WOMAN AN ID HOMOEOPATHY. 
A N N U A L A D D R ESS, 
DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
TWENTY-SECOND SESSION 
OF THE 
American Institute of Homeopathy, 
AT BOSTON, JUNE 8, 1870. 
B Y R . Mj DLAM, M . D . , 
OF CHICAGO. 
BOSTON: 
ALFRED MUDGrE & SON, PRINTERS, 34 SCHOOL STREET. 
1870. WOMAN A IN'13 HOMOEOPATHY. 
ANNUAL ADDRESS, 
DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
TWENTY-SECOND SESSION 
OF THE 
American Institute of Homceopathy, 
AT BOSTON, JUNE 8, 1870. 
BY R. LUDLAM, M. D . , 
OF CHICAGO. 
bos tox: 
ALFRED MUDGE & SON, PRINTERS, 34 SCHOOL STREET. 
1870. ANNUAL ADDRESS, 
BY R. LUDLAM, M.D., CHICAGO, ILL. 
Woman and Homoeopathy. 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : It is evident that 
we have reached a period in the history of this body when 
questions of medical controversy are no longer paramount, and 
in which we arc not compelled to act on the defensive. In this 
famous city of Boston, especially, it would be a work of super- 
erogation to attempt a popular address in behalf of homoe- 
opathy. In this latitude, the day and the necessity for such 
appeals have passed away forever. Where the whole audience, 
and almost the entire community, are either under conviction or 
already converted, a revival sermon would be inappropriate and 
useless. 
By your leave, therefore, I will address myself to the consider- 
ation of a more agreeable and profitable topic. I will speak of 
the Mutual Relations existing between Woman and the Homoeopathic 
System of Medicine. 
There is no better evidence of civilization, the world over, than 
is to be found in the care bestowed upon the health, the comfort, 
and the welfare of woman. If modern habits and usages have 
multiplied the diseases and physical frailties of the sex, it is one 
of the grandest of earthly compensations that modern science 
has mitigated their severity, and extracted their sting. 
When we reflect upon the influence exerted to this end by the 2 
system we represent and practise, it is sufficient to temper the 
present occasion with the most unbounded enthusiasm. Through 
it, what blessings have descended, directly and indirectly, into 
every well-ordered household! Where shall we look for the 
mother, or wife, or sister who has not been benefited thereby ? 
Through its kindly and genial operation, what multitudes have 
escaped bodily pain and mental anguish. If “ God tempers the 
wind to the shorn lamb,” has He not so modified our curative 
agencies as to adapt them to the most refiued susceptibilities of 
our most sensitive patients ? And is it not something for which 
to be thankful, that our labors and our prescriptioils may effect 
such wonders without the risk of working any possible harm ? 
There is no need of argument to demonstrate the admirable 
fitness of our remedies for the treatment of any especial class 
of diseases. Every practitioner before me has had daily, and 
perhaps hourly, occasion to confirm it. The most experienced, 
painstaking, and really skilful man among us is best assured of 
this fact. And no one who has taken the role of patient under 
this method of treatment will testify against it. 
It is a trite saying, that “ Homoeopathy answers very well for 
women and children when they are ill.” So it does. The ex- 
periment has been tried on a magnificent scale. And the result 
is, that it would be as difficult to destroy the public confidence 
in this system of medical practice as it would be to annihilate 
either of the more popular branches of the church militant. In 
short, it would be an impossibility. All the laws enacted by all 
the medical Sanhedrims in Christendom; all the opposition and 
ridicule of those who assume to control the rights and subsidize 
the resources of the Healing Art, would avail nothing against the 
settled reliance of the women of this and other countries upon 
the merits of homoeopathy. And, if they are for us, who can be 
against us ? 
