the authority of the testifier; and the authority of the testifier is founded upon his ability and integrity; his ability in the knowledge of that which he delivereth and asserteth; his integrity in delivering and asserting according to his knowledge."*

The medical evidence in support of the truth of Homoeopathy is such that it is impossible to withhold assent to this testimony, if the number, the ability, and the integrity of the witnesses are permitted to have the consideration they deserve.

It is due to HAHNEMANN, the propounder of the system, to mention him first and alone, and to remember that he occupied a place in the best qualified circle of his profession, and was acknowledged by many of his most distinguished colleagues, as one of the most accomplished and scientific physicians of his age.

Then, as regards the number of the witnesses. The medical men who have avowedly embraced Homœopathy are now to be met with in every civilised country throughout the world. In many of these countries it is true they form, as yet, only a small minority, but the aggregate number must constitute a considerable body. In this country there are at present nearly two hundred. In the United States of America there are already two Homoeopathic Universities, and a large number of legally qualified homoeopathic practitioners.f And as regards ability, it will be sufficient to observe that, for the most part, they are converts from the ranks of regularly educated physicians and surgeons. They had been engaged, for a longer or shorter period, in the practice of their profession according to the usual methods, and it may be fairly presumed that they possess at least an average amount of professional skill and experience. In support of this opinion it may be remarked that among them there are nearly thirty professors in various European Universities; nearly fifty Medical and Court Councillors, and at least twenty Court Physicians. These last are attached to members of the courts of Austria, Prussia, Russia, Spain, Naples, Belgium, Hanover, and the smaller German States.

And lastly, as regards integrity. Perhaps the best mode of testing this is to enquire into the reasons which have led individuals to study and embrace the new method. Now, some of these have been induced to investigate the subject, because patients whom they had failed to benefit by the best resources of Allopathy, had been afterwards cured by Homoeopathy. Among these is Dr. CHAPMAN. He says, "It happened that, during my absence from Liverpool,

* Pearson.

† Since writing the above, Dr. Atkin has favoured me with the following statement of homœopathic practitioners, from his forthcoming Directory:-" British, in London, 63; in the Provinces, 138-201; and upwards of 3,000 in the United States." I am glad to find that I have not been guilty of exaggeration.

some of my patients had been induced to try the Homœopathic treatment. Some of the cures could be explained away, but several of them could only be honestly accounted for by admitting the full efficacy of the treatment that had been pursued. It will be sufficient to mention one of these. A gentleman had been subject to hæmorrhoids for some years, and the loss of blood was sometimes fearful. His bowels were habitually and obstinately constipated, and any medicine but the most gentle laxatives brought on the hæmorrhoidal flux. Astringents were of no use during the discharge: they produced mischief when taken internally. He had been under the care of several eminent men in London, and had tried many medical men in Liverpool. His condition was made rather worse than better by the efforts of all and each of us to relieve him. His life was a misery. Two or three months after he had been under homoeopathic treatment, I met him one day in the street, and was astonished at the alteration in his appearance. From being emaciated, he had grown stout, and was altogether in excellent condition. I asked him what he had been doing, and thereupon he told me of his having swooned away in London from the loss of blood; that a Homoeopathic physician had attended him; that he had suffered no loss of blood since; that his bowels were regular, and that he no longer suffered any inconvenience from the trying, and, in his case, dangerous complaint he had suffered from a dozen years or more. This and several other concurrent cases of my own patients, successfully treated by this method at the same time, induced me to lay aside my prejudice against the apparent absurdity of the doses, so far as to test by actual experiment their efficacy and value. I was immediately convinced that the doses were efficacious, and conviction of the truth of the doctrine followed." Many "urged their eager remonstrances, but my duty was plain so soon as I became convinced; and it was the sincerity of my conviction which gave me the courage to persevere."

men.

Others have been persuaded to examine the new system by the representation of medical friends who had previously become converts, and whom they respected as honest and conscientious Of this number I am one; having been urged to undertake the investigation I have described in these Essays by my friend Dr. RAM BOTHAM. I was told that I had had ample experience of the usual methods, which would enable me to compare the new one with them; that, having retired from the laborious part of my professional duties, I had leisure and opportunity; and, in short, that it was my duty. I hesitated at first, but it had been laid on my conscience, and after some consideration, I determined to take two years and to give it a full investigation. I had no other wish than to discover the truth.

Others again have engaged in the laborious task expressly for the

purpose of proving Homoeopathy to be a fallacy. Dr. H. V. MALAN is one of these. He has favoured me with the following account:

"After having lived for some years in the house of a homoeopathic physician in Germany, and seen his practice, and heard him speak and teach, I went to Paris in 1840, and located myself very near HAHNEMANN's residence; I called on him almost the next morning, and told him at once, that I had come to him with the desire and intention to study and know thoroughly Homoeopathy, in order to write, if possible, the best book against it. He received me and listened to me most kindly, and immediately put me in the way of best studying, but he added, with his usual benevolent smile, "You never will write your book." Most generously he directed my studies for more than a whole year, and I need not add his word was true-I never wrote the book, though I had began it and laid materials down for it, before seeing HAHNEMANN.

แ "My conversion was not an easy one; I was fresh from the allopathic benches, and flushed with the victory of all allopathic honours. In adopting Homœopathy I roused the whole 'Faculté' of my native city (Geneva) against me, and caused no small uproar, which ended, however, in the triumph of what is the truth in medicine."

