and, for mankind, far more beneficial, than have hitherto been realised from Allopathic practice." Can anything be more rational, more candid, more decisive? But we must give the closing paragraph of the letter, which constitutes a personal appeal to the President of the College of Physicians, who appears to have been one of Dr Macleod's college companions and early friends:

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Concerning your own action in these recent deliberations, I know positively nothing; but I shall not question the sympathy of one who has never been blamed for resisting novelties himself; who has perhaps introduced more serious and startling courses of practice than any other contemporary British physician; who is certainly not bound by formula of colleges, but, on the contrary, who has ventured, on the strength of his own will and resources, to walk all but singly along a most perilous path. Recollections of former times also re-assure me. Were I to arrange and compute the value of their influences, I know not-if I have erred-how far I might not plead in palliation Te Duce. You have not forgotten that small room, approached by the long passage, where our lamented friend, Dr John Reid, once lived and studied. Free speech was there, free thoughts, and criticism unchecked. Youth passes, and with it many dreams and impulses. We think, when we begin, that we are to storm the world, but, alas! the world too often storms us. Many find it safest to capitulate, and permit themselves to be sold. Still, all these early impulses are not foolish. For myself, I would cherish, as before, fair hopes of success and auspicious fortune; but, foremost, that old and firm resolve, to remain, whatever betide, by honesty and intellectual independence."

These solemn words form a meet conclusion to this very able epistle, by which the College of Physicians, of the orthodox system, have gained nothing-Dr Macleod and the Homœopaths a great deal. The pamphlet will prove

284 THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND HOMEOPATHISTS.

a valuable advertisement to both; and we vouch for it, no man, with a fair portion of intelligence, can read the letter with care and candour, without forming a favourable opinion both of the writer and of his subject, and without concluding that he has made out a sufficient case for further inquiry. Let this be granted, and we ask no more; for we repeat, in conclusion, that all we ask is justice, and that we, the British people, have the deepest interest in the question; and we have every reason to be dissatisfied by the conduct of the established practitioners in attempting by mere authority to suppress the new system. We shall return to the subject.

THE BRIGHTON PROTEST ANALYSED.

Resolutions passed by the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, at a meeting held at Brighton on 14th August, 1851.

"1. That it is the opinion of this association, that Homœopathy, as propounded by Hahnemann and practised by his followers, is so utterly opposed to science and common sense, as well as so completely at variance with the experience of the medical profession, that it ought to be in no way or degree practised or countenanced by any regularly-educated medical practitioner.

"2. That Homœopathic practitioners, through the press, the platform, and the pulpit, have endeavoured to heap contempt upon the practice of medicine and surgery, as followed by members of this association, and by the profession at large.

"3. That, for these reasons, it is derogatory to the honour of members of this association to hold any kind of professional intercourse with Homœopathic practitioners.

"4. That there are three classes of practitioners who ought not to be members of this association, namely: first, real Homoeopathic practitioners; second, those who practise Homœopathy in combination with other systems of treatment; and third, those who, under various pretences, meet in consultation, or hold professional intercourse with those who practise Homœopathy.

"5. That a committee of seven be appointed to frame laws in accordance with these resolutions, to be submitted to the next annual meeting of the association.

"6. That the thanks of the association are eminently due, and are hereby given, to the Presidents and Fellows of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons of Edinburgh, for their determined stand against Homœopathic delusions and impostures.

"7. That the thanks of the association are also due, and are hereby given, to the Universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews for their resolution to refuse their diplomas to practitioners of Homœopathy; but the association feels imperatively called on to express its disapproval of any school of medicine which retains among its teachers any one who holds Homoeopathic opinions.

"8. That these resolutions be printed, and transmitted to all the medical licensing bodies and medical schools in the United Kingdom; and that they likewise be inserted in the "Times" newspaper, the "Morning Post," the "North British Advertiser," "Saunders's News Letter," all the British and Irish medical periodicals, and in such other journals as the council may sanction, upon the recommendation of the branch associations."

The prefixed resolutions, embodying the collective wisdom, we are told, of 300 medical practitioners, and much praised by the medical journals, seem to require few comments from us. At the same time, we might be blamed for arrogance, were we merely to proclaim dissent, without stating the grounds of it, from the deliberate judgment and conclusions of so large a number of our professional brethren. We are the rather called on for reasons of dissent that reasons of affirmation are offered by these resolutionists, who in this respect differ from some other bodies which have spoken on the subject. We are aware, too, that we should be doing great injustice to so numerous and influential a society, were we not to take it for granted that the

reasons thus publicly alleged for the position its members have resolved to assume in future towards ourselves, and all others of the medical profession who adopt to any extent the Homœopathic system, are in truth the best reasons that can be alleged. Taking this view, we feel it our duty in a few sentences to propose, seriatim, with all becoming modesty, for the consideration of our readers, what remarks occur to us on these resolutions.

And generally we observe, that in these, as in all the other recent fulminations against Homœopathy (so far as they have come under our notice), we have to complain of the want of due precision. Homœopathy is eo nomine condemned, and its practitioners are denounced; but what conception the word Homœopathy represents in the minds of those who have been accustomed to use it as a stigma, and not as a definition, we have no means of discovering. That they regard it as something to be abhorred and avoided, is plain enough; but that they have any distinct. notion of the peculiarities and characteristics which distinguish it from all other doctrines and practices in medicine which are likewise to be abhorred and avoided, does not appear in these resolutions, which imply no knowledge of Homœopathy, except that the system so named was propounded by Hahnemann. Accordingly, no attempt is made to distinguish between things so widely apart as the similar law and the infinitesimal doses, even with a view to their separate condemnation. With every anxiety to do full justice to all our opponents, even to the most virulent and unreasonable of them, we must observe, that these indefinite denunciations expose those who make use of them to this remark, that they appear far more anxious to burn their brothers and rivals the heretics, than for the sake of truth to extinguish the heresy. Had this been their pure object and motive, they would, no doubt, have felt it necessary to be much more explicit; to show in what precise respects the system was untrue which they were condemn