Even in quiet old Boston, something may have been said in 
these latter days concerning the rights of Women. It is al- 3 
together probable that the most polite ears are familiar with the 
cruel complaints of this much-abused class. Iu the modest lit- 
tle city of Chicago, the most Herculean efforts are making to se- 
cure to the gentler sex those inalienable rights which hitherto 
have been denied. The most marvellous tact, and the most un- 
mistakable talent are laid under contribution therefor. Our pol- 
Hicians have been outwitted by these invincible champions of re- 
form ; our clergymen compelled to listen to their homilies; and 
our physicians put upon the most unpalatable diet, and even 
threatened with a loss of their occupation, if they decline to 
acquiesce in-the movement! To our chagrin and discomfiture 
we have been told that man has done little or nothing for the 
elevation of Woman; that we have trampled her rights under 
our feet; that our sympathies have gone astray; and, in brief 
that we are sadly demoralized, and fallen from our proper 
estate. 
But, while it must be acknowledged that too much of this is 
true, and inasmuch as it cannot be doubted that the reaction 
will prove wholesome to society at large, I apprehend that an 
exception should be made in favor of the members of this In- 
stitute, and of their professional brethren. The doctor, at least, 
should be exempted from this wholesome denunciation. For, 
from time immemorial, has he not labored for the well being of 
woman especially ? To whose comfort does he aim to contri- 
bute most frequently and assiduously? Whose servant is he in 
sunshine and in storm, by day and by night, unceasingly ? For 
whose benefit have his noblest efforts been put forth ? Who 
shares most largely of the fruits of his professional toil ? Who 
averts the contingencies of youth and maturity, of maternity and 
old age, for her sake and her safety ? Who is it that constitutes 
a species of sub-Providence, and ministers to her welfare in a 
thousand little ways of which she knows — and too often 
cares — nothing ? Who conducts away the harmful agencies that 
endanger the health of the household ? Whose genius and appli- 4 
cation has brought out and wrought out almost all of those 
expedients which, in her case, are only curative and salutary ? 
From Hippocrates to Hahneman, from good old Ambrose 
Parb to the last alumnus in Medicine, it has been the chief mis- 
sion of medical men to protect and preserve her health as a ne- 
cessary condition to her happiness and her usefulness. 
And, if the profession in general should be accredited with 
so much of good, it must be conceded that our especial branch 
thereof has additional and peculiar claims upon the sex. For 
it is no trifling advantage to have turned the tide of popular 
opinion in this and every other community against the perni- 
cious habit of overdosing and maltreating our female patients. 
Homoeopathy has initiated a reform that will tell with wonder- 
ful effect upon the well-being of coming generations. It has 
already lifted a burden from multitudes who either do not know, 
or will not acknowledge, to what agency they owe their 
emancipation. For the most harmful and disagreeable remedies, 
it has substituted those which are kindly and beneficent, such 
as are most useful, available, and never injurious. The adapta- 
bility of its laws and means is marvellous; and, in the direction 
indicated, no one may catalogue all its merits. 
We do well to reward the man who invents whatever is adap- 
ted to lessen the toil and lighten the cares of woman. The hum 
of the sewing-machine is a hymn in praise of his genius and of 
his humanity. But which is the more noble and useful to the 
wife or mother, to add a thousand superfluous stitches to her gar- 
ments, or to take away a single one from her side, when she is 
in pain and peril ? 
Is it more commendable in the merchant to multiply her wants 
and caprices, by bringing all that the Old World can furnish to 
adorn her home and her person, than for the physician to de- 
velop and render available a new world of curative resources 
> 
of which she will surely stand in need ? 
Which could she best spare, the “ priceless pearl of the deep,’’ 5 
which merely heightens her charms, of the Calcarea carbonica 
the simple salt that is derived from the oyster-shell ? 
The value of all the lace that was ever manufactured in Bel- 
gium and out of it, is not to be compared with that of a few 
drops of Lachesis. I have seen a vial of pellets which, if it 
could not be duplicated, would not be exchanged for anything 
in the world besides. And there are myriads of these little vials 
with equally valuable contents, extant to-day. Incredible as it 
may seem, there are not a few excellent women “ out West ” who 
would consider their houses only half-furnished without them. 