The number, the skill, and the integrity of the medical witnesses to the truth of Homoeopathy are amply sufficient to make the statement credible.

It is a statement made upon sufficient evidence. If the witnesses are competent, so is their evidence complete. What does it amount to? It amounts to this, that, being medical practitioners, regularly educated and duly qualified, and having had more or less experience this experience in some cases equalling that of any of their professional colleagues-they have tried the new practice experimentally, with every precaution in their power to avoid mistake; they have, in this practical manner, been persuaded of its actual and positive superiority over their former methods, and they have had the honesty and the courage to avow their conviction of its truth and value. It amounts to this, that cases of every description have been published by hundreds, with all the accuracy and precision of diagnosis and treatment with which the profession is familiar, and which, in accordance with the progress of modern science, it demands;-cases of the most acute and dangerous character; cases of the most familiar and well-known diseases; cases of the most obstinate and refractory chronic ailments; cases of diseases in children, in adults, in old age; cases in public hospitals, and in private practice; cases in courts and in cottages; cases from among the most intelligent and the most illiterate, and all affording evidence of superior success to that which has yet been

presented in the similar reports of any other kind of treatment. It amounts to this, that if the evidence upon which the truth of Homœopathy now rests be not sufficient to establish it, then nothing I can be established as true upon any evidence whatever; and without faith in human testimony how are we to proceed in the ordinary affairs of life? "There is no science taught without original belief, there are no letters learned without preceding faith. There is no justice executed, no commerce maintained, no business prosecuted, without this; all secular affairs are transacted, all great achievements are attempted, all hopes, desires, and inclinations are preserved by this human faith, grounded upon the testimony of man.

The question is a question of evidence; the evidence is sufficient; reason and common sense demand our assent.

And why not? Similar statements have been received upon similar evidence. The ground on which I advocate the reception of Homœopathy is that which is the basis of all Experimental Philosophy; it is on the plea of observation on the testimony of our senses. Every department of science contains numerous instances in which the most unexpected and important results arise out of apparently insignificant and inadequate causes. I can give only a few examples.

In Magnetism: take a poker, or bar of iron, not previously magnetic, hold it in a position parallel with the earth's axis, and strike the upper or northern extremity a rather smart blow with a hammer, the poker or bar will have become a magnet; it will now attract particles of iron, and it will attract and repel the poles of other magnets. Now hold it horizontally, and strike the opposite or southern end a similar blow, and it will cease to be a magnet, -it will no longer attract iron, nor attract and repel other magnets. What striking effects from such a simple action!

In Chemistry: every experiment is an illustration. It is impossible to anticipate the results of a single case in which elements combine, or in which compounds are decomposed. The effects are always startling. It is this which gives to lectures on Chemistry their exciting interest. You place a piece of metal (Potassium) upon a lump of ice,-it bursts into flame, and produces a solution of potash! You apply an electric spark to a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen gases, you have, on the instant, an explosion like that of a magazine of gunpowder, and a drop of water results! You mix colourless liquid ingredients and obtain, in a succession of instances, solids having all the colours of the rainbow!

In Mechanics: as an example on a small scale, take some biniodide of mercury, spread it upon a sheet of paper, and hold it over a

* Pearson.

lamp,-in a moment or two, the brilliant red, equal to vermillion, becomes a fine yellow, and remains so, even after it has been allowed to cool;-take a knife or spatula and pass it over the yellow powder with a little pressure and friction, and the beautiful vermillion is instantly restored. In these metamorphoses there is no chemical change, but simply a difference in the mechanical arrangement of the particles of the compound of mercury and iodine. As an example on a larger scale, look at a railway train, and marvel how a smooth iron wheel passing over a smooth iron bar by what is called the resistance of friction, drag after it a weight of many tons in carriages and luggage.

can,

In Botany: the grafting of fruit trees may be adduced as an example. What a childish proceeding it would appear when first attempted, and how unlikely to be productive of important results! And yet the evidence of facts has overcome the apparent absurdity, and the practice is universally adopted.

Moreover, the ground upon which I rest the claims of Homœopathy is the ground upon which all the common affairs of life necessarily rest. Whatever may have been the previous notion of probability, it is the actual fact which determines the point. Just now all are noticing the sudden changes in the weather. We go to bed under the canopy of heaven glittering with stars, and there is a hard frost; we expect the roads will be dry and clean in the morning, and the boys think of their skates. We get up and find only clouds, rain, and dirt. And so of everything. "That will probably happen which to all human calculation seems the most unlikely.'

HAHNEMANN, in his Organon, keeps in the back ground the practical fact, and labours to establish a speculative explanation of it. His followers do not agree in adopting his explanation, but, so far as I am acquainted with their writings, they all have some hypothesis of their own. I have been condemned for not accepting any of these. I respectfully decline them all, and offer no explanation. By this course, Homoeopathy is placed upon a foundation which it has not yet fairly occupied; and henceforward it will be in vain for its opponents to attack it as they have hitherto done. I present it as a fact, supported by sufficient evidence, and to assail it as such will be found a task much more difficult than to criticise speculations however ingenious.

The question is thus greatly simplified, and reduced to one alternative. Either the thing is true, or the testimony is false. To settle this point both reasoning and assertion are alike impertinent. The testimony has a claim to be received, the thing is true "according to the evidence," until facts-the result of trials at least as numerous, on the testimony of witnesses at least of equal ability and integrity-are brought forward to support the opposite probability.