medicine must under such circumstances be allowed time to develope its power. This being the case, I am of opinion that a rightly selected medicine will more effectually cure the disease, when given at distant intervals, than when its action is interrupted by repeated doses. HOMŒOPATHIC INTELLIGENCE. Association for the Protection of Homœopathic Students and A meeting of the committee of this Association was held in Edinburgh on the 4th ultimo, in which the expediency of dissolving or retaining the Association was discussed, agreeably to the notice given in the summons to members. After due consideration it was finally resolved to retain the Association, as from some late acts of certain authorities connected with the dominant medical sect, the services of the Association might again be required. The acts more particularly alluded to, are the refusal of the Senatus Academicus of King's College, Aberdeen, to grant a degree to Mr. P. Brady of Huddersfield, after passing a satisfactory examination, on the ground of his being a homoeopathist; and the proposed Medical Reform Bill, drawn up by the Council of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Society, some of the clauses of which are evidently aimed directly against homœopathic practitioners. Third Homœopathic Congress. The Annual Homoeopathic Congress was opened on the Evening of Friday the 3rd September, in the Hopetoun Rooms, Edinburgh. The following gentlemen were present, and signed their names in the Congress Minute Book : William Henderson, M.D. Edinburgh J. Rutherfurd Russell, M.D. Edinburgh| Robert S. Tate, Surgeon, Sunderland S. Wielobycki, M.D. London The following gentlemen sent apologies, and expressed their regret for not being able to be present at the Congress : Professor Henderson having, on the motion of Dr. Russell, seconded by Dr. Black, been unanimously called to the chair, opened the proceedings with the following observations: Gentlemen,-I thank you cordially for having placed me in the chair on this occasion, for I esteem it a very great honour indeed to be called on to preside at the first Homœopathic Congress held in my native country. We have, I think, reason to congratulate ourselves that so many have been able to attend at this Congress, and, I think, we have evidence of the interest taken in this subject in the circumstance of so many coming The instifrom distant parts of the country to be present amongst us. tution of scientific associations for the purpose of meeting periodically at different places may be regarded as peculiar to this busy, enterprising age, and the purposes they serve are both important and manifold. If they do not actually plant the lamp of science where its light had been previously unknown, they at least refresh it with oil and make it burn the brighter in the places they visit. They awaken a public interest-a popular interest-in the progress of useful knowledge more than local, stationary, and more familiar societies usually do, and by bringing together labourers from different parts of the fields of science and from different countries, they quicken the interchange of new truths, and enliven their devotion to their favourite studies by affording them opportunities of intercourse with persons of kindred tastes. These advantages are common to all such associations, but our advantage is peculiar to ourselves in the existing circumstances of our profession, and, indeed, of medical science itself. I have no intention either to deprecate the hostility of those who treat us with bitterness and misrepresentation, or of entering into any detail on the subject. I advert merely to that speciality in our own condition which makes meetings like this peculiarly pleasant and profitable. Scattered as we are, each in our own place, singly, or in small companies, over the three kingdoms, exposed everywhere to the treatment I have referred to, it is exceedingly encouraging and delightful to behold as on this occasion so many who maintain the same just principles-so many whose names are familiar to us, as the defenders of those great truths which we all know from experience to be by far the most important in the whole range of medicine. "As iron sharpeneth iron, so does the countenance of a man that of his friend," is a proverb the truth of which must be felt by all of us on an occasion like this. I feel satisfied that when this Congress is dispersed, each will return to the sphere of his arduous and responsible avocations with a zeal and a resolution strengthened by the opportunity he has had of personal intercourse with so many that hold the same great principles in medicine, and have the same experience as himself. As you are about to be addressed on some important and interesting topics con. nected with the present position and prospects of our science, I shall not trespass farther on your time, but before sitting down I again thank you for the honour conferred on me. (Cheers.) The following ADDRESS was then read by Dr. Drysdale. Since the last annual meeting of the Congress, which took place in London, numerous interesting and important events, in relation to the external progress of the Homœopathic System, have occurred; but as these are familiar to you all through recent publications, it is unnecessary to dwell on them. We may therefore turn to the internal development of the system, and first consider any events bearing on that which have happened during the past year, and then consider certain points that may be perhaps advantageously discussed while we enjoy the unfrequent opportunity of meeting together as a body. Of the events that have occurred in the last year bearing on the internal development of our system, we may notice two; viz.