And “ to this complexion has it come at last,” that a lady in 
Cheyenne actually proposed to give her mirror for a miniature 
bottle of Belladonna. 
Among the Kereks, a tribe of Arabs, when a man’s wife is ill 
he sends her back to her parents, with the message that he paid 
for a healthy woman, and cannot bear the expense of an inva- 
lid. If this custom had prevailed among us, it would be diffi- 
cult to estimate the number of American families that had been 
preserved intact through the agency of Homoeopathic remedies! 
We may not possess a certain prophylactic against the spread of 
the divorce epidemic, but it must be true that our small-arms 
have served to keep some of the enemies of domestic peace and 
tranquility at bay. 
It is scarcely possible to refer to a more striking instance of 
the influence and utility of medical reform, than we find in the 
history of domestic works upon homoeopathy. It is true that 
the period in which these books acted as pioneers for the sys- 
tem, or sole representatives for physicians in remote neighbor- 
hoods, is fast passing away. But the good they have accom- 
plished remains. The efforts to simplify the art of prescribing, 
to impress the most important rules of hygiene, to promote self- 
culture in all matters of health, and self-preservation by the ex- 
clusion of harmful medicaments, was a remarkable and almost 
unparalleled success. By the Divine blessing, in the hands of 6 
intelligent women these instrumentalities were and are wonder- 
fully efficacious. In the depth of the night, in the sorest extrem- 
ity, when other means had failed, and help from the living coun- 
sellor was not available, these semi-official and silent physicians, 
these dumb doctors, have pointed out the remedy and frequently 
saved life. I need not tell you that the authors of these works 
have been canonized by general consent. The names of Hering 
and Pulte, of Hull and Marcy, of Guernsey and Tarbell, of Small 
and Freligh, of Shipman and Douglas, are household words the 
world over, and in not a few instances their volumes outrank the 
Old Testament Commentaries. “ They builded better than they 
knew.” They have sown good seed in good soil, and the har- 
vest of blessing to suffering humanity is at hand. 
Let me remind you of the important relation existing be- 
tween women and homoeopathy, in this matter of domestic prac- 
tice. If this system of treatment had not been especially 
adapted to her needs and susceptibilities; easy of application 
and prompt in its effects; simple and harmless, but almost magi- 
cal in its results, and of unquestionable utility; a ready and re- 
liable resource, she would never have given it the sanction of 
her choice and her confidence. No sensible mother would in- 
dorse a method of cure which was not as appropriate for her 
child as for herself, and vice versa. And every earnest woman 
would include her father, brother, husband or lover, or all these 
in the same list. 
Given this demonstration, and the result is easily foretold. 
When the proposed reform had been put to this proof, its apos- 
tles were forthcoming. If homoeopathy had not been suited to 
the relief of our physical infimities, even when applied by 
laymen, and the women had not become its champions, its un- 
bounded popularity would not be a matter of fact as well as of 
history, and we should not have been here this evening in the 
capacity of an national body of homoeopathic physicians. 
I know there are those in our ranks who are disposed to 7 
place a low estimate on the value of domestic medicine. And 
they are partly in the right. It is mortifying to our pride in 
medical science to be forced to compete with those who rely 
exclusively, for their means of curing disease, upon a book-and- 
case education, and traditional expedients. We may not feel 
inclined to fraternize with those who know little or nothing of 
the conditions and laws of life, but who nevertheless assume to 
practice the healing art. It is true that homoeopathy has some- 
times been sadly misrepresented through this short-hand method 
of making every one his own physician. But, however ob- 
jectionable in some of its features, this system has its compensa- 
ting advantages. Many a woman, armed with her little stock of 
remedies, has converted an entire community. The globules 
have finally insinuated themselves into the throats and affections 
of the people, because she first took them herself, and then com- 
mended them to others. These forerunners have given us a 
foothold. As pioneers, they anticipated and opened the way 
for the more modern and thorough-bred practitioner. Because 
we are advanced in knowledge, it does not become us to 
denounce and discard whatever has served to help us forward 
in our acquisitions. While there are pupils, there will be need 
of primers. 
