"If one pill does good, two pills will do more good; the more pills you take the more good they will do yon; if anybody is not cured by taking these pills it is because they have not taken enough of them; which being generalized and translated into the scientific language of our academy, becomes this identical proposition: The power of any remedial agent essentially depends on the number of grains, ounces or pounds of what that agent consists."

I am happy to assure the public that the practice of intelligent physicians, of whatever school, is not so bad as might be inferred from this statement of a fundamental principle. Experience teaches them the danger of being governed by any such theoretical speculations, and they are themselves ready to admit that many a poor patient gets cured to death by over-dosing. "Nellum remedium nisi quod tempestivo usu fiat,”—there is no remedy except that which becomes so by reasonable use-is a received medical maxim.

The illustration given in the relative effects of a large or small quantity of gunpowder, steam, and all other agents of similar power, which the doctor cites as very analogous, shows a total want of discrimination between remedial and destructive power. The rifleman, who, with unerring aim hits the mark, is careful to select powder of the particular quality suited to his rifle, and learns by experience the quantity necessary to propel the ball the required distance with the requisite force. A person ignorant of these necessary precautions, and intent only upon increasing the power, might load to the muzzle, burst the gun, "and produce great destruction of human life," and might be considered a "dead shot," but not a good marksman. The ignoramus, usurping the place of the engineer, may fasten down the safety valves and put on steam with all zeal in the expectation of making a quick passage; and the academy, if they look to the amount of power as the only thing requisite to a safe voyage, may embark, but I would kindly warn them not to go in that boat; experience has shown that there is great danger in such a course. fear they will burst their boiler.

I

Hahnemann has never forbidden "his pupils to reason or theorize on his principles," and never has asserted any such nonsense as Dr. Stearns attributes to him. Believing, with undoubting faith, that the benevolent Creator has wisely arranged the laws of nature, with a humility characteristic of true greatness, he has felt it to be his province, by the careful observation of facts, to inquire what is the natural constitution of things, rather than to attempt, by any effort

of mere reason, to determine what it ought to be. In this good work he labored with untiring zeal, and his labors were rewarded with glorious success.

And now I would ask Dr. Stearns and the academy, what right have you to accuse Hahnemann of an "express purpose to practice deception and imposition upon the credulity and prejudices of the community?" What reason have you to assert that "poisons and narcotics constitute the corner-stone of the homoeopathic edifice?" Dare you assert that homoeopathists use greater quantities, or more concentrated and dangerous forms of poisonous and narcotic substances, than allopathists use? Dare you even pretend that we use them in as concentrated forms as they are habitually used by you? What reason have you to assert that "the alleviation of pain by narcotics gives to their (homeopathic) practice all its popularity ?” That homoeopathy is popular, and that our practice alleviates pain and cures the patient, is true. Your testimony to this point is good; but the assertion that the alleviation of pain is procured by narcotics is false, and I challenge you to the proof. How dare you assert that if a man attempts to practice upon the principles of homoeopathy "he must possess a most depraved moral faculty?" Do you know that homoeopathic practice impairs health, destroys life, and must necessarily impair the usefulness of the clergy as guides to eternal happiness, if they patronize it? What has constituted you defenders of the faith and guardians of "our holy religion," with authority to school the clergy in the discharge of their peculiar professional duties? This high-handed attempt to overawe the clergy and all religious men; to defame and ostracise homoeopathic practitioners; looks more like a conspiracy to destroy the reputation of successful rivals, than like an honest, honorable effort to promote the truth. I deny your premises, I deny your conclusions, and I call for your proofs.

VIII.

Valedictory Address before the Medical Class of the New Homœopathic Medical College, March 2, 1869,

By F. W. HUNT, M. D.

I have been directed by the authorities of The New York Medical College, to say to the medical class, that our meetings for the present must terminate this evening.

In view of the relations with you, they have been pleasant and satisfactory. Our many meetings have all been gladdened by the evidence that we have had continually before us, of your cheerful devotion to laborious study. And our parting this evening must only fix in our minds one more of those sunny memories to which we may turn for consolation in the trial hours of the future which await us all.

We have noticed your patience and fortitude in the pursuit of knowledge under such difficulties, as all aspiring students are often obliged to meet; and we have remembered that the qualities you have displayed are the only ones that ever lead to true and high We close the present session without unnecessary formality or expenditure of time, as we are reminded by the impatience of every one here, that not much now remains to be said, and that we have not much time left to say it in.

success.

