summoned their rivals to a fair trial, and let the public see who were right. However, this they have not done, and we think that the pretenders have got up a case of which at present we cannot foresee the end; but we somewhat surmise that, after all, this heresy may succeed, for that it is making formidable progress is notorious; and it is within our own knowledge that a family recently at Brighton, wishing to consult one of the misguided leaders of the proscribed sect, was told that his hands were so full that he could not make an appointment without a day's notice. This is disheartening to the cause of the "real old original XXX" Esculapian College. Moreover, the Homœopathists are arrogant enough to say that they will have a charter of their own, and are daring enough to put their pretensions into a plausible shape as follows:

"Medicine, as a science, includes the anatomy and physiology of health-the chemistry, natural history, and botany of the materia medica—the anatomy and physiology of disease, and the theory of therapeutics, or the operation of remedies; and, as an art, it consists of rules for distinguishing diseases, and for the selection of remedies appropriate to each. Now, of this category, the first seven contain facts and doctrines quite as valuable, in the eyes of the Homœopathist, as in those of the common practitioner. There is, then, but one department of the science of medicine, in which the two systems can be at variance. And, in the art, of the two sections into which it is divided, the distinguishing of diseases and adaptation of remedies, the former is common, in all its details, to the two systems— the latter alone can be the subject of any controversy."

With such specious arguments as these, we may well tremble lest Homœopathy may be palmed upon society, just as vaccination and gas-lighting have been, notwithstanding, from historical recollections which we published in a former number of our journal, we showed that they also were proved by most respectable authority to be-what

the same kind of authority has predicted of Homœopathy utterly opposed to science and common sense."

66

But we must stop. We hope our readers will excuse this trifling on our part; but we really have no heart to treat the subject in any other light than as one that is to be laughed at for its effrontery; while at the same time we feel convinced that this senseless crusade is calculated to do immense good to the cause which it designs to crush. The earth would go round in spite of the pope; and we may be sure that, if pain and human woe are relieved by Homœopathy, the emancipated sufferers will persist in preferring heretical ease to orthodox anguish. The successful system will circulate round the centre of truth, whether it be in physic or in physics.

THE

ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS

AND THE

HOMEOPATHISTS.*

TO THE BRITISH PEOPLE.

THE essential principle of Popery, up to the present hour, to a most woeful extent prevails in the high places of Medicine. Our corporate medical bodies are the inveterate foes of the grand principle of Protestantism—the right of private judgment. An ignorant and infatuated world has been, time immemorial, deeply in love with art and mystery, of which it has had its fill; and most dearly has it paid for the luxury. It has been unwittingly amused with sounding names and dazzled by splendid pretensions. It has had the science, art, and mystery of government,— of divinity, of law, and of medicine; and the professors of these several sciences, arts, and mysteries have, as their indefeasible right, laid claim to the privilege of acting wholly without any consultation with, or control by, the parties interested in their respective operations. They have, to a vast extent, drank deep into the cup of Popery; they have demanded implicit confidence from mankind. To doubt, was to be condemned as contumacious, and subjected to appointed penalties. Thus the interests and the concerns of liberty, property, physical health, and eternal

*From the "British Banner."

THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND HOMEOPATHISTS. 271

life, were to be left to the sole and exclusive care of those various corporations! Such was the ancient state of things; and such, to a large extent, it is now, in our " most enlightened age." There is, upon the whole, but little abatement either on the side of the privileged or of the multitude. The arrogant and outrageous pretensions of the potentates are but little lowered, and the great majority of a foolish world are well pleased to have it so. Hitherto, but a small portion of mankind have understood the right and duty of exercising private judgment in this matter; they much prefer taking everything upon trust. There are, nevertheless, specialities; the position of the various objects to which we have referred is not everywhere alike. In various countries, but more especially in our own, there is a considerable measure of emancipation as to the science of government; men, in large numbers, think and speak with tolerable freedom concerning the character and the conduct both of the legislature and the executive powers. In regard to the "science of religion," it is the same, especially in the portion of society called Nonconformist, or dissenting. As to "law," it is not so; things there stand much the same as they did generations back; the bulk of men are wholly ignorant of the necessity, the value, beauty, and glory of just law, and the wrongs and miseries to which a portion of them have from time to time been subjected by unjust, oppressive, and cruel enactments, and by the iniquities which have blended with the administration of them. But it is worst of all in the matter of "physic." There, system gives place to system, and school to school; and yet the advocates of each system, and the professors of each school, for the time being, lay claim to a monopoly of medical wisdom, and treat with summary vengeance, to the extent of their ability, all those who attempt innovation!

On a former occasion, we were induced to take up the subject of Homœopathy, as coming legitimately within the province of humanity—a chief department of our official

labours. We were then prevented from completing what we had to say, on behalf of the public, by the papal invasion and the commencement of Parliament, which absorbed both our space and our thoughts, and we have now been led to return to it sooner than we intended, by the extraordinary course pursued by the Scotch Universities, which have commenced a deadly war against the Homœopathic practitioners. The Royal College of Physicians, of Edinburgh, has determined to give diplomas to no man, whatever his talents or acquirements, who has the slightest sympathy with the Homœopathic system, and to withdraw such diplomas from all its fellows who may fall into the heresy. Now, it will be allowed that this is a very extraordinary measure, and such as the public cannot witness altogether unconcerned. The doctors exist for the public, not the public for the doctors; and therefore this is a matter in which the public, having the chief, if not the sole stake, are entitled and required to exercise a judgment. This right, for them and ourselves, we now assert, and act upon it as the great principle of Protestantism, which applies not less to medicine than to theology. It may be that these Scottish Universities are acting a part which entitles them to the universal thanks of the nation, or it may be that they are acting a part which ought to subject them to universal condemnation; we hold, therefore, that this is a point which ought to be determined. Now, we are not going to enter into the matter medically; this is not our business; but the great question is one with which we hold ourselves competent to deal.

Is it demonstrated by experience that Homœopathy cures, at the very least, one-third more patients than the old school? So say the Homœopathists. Is it true that the Government of Vienna, probably impelled by the Allopathists, at first denounced the introduction and practice of Homœopathy, and that they were subsequently prevailed upon by one of the Austrian nobility to permit