However numerous and well-sustained the public hospitals, 
does any one suppose that all “ the Lord’s sick poor ” find ad- 
mission to them and relief through them ? By no means. These 
incorporations do not render a thousandth part of the services 
received by this large and constantly increasing class. In every 
large community, the real almoners are the laymen who pre- 
scribe for the needy, as well as supply them with food and med- 
icines. The women, who form the most efficient boards of man- 
agers, and who, in our day especially, are at the foundation of 
every charitable enterprise, are most of them armed cap-ajpie 
with our remedies; or, what is equivalent, they know where to 
get them, and how to give them. These women are educating 8 
the lower orders of society to the point of appreciating and of 
adopting a better method of cure, and eventually the whole mass 
will be leavened. 
It may appear cruel that the ladies should labor to deprive 
our antiquated brethren of the privilege of treating the servants 
in our best families when they are ill; but they know, and every- 
body knows, that homoeopathy is making fearful inroads upon 
the affections of this class of patients also. “ Like mistress like 
maid.” Beginning with the upper circles, the benefits of this 
new and safer method of treatment are certain to reach down 
to those which are less favored by fortune and circumstance. 
Each little case that these women carry, is a lever that will 
elevate the system into notice. Every prescription they make is 
an appeal to the sensibilities and reason of the poor invalid. In 
their errands of mercy, they deal with the hidden forces of the 
common-health and the common-wealth, — which are really iden- 
tical. They plant blessings that will bloom in the by-ways of 
the city and of the country, and that will bear fruit which is liter- 
ally for the healing of the nations. 
But another train of influences is at work to develop and per- 
fect the mutual relations existing between woman and homoe- 
opathy. I allude to the popular study of the sciences collateral 
to medicine. There was never a period in which these branches 
attracted so much attention, or when the people were so inquisi- 
tive and so well-informed concerning them. The ladies, espe- 
cially, are exceedingly interested in whatever pertains to anatomy, 
physiology, and animal chemistry. The schools and seminaries 
afford them better facilities for the study of these subjects than 
some of us enjoyed, a few years ago, in our medical colleges. 
And not a few of them are more conversant with the principles 
and laws that underlie these sciences, and with their structural 
and functional details also, than the doctors who prescribe for 
them, and who assume so much knowledge. 9 
Nor is this a mere ornamental department of modern educa- 
tion. Circumstances may compel the young lady-graduate to 
forego her music, and to forget her French; but not so with the 
study and appreciation of the branches named. She can never 
go or live where the beautiful harp of life may not and will not 
be played upon. The universal language of functional activity 
will be spoken through her own perceptions, at every turn, and 
under all circumstances. 
There is no variety of information which is more useful and 
available to the sex and the species. Daily experience will 
multiply the opportunities for thought and reflection upon mat- 
ters that especially concern her physical welfare and happiness. 
Our common every-day life is crowded with incidents that illus- 
trate this fact. Its physiological basis is the foundation of health 
for the healthy, of help to the needy, and of hope for the hope- 
less. 
"Why, then, should there not be a general search after, and de- 
sire for, this knowledge ? Why should not the popular pulse 
beat more quickly at the prospect of such an inheritance ? And 
why should not the periodical press give especial prominence to 
these subjects, and lectures and addresses on science for the 
family and the fireside run through as many editions as there 
are days in a week or months in a year ? Is Dickens more sug- 
gestive than Draper, or Lytton Bu.lwer than Baron Liebig ? 
It is a most encouraging sign of the times in which we live, 
that we can scarcely take up a current magazine that does not 
contain one or more papers upon hygiene, or some kindred topic. 