-the denouement of the drama of the so-called high potencies, and the rise and fall of the so-called magnetoscope. The so-called high potencies of Jenichen, as you are all aware, purported to be very high dilutions from the 200th to the 800th, and even the 4, 8, or 20 thousandth. From these, very marvellous results were stated to have been obtained. The opinions of the homœopathic body were from the first divided: one party adopting them at once, and confirming and even going beyond the extravagant laudations with which they were in troduced the other party refusing to put them to the trial, on the ground that they were secret preparations, and besides, that according to common sense there must be some limit to the extent of dilution, and no benefit was to be derived from going so far, even though the possibility of medicinal action still existing might be proved. In tacitly or openly discrediting the cases of cures with these dilutions however this party were placed in a most embarrassing position, as the same mode of arguing and the same scepticism derived from a priori grounds struck equally at the whole of the practice with infinitesimal doses. In this position both parties remained for several years, till after the death of the inventor and maker of these dilutions (who became insane and committed suicide) the secret of these preparations was published by his literary executor. This has taken all parties by surprise, and to a certain extent given the right to both sides, for it appears that the dilutions were not really higher than those originally in use, or were even in many cases quite low, and their peculiarity merely consisted in the intimate mixture and succussion, considered equivalent to and therefore named potency, to which they were subjected. It thus appears that those who used them asserted nothing incredible in saying they made cures with them, but also nothing new or strange; and the sceptical party are so far right, in as much as that the cures were not made with 200 and 800ths. But in giving both parties an amount of right, I am of opinion that it is only verbal on the side of the high-dilutionists, and that much moral blame attaches to them, for the whole affair has not been creditable to us as a body, that so much time should have been wasted in a controversy provoked on such insufficient grounds. I hold that the sceptical party were entirely right on moral grounds to refuse to try at all secret preparations. On the whole we must regard this as a part of the history of homoeopathy to be looked back upon with regret, for though the greater portion of our body stood the trial well, yet that so many were led away on such grounds to waste their own time and that of their colleagues, on what turns out to be an empty controversy, is a circumstance which must tend to lower the general scientific standing of homoeopathists as a body. Another trial or test that we have undergone is the so-called magnetoscope. From the fact that the only proofs of the action of infinitesimal doses are physiological, and for the most part subjective, it has always been a great desideratum to obtain any mode of demonstrating physically that action with as much ease and certainty as the thermometer indicates change of temperature, or the magnetic needle points to the north. At the same time there is no intrinsic improbability in the hope and belief that some instrument might be invented which would demonstrate physically the influence of those very minute particles of matter, whose action we have already proved on the finer but at the same time less controllable instrument, viz. the living organism. When therefore Dr. Madden announced the discovery of such a result by means of an instrument inven ted by his friend Mr. Rutter, the news was received with an amount of interest and enthusiasm scarcely to be described. It is to be borne in mind that no one else had then seen the instrument, nor even a description of it. When however the latter was published, and several members of our body became possessed of machines made in accordance with it, and also witnessed the experiments made with Mr. Rutter's instrument, then in a very short time, even a few days, the complexion of affairs began to alter materially, and doubts were entertained as to whether the instrument possessed any claim to the title of magnetoscope, or its indications were of that certain character proper to a measure of physical influences. Those doubts were speedily changed into certainty, and Dr. Madden himself was among the first to discover and make public the fallacy of the experiments which had at first excited such brilliant anticipations. It is now, I believe, a settled question in the minds of all persons that this instrument has no claim to the alleged power of affording a physical demonstration of the action of infinitesimal doses, and with this claim vanishes all the interest with which it was invested in the eyes of homœopathists. Opinions are still divided as to its real nature; the majority look upon it merely as a tremulous mechanical contrivance showing the movements caused by the slightest common muscular contractions,-while a smaller party consider that it is of the same nature as the odometer and the divining rod of Mayo, and that it indicates some influences other than merely mechanical, though these are physiological, or even psychical, and thus, as above stated, it has no pretensions to the certainty of the magnet or thermometer, and loses its value to us. On the whole we may conclude that the episode of the magnetoscope tells rather favourably for the homœopathists as a body. We have shown a natural and eager desire to investigate an alleged discovery which was to bring the action of infinitesimal doses palpably within the domain of the physical sciences, and by testing that alleged discovery we have shown that critical spirit and deference to pure experiment characteristic of a scientific body. We may pass now to the consideration of the connection between the internal development of homoeopathy and its outward progress. It is now nearly ten years since the immortal founder of this method was removed from this world, and last year a monument was raised to his memory in the very town that persecuted and cast him out in his lifetime, in presence of a numerous assemblage of his disciples from different and distant parts of the world. Of late also the greater number of his personal friends and original disciples have dropped off one by one, and homœopathy may now be considered in the hands of a new generation, and it is upon our conduct that its further development must depend. It becomes then of great consequence that we should choose the right way of proceeding, and it is also of great importance to the external progress of homœopathy, that the bearing and tendency of our principles and practice should be distinctly understood. |