Among the subjects already talked over among us, there are many upon which we are beginning to understand each other. If some questions yet remain unsettled, they must pass over to another session, when they will fall into the hands of the "committee on unfinished business." If any new proposition could be entertained now it must necessarily be one that may be passed unanimously and without debate.

There are some points upon which, I suppose, you are all agreed. We have often had expressions of opinion from you on other themes. I may venture to suggest for your present consideration one sentiment : "How beautiful is home! The wanderer sees,

Returning from afar, the village spire,

And the ancestral roof, whose aged trees

Shelter, perchance, wife, mother, child, and sire."

You have known long ago the beauty and the value and the power of

"Home, and its gratulations and the ties

That Heaven has twisted round congenial hearts

To draw them to itself."

And this truth also I think you all understand:

"Tis love alone that gives to home its bliss,
Transfiguring common dust with light divine:
Love plants its Eden in the wilderness,

Lights Heaven's own flame to gild the darksome time;
In saddest breast, like diamond in a mine,

Burns quenchlessly; and through life's inner night,

An orb of fairest grace and strength sublime,

Pure as sweet Hesper, set on Tempe's height,

Streams, prophesying Heaven, the land of love's delight."

*

A former Governor of this State said in one of his messages that society had good use for a class or body of educated men who were qualified to be "not only the conservators of health, but the missionaries of science." Since that time large numbers of men have been trained for such a mission in the world: many medical schools have been established and maintained. They have taught what they knew and believed in with sufficient faithfulness and ability. Had they believed in all that is really true, and been willing to teach it all without reserve, there might have been no positive necessity for the establishment of any new schools. But inasmuch as the schools of the middle ages, as they exist in the nineteenth century, decline to teach some truths which fair and careful experiments, have demonstrated to be worth knowing it has been thought necessary to establish other schools which shall fearlessly teach whatever can be proved to be true.

Lord Nelson said, when he gave orders to pursue the French fleet, "where there is room for a French ship to swing, there is room for an English ship to anchor." The founders. of the homoeopathic colleges have said, "where there is room for a college devoted to teaching the doctrines of the oldest school of the straightest sect, omitting some important truth that is a truth, there is room for a college pledged to the dissemination of the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth." On this basis, and on this principle rest every homoeopathic college in the United States, and every homœopathic practitioner in the world.

*De Witt Clinton.

It is now a little more than seven hundred years since the degree of Doctor of Medicine was first conferred in Europe, at the old Etruscan city of Bologne. How many have received it since, and how worthily they have all borne its honors, I will not now try to

answer.

In America, medical education was confined to those great commercial cities, New York and Philadelphia. In the latter city, Wistar and Shippen, and Rush, were teaching, not in a college, but in private houses, seventy-seven years ago. These men spoke and wrote as well as they knew. When they and their successors became acquainted with new discoveries in medicine, they adopted them, nearly all. Samuel Hahnemann, in Germany, made one discovery which they did not comprehend. Too many of those who heard of it, thought it too good to be true, and they committed themselves against it; then like the proud men, they could not go back. They could not study the lesson which the German reformer wished to teach them; they could not teach what they knew nothing of. They treated their students and the people as the interpreter treated the Indian chief, about twenty years ago, on the plains of western Texas. When Captain Marcy tried to instruct the chief in the benefits of civilization, the interpreter at first translated every word for his master, who listened respectfully to all. When the officer came to explain the electric telegraph, then the newest and greatest discovery, the interpreter hesitated, "Why do you not go on?" "I think," said the interpreter, "I will not tell him about that, for to tell you the truth, Captain, I do not believe that story myself."

In just this attitude of doubt and hesitation have teachers of medicine stood since the end of the last century. In the course of the present century, many became convinced that the reform commenced by Hahnemann, was one of immense importance; they adopted his method and proved its value by their success. After waiting forty years for the teachers of the old schools to study and understand and commence teaching the truths contained in the elementary books that Hahnemann had written, these men saw that the improved method of curing disease was nowhere as yet taught in existing colleges. Then some of you,* just before the mid-day of the nineteenth century, founded the Homœopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania. You have. now several other homeopathic colleges, *To one of the faculty present.