But this does not account for all the success of Home In this country there is a large proportion of individuals have plenty of money, combined with a great lack of employ and it is astonishing to what an extent such persons contrit imagine diseases for themselves. There is no animal machine perfect that there may not at times be some creaking Want of exercise, irregularity as to diet, a little worry of these, and a thousand other causes, may occasion uneasy feel to which constant attention and thinking of them will reality which they would not have had otherwise; and suc ings will disappear as well under the use of globules as they under any other mode of treatment, or under no trea at all.

What I have now mentioned will go far towards explainit success of Homœopathy. But other circumstances occur now and then, from which, when they do occur, it profits to:5 greater extent. Humanum est errare. From the operat this universal law medical practitioners are not exempt any than statesmen, divines, lawyers, engineers, or any other profes There are cases in which there is a greater chance of too than too little being done for the patient; and if a patient such circumstances becomes the subject of Homœopathic tre ment, this being no treatment at all, he actually derives ben from the change.

In a discourse to which I have already alluded, I thought it duty to offer the following caution to my pupils:- The first qu tion which should present itself to you in the management of particular case is this: Is the disease one of which the patient recover or is it not? There are indeed too many cases in wh the patient's condition is so manifestly hopeless, that the cannot be overlooked. Let me, however, caution you that you not in any instance arrive too hastily at this conclusion. knowledge is not so absolute and certain as to prevent even w informed persons being occasionally mistaken on this point. T is true especially with respect to the affections of internal orga

viduals have been restored to health who were supposed to lying of disease in the lungs or mesenteric glands.'

is a good rule in the practice of our art, as in the common irs of life, for us to look on the favourable side of the question, ar as we can consistently with reason do so.' I might have ed that hysterical affections are especially a source of error to very experienced practitioners, by simulating more serious ease; seeming to resist for a time all the efforts of art, and n all at once subsiding under any kind of treatment, or, just well, under none at all. Now, if it should so happen that a dical practitioner, from want of knowledge, or from a natural ect of judgment, makes a mistake in his diagnosis, and the tient whom he had unsuccessfully treated afterwards recovers der the care of another practitioner, it is simply said 'Dr. A. s mistaken;' and it is not considered as anything very remarkle that the symptoms should subside under the care of Dr. B. it if, on the other hand, the recovery takes place under the care a Homœopathist, or any other empiric, the circumstance cites a much larger portion of attention; and we really cannot ry well wonder that, with such knowledge as they possess of ese matters, the empiric should gain much credit with the blic.

So far the practical result would seem to be that Homœopathy n be productive of no great harm; and indeed, considering it to è no treatment at all, whenever it is a substitute for bad treatent, it must be the better of the two. But there is great harm evertheless. There are numerous cases in which spontaneous covery is out of the question; in which sometimes the life or eath of the patient, and at other times the comfort or discomfort - his existence for a long time to come, depends on the prompt oplication of active and judicious treatment. In such cases omeopathy is neither more nor less than a mischievous abardity; and I do not hesitate to say that a very large number of ersons have fallen victims to the faith which they reposed in it, ad to the consequent delay in having recourse to the use of

+

proper remedies. It is true that it very rarely happens, whe symptoms show themselves which give real alarm to the pat his friends, that they do not dismiss the Homœopathist and for a regular practitioner; but it may well be that by this tir mischief is done, the case being advanced beyond the reach

That the habit of resorting to Homœopathic treatment has prevailed in some parts of society should have occasioned dissatisfaction among the mass of medical practitioners, i matter of wonder. It cannot be otherwise than provoking those who have passed three or four years of the best part of lives in endeavouring to make themselves well acquainted disease in the wards of a hospital, to find that there are among their patients who resort to them for advice only their complaints have assumed a more painful or dange character; while they are set aside in ordinary cases, v involve a smaller amount of anxiety and responsibility, in in of some Homœopathic doctor, who, very probably, never s disease at all. But it cannot be helped. In all times there: been pretenders, who have persuaded a certain part of the p that they have some peculiar knowledge of a royal road to which those of the regular craft have not. It is Home now; it was something else formerly; and if Homœopathy to be extinguished, there would be something else in its p The medical profession must be contented to let the thing take course; and they will best consult their own dignity, and the of the public, by saying as little as possible about it. The cussions as to the evils of Homœopathy which have someti taken place at public meetings, have quite an opposite effect? that which they were intended to produce. They have led sens believe that Homœopathists are rather a persecuted race, and h given to the system which they pursue an importance would never have had otherwise; just as any absurd or fanati sect in religion would gain proselytes if it could only make oth believe that it was an object of jealousy and persecution. A all, the harm done to the regular profession is not so great

which

y suppose it to be; a very large proportion of the complaints it which Homoeopathists are consulted being really no comats at all, for which a respectable practitioner would scarcely k it right to prescribe.

here was a time when many of the medical profession held opinion that not only Homœopathy, but all other kinds of ckery, ought to be put down by the strong hand of the law. I gine that there are very few who hold that opinion now. The is, that the thing is impossible; and even if it were possible s it is plain that the profession cannot do all that is wanted of m, by curing all kinds of disease, and making men immortalh an interference with the liberty of individuals to consult ɔm they please would be absurd and wrong. As it now is, the forbids the employment in any public institution of anyone who not registered as being a qualified medical practitioner, after a › examination by some of the constituted authorities; and it can no further. The only effectual opposition which the medical fesssion can offer to Homœopathy, is by individually taking all ssible pains to avoid, on their own part, those errors of diagnosis means of which, more than anything else, the professors of moeopathy thrive and flourish; by continuing in all ways to honourably by the public; at the same time, never being luced, either by good nature or by any motives of self-interest, appear to give their sanction to a system which they know to ve no foundation in reality. To join with Homœopathists in tendance on cases of either medical or surgical disease, would be ither wise nor honest. The object of a medical consultation is e good of the patient; and we cannot suppose that any such result n arise from the interchange of opinions, where the views enrtained, or professed to be entertained, by one of the parties as the nature and treatment of disease, are wholly unintelligible the other.

652

THE

USE AND ABUSE OF TOBACCO.

FROM THE TIMES,'

AUGUST 31, 1860.

HAVING been applied to some time since to join in a p to the House of Commons that they would appoint a cu to inquire into the effects produced by the prevailing h tobacco smoking, I declined to do so; first, because it appear to me that such a committee would be very cor to discuss a question of this kind; and, secondly, because if they were so, I did not see that it would be possi Parliament to follow up by any act of legislation the c sions at which they might have arrived. Nevertheless! ready to admit that the subject is one of no trifling imp and well worthy the serious consideration of anyone an interest in the present and future well-being of From these considerations it is that I now venture to a to you the following observations.

whet

The empyreumatic oil of tobacco is produced by disti of that herb at a temperature above that of boiling water. or two drops of this oil (according to the size of the a placed on the tongue will kill a cat in the course of a minutes. A certain quantity of the oil must be always circ ing in the blood of an habitual smoker, and we cannot s that the effects of it on the system can be merely Leg Still, I am not prepared to subscribe to the opinion of who hold that, under all circumstances, and to however mod an extent it be practised, the smoking of tobacco is preja The first effect of it is to soothe and tranquillise the ne