of the matter, say are inert-disorders for which your art may have invented a name, but has discovered no remedy. Yes, sir, while you are speaking washy speeches against Hahnemann and me, I am sending away cured cases of disorder which your authorities declare to be incurable. For indeed there are few disorders incurable, excepting only such and these I meet with, sir, pretty often-as are induced or perpetuated by the injudicious and improper administration of Allopathic medicines; and believing, as I most sincerely do, what is usually called Allopathy— even extensively as it has of late been modified and amended by the slow introduction of some of Hahnemann's principles into it-to be a most pernicious error, and most fatal to the well-being of man, I am not disposed to object to your speech. On the contrary, sir, I deprecate nothing from you but your conversion and co-operation. What I do fear from you gentlemen is not open antagonism, but forced conversion, to a grand science which your previous education has totally disqualified you from comprehending; an advocacy, from compulsion, of that which you do not love, which you cannot manage, and which you may stifle by embracing it though you cannot destroy by abusing it. There were magicians, it is said, in olden times, who could not conquer Christian knights in fair open warfare, but by entertaining them, and breathing on them, they changed them for a time to apes, satyrs, owls, and swine. Entertain Homœopathy, sir, and beneath your breath the sweetest of sciences will be changed probably into something that its discoverer would not recognise-a compound nondescript, combining all the errors of one system with all the difficulties of the other; resembling the new art in name, and the old one in doing good to nobody but the doctor. Meet it with the open warfare of argument and experiment, and you fall powerless and prostrate before it. Pelt it with plenty of mud, refuse degrees to those who wish to examine it, persecute it well-and in ten years more your

profession will be extinct. For in whatever corner you lock up the wisdom you may have acquired in your passage through life, add to the stores there this one little piece, I beg of you—if you medical men do not practise Homœopathy, non-medical men will. And if once you let that practice begin, indeed, sir, it will take a great many speeches to stop it.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

WICKWAR, August 27, 1851.

THOMAS R. EVEREST.

We doubt much if Mr Everest, when he put his hypothetical case, illustrating how prone doctors are to differ, was aware that the fact had received a kind of numerical certainty through the endeavour of a whimsical old gentleman, of whom the following anecdote is related, from personal knowledge, by Dr. Hering, of Philadelphia:

"Whilst travelling in Germany," says the doctor, “I one day came to a village, the proprietor of which invited me to spend the night at his house, in place of putting up at the inn. He was a rich old gentleman, a great original, always an invalid, having ennui and good wine to a great extent. Learning that I was a young medical man, about to commence my travels, he told me he would sooner make his son a hangman than a doctor. On my expressing surprise at the observation, he produced a large book, saying that it was now twenty years since he first became ill in body, but not in mind; that two doctors of celebrity, whom he then consulted, had quarrelled about his disease, and that, consequently, he had employed neither of them nor their medicines, but that he had registered the affair in his book. Then, after finding that the disease did not get better, he set out on his travels, resolved, if he could find three doctors who perfectly agreed upon his case without any hesitation, to allow himself to be treated by them; but

never by any other. For this purpose, he had consulted at first all physicians of any reputation, and afterwards others whose names were less known, but having, in spite of all his sufferings, never abandoned his first resolution, and keeping an exact account of every consultation in a book for the purpose, he never succeeded in finding any who agreed respecting his case. Accordingly, not having followed the advice of any, he still remained an invalid, but he was still alive. As may be well supposed, the book cost him a pretty sum of money.

“This book had the appearance of a ledger in large folio, and was kept in the form of tables. In the first column were the names of the physicians, amounting to 477; in the second, those of the disease, with explanations concerning its nature; of these, there were 313 differing importantly from each other; in the third column were the remedies proposed-these consisted of 832 prescriptions; containing in all 1097 remedies. The sum total appeared at the end of each page.

"He took up a pen, and said, coolly, 'Wont you prescribe something for me? But having no great inclination to do so, I only asked if Hahnemann was not in his list. With a smile, he turned to No. 301, name of the disease O, remedy prescribed, O. That was the wisest of the lot," he cried, for he said that the name of the disease did not concern him, and that the name of the remedy did not concern me, but that the cure was the essential point.” 'But why,' I inquired, ‘did you not allow him to treat you?' 'Because,' he replied, 'he was but one, and I must have three who agree.'

“I asked him if he were willing to sacrifice some hundred francs for an experiment, in which case I should be able to mention not three but thirty-three physicians living in the neighbourhood, and in countries and parts of the world widely separate, who should all be of one opinion. He expressed his doubts, but at the same time resolved to

undertake the trial. We then made out a description of his disease, and, when the copies were finished, we sent them to thirty-three Homœopathic practitioners. He inclosed a louis d'or in each letter, begging each physician to name the remedies which were capable of curing, or at least of alleviating, his disease.

"A short time since I received a cask of Rhenish, of the vintage of 1822. 'I send you wine of the year 1822,' he wrote, 'because twenty-two physicians agreed respecting my case. I thereby perceive that there is certainty in some things in this world. I have got various works on the subject, in order to gain information upon it. Out of about two hundred medicines, twenty-two physicians have fixed upon the same remedy. One could not expect more. The physician nearest me has got me under his care, and I send you the wine that I may not be tempted to drink too much from joy at seeing my health improving from day to day.""

THE EAST versus THE WEST.*

WE have lately had many communications addressed to us on the subject of Homoeopathy, and the practice of globular medicines and infinitesimal dosing, as it is called, but we refrained from using them, as we could not well understand the drift of the senders, and thought they were either deluded enthusiasts or ignorant charlatans. We have, however, altered our opinion somewhat on the matter, though not Homœopathists either from conviction or practice as yet, and our reasons for listening to the new doctrines are as follow:-Firstly, we have had a series of pamphlets and periodicals handed to us for examination and perusal, which relate to this system of medical practice; and secondly, and more forcibly, we have watched attentively for a considerable time the system of persecution and downcry that has been organised at home against the practitioners engaged either as amateurs or as qualified medical men in its spread and dissemination. The perusal of the former has much amused and pleased us, and the consideration of the latter has gradually fixed our attention more and more, until at length it has engaged our sympathy and commanded inquiry. Wherever persecution begins, a sense of right ends on the part of its promoters and abettors, and the mind of an educated person is led to suspect that that person, or body of men, or science, which

* From the "Morning Chronicle" of Calcutta.