And it is equally significant that many of these chapters are 
written by well-known physicians of both schools of medical 
practice. For it is no longer considered unprofessional and 
impolitic to employ the secular press in educating the people 
upon these subjects. Indeed, it has become a legitimate duty 
and privilege to contribute in this manner to the general inter- 
est and enlightenment. The doctors themselves are learning 10 
and realizing that they can perhaps accomplish as much for hu- 
manity out of the sick room as in it; and that all of their mis- 
sion is not included in the mere prescription of remedies secundum 
artem. 
Every list of new books includes one or more volumes that 
elaborate and apply this knowledge to the improvement of 
the physical condition of man, and the prevention of disease. 
Lessons upon the concomitants and contingencies of health are 
free as water. They are the thread upon which some of our 
best romances are strung. They tinge the sermons we hear, 
and the songs we sing. They stamp their impress upon the 
documents of the diplomatist, and crop out in every friendly 
circle. They creep into the school-boy’s satchel, and cram the 
mail-bags to overflowing. To remain ignorant of their teach- 
ings is inexcusable and mischievous. 
It is possible, gentlemen of the Institute, that we do not fully 
realize the influence which this popular change has already ex- 
erted, and will continue to exert, for the recognition and renown 
of homoeopathy. We, of all others, should be constant and 
determined in our efforts to educate the people in whatever 
concerns their physical welfare. For, the greater their knowl- 
edge of anatomy, physiology, histology, botany, chemistry, 
and natural history, the better will they be fitted to appreciate 
any and all advancement in medical science. The more one 
knows of the peculiarities and susceptibilities of his bodily 
organization, the less medicine he will take or give. Phys- 
iology and physic in the crude sense are incompatible. 
Examine the delicate structure of the stomach, its nerves and 
vessels, its glands and its cells, which are operated by a won- 
derful sympathy; exhibit its curious textures in the field of the 
microscope, and detail the functional processes by which they 
prepare the food for the needs of the organism, and, when your 
pupil has learned the lesson, will he permit you to dose him with 
drugs that would corrode a chemist’s retort, or ruin a piece of 11 
machinery? Such a view of the stomach would open the eyes 
of most persons to the cruelties practised upon that innocent 
organ, and, through it, upon the whole animal economy. 
The instinct of the herbivorous animal prevents it from eat- 
ing the poisonous plants that abound in the pasture. The 
instinct of the child warns it that the nauseous potion will be 
injurious. The sheep is as ignorant of botany as the baby is of 
pharmacy. It is “ original sin ” in the one case as much as in 
the other, that leads the creature to rebel against swallowing 
what is harmful. 
Now these intuitive perceptions are much more acute and sig- 
nificant in woman than in the animal; in the wife than in her 
husband. They are more delicate because they stand guard for a 
more delicate and susceptible organism. They are like the little 
cilia which keep the dust from our lungs, — invisible, but indispen- 
sable. They supply a condition which is necessary to medical 
progress. For they represent a faculty that is capable of culture 
and development. Instinct and intelligence are the hinges upon 
which the prosperity of our school must turn. And they are 
mutually requisite to, and responsible for, the popularity of the 
homoeopathic system of treatment. 
In woman, we find this faculty sometimes developed in a re- 
markable degree. She is usually the first to recognize and to call 
attention to the merits of homoeopathy. She tests it upon her- 
self, or upon her children, in an empirical, doubting way. Her 
instincts have been disgusted with the old and more familiar 
method, and perhaps she has taken its drugs under protest. 
