Colleges of Surgeons . The advantages of such a board would be manifold . The whole course of study and
of subsequent examination might be modified and shaped anew by sagacious men in these new circumstances . It could easily merge in the old institutions , or altogether give way as soon as Homoeopathy shall have won all the strongholds , as it must eventually do if it be true . It appears to us that such a board is attainable at one stroke . It could not be refused to 200 practitioners and some 200 , 000 laymen , counting amongst the number , bishops , lords , judges , generals , men of letters , members of Parliament , great merchants , and all sorts of intelligent people .
III . It is at the same time pretty obvious , that many long years will pass before Homoeopathy is fairly and universally received as part and parcel of the science and art of medicine . It and several other great subjects have , doubtless , a long and arduous gauntlet to run , before reaching the goal towards which they press . The next half century seems to be dedicated to contestn of alirost every kind , and this is one of the high p laces of the field . In these circumstances , Homoeopathy had better establish its own school of medicine at once , and demand a charter from the commonwealth . Let it body out
its own curriculum of study , prescribe its own practical training , appoint its own teachers * and award its own diploma . It is a poor ana pitiful thing that it should be driven to so sectarian an extreme * , but it has done all it could -to avoid such a consummation ; it is now fairly driven forth of the paternal rooi , and nothing remains for it but to found its own fortunes . The time for conciliation will come . In the mean time , it ; must be schismatical in orfl to a nobler scientific catholicity in the long rui It could fail in Hiich an effort Dividing t »» nuui ^ ¦ -
never . Mli ( Illllll ih : h : i i . ui in < u < «» w »« . medical men and the public equally among »« existing medical schoolh , each of them cannot" , present more than two hundred doctors anU hundred thousand pationtn . Then the cause Homoeopathy is young , nggreHHive , strong ini i ' ( lushed with enthusiasm , allied to much t »» - youthful and vigorous in the newest 'nov . . V human thought , and growing like a giant ir year to year . It has likewise a gloriou s oppor *
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1016 ffitlfc Heafr *?* [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 25, 1851, page 1016, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1906/page/12/
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