She tries the new system with as many misgivings as Jenner 
may have had in vaccinating his own son. But the result is all 
that she could hope. Quietly, and without any risk or per- 
turbation, with no fret or friction of the delicate machinery, her 
health is restored. She has learned a lesson in the school of 
experience. And it will not be lost upon her. A man, leaving 
a sick-bed for the whirl of business, to be caught in the mael- 12 
strom of politics, or immersed in the affairs of church or state, 
would be as apt to forget the doctor, and what he had accom- 
plished for his relief, as the most of us are to lose sight of Prov- 
idence. Cut not so with woman. Her perceptions are on the 
alert. She catches a gleam of truth, and her tact enables her to 
employ it to advantage. If other members of her family, or 
some of her friends, are taken ill, she advises a trial of the 
remedies which acted so promptly and efficiently in her own 
case. They are successful. Her friend is cured, and her faith 
is confirmed. She reflects, investigates, proselytes. 
This is the chronological order of events in the conversion of 
the people to our form of medical practice. The mental ten- 
tacles of our mothers and wives and sisters are on the qui vive 
for harmful agencies of all kinds. But they are equally alert in 
recognizing a friend and in detecting an enemy to the wonderful 
organism, or encampment, for which they stand sentinels. 
And it is because our system of cure is grateful to these percep- 
tions that it passes the guard, and gains a hearing. The subse- 
quent steps are easy. They include experiment, analysis, induc- 
tion and adoption. First we have the facts, and then the phi- 
losophy ; first patients, then patrons, and then apostles. 
It is by such delicate hands that the seeds of confidence in 
this method of treatment are first sown. A thousand contingen- 
cies cluster about their germination and subsequent growth. 
The soil is sometimes unsuited, the season unpropitious, or the 
field may be choked with the weeds of ignorance and prejudice, 
or drenched with the muddy torrent of misrepresentation. 
But, under more favorable circumstances, the silent forces within 
the seed are operating in unison with the soil and the sun, to 
rear the plant and to ripen the harvest. 
Through a trick of legislation, the representatives of our 
school of medicine were generally excluded from the army ser- 
vice. The soldiers suffered, but the system gained greatly in 
consequence. While others were “ scrambling for rank and pay, 13 
like apes for nuts,” we were left to look after the families of the 
heroes who were doing battle for the nation. Our professional 
responsibility and reputation were doubled thereby. As a result 
of the intolerance that kept us from the field and hospital, homoe- 
opathy found favor where, otherwise, it had never been tested. 
The mothers tried it, and adopted it at home. The fathers and 
sons became disgusted with the old treatment while absent, and 
multitudes of zealous partisans flocked to our standard. It was 
thus that what had been designed to crush the life out of our 
cause, really contributed to its prosperity and popularity. If 
we failed to obtain our rights from the surgical boards in the 
several States, we did not fail of a representation in the manage- 
ment of the grandest sanitary enterprise that was ever put into 
operation beneath the sun. And, when there were ten women 
for us to every man who arrayed himself against us, we could sur- 
vive such an indignity; we could afford to labor and to wait. 
In this indorsement of homoeopathy by the best women in 
society, there is a moral power, which, like the magnet, gains 
strength by the weight that it carries. They may not pause to 
cipher out questions of medical casuistry, but their tact leads 
them to correct conclusions, and their tenacity holds them there. 
In whatever they uphold, the conscientious and intelligent ad- 
herence of this class of persons affords the best criterion of 
character. Without it, we should have failed; but with it, we 
shall certainly prosper. 
But there are graver questions that grow out of this natural 
relation between woman and homoeopathy. The line which 
separates tact from talent, is an indistinct and arbitrary one. 
If she have the taste and the genius for it, is there any good rea- 
son why a woman may not properly qualify herself for the prac- 
tice of medicine ? Shall we recognize the peculiar gifts of which 
I have spoken, place a premium on their possession and exer- 
cise, and afterwards seek to limit her acquirements, and to 
narrow the field of her usefulness ? Why restrict her inclina- 14 
tion in the study of the collateral sciences ? In exceptional 
cases, why may not her natural ability as a nurse be permitted 
to develop into that of the tiue physician? Are her intuitive 
perceptions in the way ? Will they prove a necessary obstacle 
to the skilful employment of remedies ? Because she discerns 
more quickly and delicately than her brother, does it follow that 
she would prescribe less accurately and successfully ? Are we 
prepared to admit that the more obtuse the doctor’s perceptions, 
the better his diagnosis ? The more slow and difficult his an- 
alysis of a given case, the- better his recipe ? 
It certainly does not follow, that, because her faculties permit 
her to recognize, and prompt her to recommend, the best method 
of treatment, therefore she shall be gifted with the ability to 
employ it, and to dictate its details to the best advantage. 
Multitudes of women preach homoeopathy most successfully, 
who, no matter what their advantages, would as signally fail in 
its general practice. In either sex, the possession of one talent 
does not imply the possession of all. In our calling, as in oth- 
ers, real merit is not an affair of gender, but of genius and 
industry. 
Now, there have always been, and there will always be, fe- 
male physicians. And their tribe is as certain to increase as it 
is to exist. We are chiefly concerned with the kind and degree 
of their qualification for the responsible office. If the people 
will demand their services, we have the right to insist that they 
shall be educated and trained for this particular function. And 
this more especially because we will be expected, and even 
forced, to fraternize with them. However ignorant or intelligent, 
they will be regarded as types of our class, or, if you please, as 
“representative men.” 
It is an error to suppose, that, the more intelligent and 
influential men in our ranks would if they could, really prevent 
women as a class from engaging in the practice of medicine. 
On the contrary, we perceive and admit the probability of their 15 
usefulness in such a capacity. There is room and employment 
for all, and each should be occupied according to his or her 
gifts. Instead of opposing the sex in this direction, we simply 
recommend that they shall avail themselves of a thorough 
course of training for the duties assumed. 
If it tries our temper to counsel with a man whose wits and 
wisdom are not equal to a professional emergency, and who has 
called us for denominational reasons, it is even more provoking 
to advise with a woman whose tact and learning are both at 
fault under similar circumstances. For her failure is more 
disastrous to herself and all concerned. The injury that she 
inflicts through ignorance will be in ratio with her influence as 
a woman. 
It is not my purpose to institute a comparison between the 
sexes, as to their relative skill and reputation as physicians. 
In this, as in other pursuits, the doors are now open to healthful 
emulation and competition. For the past, however, the only 
marvel, is, that, with so many obstacles in her path, woman has 
accomplished so much in the direction indicated. We cannot 
resist the conclusion that if, with all her lack of opportunities, 
nay, her positive hinderances, she has thus “ put to usury ” her 
one talent, she might safely be intrusted with three, or more. 
Therefore, gentlemen of the Institute, while we are striving 
by every laudable means to raise the grade of qualification, we 
must help to elevate it for both sexes alike. We should recog- 
nize and encourage those medical schools which are now devoted 
to the education of women, and organize, endow, and support 
others, as they may be demanded by the growing popularity of 
our cause. And we should also labor to form a correct public 
sentiment which will require that all physicians, without any 
arbitrary distinction of sex, or color, or nationality, shall have 
been thoroughly educated and disciplined for their peculiar and 
responsible calling. 
These, and kindred considerations which might be adduced 16 
should lift us to the broad level of professional equality, liber- 
ality, and toleration. If the half that I have said of the pecu- 
liar relations of women to homoeopathy is true, we are morally 
bound to minister by every possible means to the cultivation of 
those qualities of mind and heart which are suited to adorn our 
own or any other calling. 
While the women introduce and defend us; while they in- 
trust to our care and keeping their own lives, and those of 
others who are endeared to them by the ties of love and of 
friendship; while they continue to be the first to praise and 
appreciate, and the last to forget what we have done for them; 
while they throw their tact and influence and intelligence into 
the scale for us; while they hold up our hands at home and 
abroad; and while, in this or other cities, they raise and con- 
tribute thousands upon thousands of dollars to extend a knowl- 
edge of homoeopathy, and impart its curative blessings to the 
poor and needy, we should frankly confess that this is our sweet- 
est recompense, and our most lasting and grateful reward.