SUPPLEMENT TO THE PULTE QUARTERLY. 
ADDRESS 
DELIVERED AT THE FORTY-THIRD 
ANNUAL SESSION 
OK THE 
American Institute of Homeopathy 
AT 
WAUKESHA, WIS., I, 
7 
ON THE 
PROGRESS * OF * HOMEOPATHY, 
BY THE 
PRESIDENT, J. D. BUCK, M.D. AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF HOMEOPATHY. 
president’s address. 
Ladies and Gentlemen: 
I find myself in a peculiar and somewhat embarrassing posi- 
tion. One month ago I was notified by the executive committee 
of the Institute that they desired to present my name at the 
opening, session of the present meeting as their choice for 
‘£ President de facto ” of the present session of the Institute. It 
was also intimated that there would probably be no opposition 
to their nomination, and that, if I accepted their nomination, I 
had better get ready an address as President, according to cus- 
tom with former Presidents. As you are all aware, this arrange- 
ment had become necessary by reason of the severe and hope- 
less illness of the President-elect, and of the absence in Europe 
of the Vice-president, so that the Institute would be without a 
presiding officer. Had I been ambitious for fame I should 
hardly have accepted a position, the offices and opportunities 
of which would be confined to the brief session of the Institute; 
but, coming spontaneously as did the letter of the executive 
committee, and being couched in such cordial and flattering 
terms, I felt it a duty I owed to my colleagues, no less than to 
the profession at large, to accept their kindly offices. 
No one can more sincerely regret and deplore the misfortune 
that has brought about this result than myself. I had expected 
to be present at the present session, and to see in the presiden- 
tial chair one whom we all honor, and to whom Homeopathy 
owes an everlasting debt of gratitude. No man, living or dead, 
better deserves our tribute of praise for loyalty to our cause; 
for unflinching warfare in its defense; and for a championship 
for truth and justice extending over a third of a century. If this 
battle has been confined to a single State, its beneficent and far- 
reaching results are for every country and for all time. * 
The annals of Homeopathy will contain no name more deserv- 
ing of grateful remembrance than that of Alfred I. Sawyer; and what more fitting time and place than the present in which to 
give honor to whom honor is due, while we unite as a body in 
extending to his bereaved family and friends our sincere sym- 
pathy. Their affliction is ours; their misfortune is also ours. 
May a beneficent Providence comfort them in their affliction, 
and a common sympathy lighten their grief. I would recom- 
mend to the Institute that its expression of sorrow and sympathy 
be sent by telegram or otherwise to the family of Doctor Sawyer. 
I would also recommend that in future the officers of the Insti- 
tute include a second Vice-president. 
But, my friends, my perplexities do not end here. Article III 
of the by-laws requires that the President’s annual address shall 
embody a resume of the progress of Homeopathy during the 
year past, and make such suggestions as'he may deem necessary 
for the Institute to take action upon during the session. I trust 
it will be apparent to every member of the Institute that no such 
resume could be prepared with only a month’s notice, in the few 
hours which a busy practitioner could gather from his many 
obligations to (patients, to other societies, and to family cares. 
I trust, however, that I may have something to say regarding 
both the past and the future progress of Homeopathy that shall 
not be entirely void of both interest and value. Statistical it 
will not be, but there may be other things which quite as inti- 
mately concern the progress of our cause as the founding of 
colleges, hospitals, dispensaries, or medical journals; or even 
the enactment of laws defining the rights and privileges of the 
homeopathic practitioner. These are all necessary and benefi- 
cent, and they no doubt indicate progress, but they largely 
depend on the recognition of the principle of justice and fair 
play, and on the spread of intelligence and liberality among the 
people. These are the signs of progress; they are also the 
results of progress. But the principles that have thus made 
progress possible, and that have enabled Homeopathy to hold 
its own in an age of criticism, where principles are continually 
tested by results, lie deeper by far than statistics or any mere 
tabulated result. 
The press, the pulpit, and the politician generally claim to 
lead pifblic opinion. Yet we seldom find them advocating un- 
popular doctrines. These are rather the strongholds of con- 
servatism, and they usually offer an organized opposition to the 
4 5 
new idea which finds lodgment in the breast of the individual 
reformer, whose institutions are far in advance of his age, and 
whose loyalty to truth is invulnerable, even in the face of perse- 
cution and ostracism. It is thus that every new discovery has 
to run the gauntlet of old prejudice, organized ignorance, and 
entrenched authority. The discovery of Homeopathy offered 
no exception to this rule. Hahnemann was more than a century 
in advance of his age. The age is even yet progressing toward 
Samuel Hahnemann. The name of Hahnemann stands for the 
reign of law, and the recognition of dynamics in modern life, 
and in all that concerns the nature of man or the apprehension 
of nature. The entire progress of the past century has been 
toward the recognition of the finer forces in nature; and this 
progress necessitates a recognition of Homeopathy. The entire 
progress of the age is away from superstition, away from blind 
chance or caprice, away from unsupported authority; and toward 
the recognition of universal law as underlying all phenomena, 
and as determining all results. This progress necessitated a 
recognition of Homeopathy as the one principle of practice, 
the one law of therapeutics which repudiated both precedent 
and empiricism. Strictly speaking, the progress of Homeopathy 
has been largely in its application and recognition. Its method 
was from the first strictly scientific, and its foundations were laid 
in absolute law. 
It may at first seem strange that I should dwell for a few 
moments upon the “Law of Cure,” as it is called, and which is 
supposed to be familiar to even the tyro in Homeopathy. It is 
too often conceived that this law applies only to the action of 
drugs on the sick, or to remedial agents for the cure of disease. 
I hold that the law is universal; that it is the principle of all 
action, and commensurate with all life; and that the future prog- 
ress of Homeopathy largely depends on this larger recognition 
of the basis and application of the law. It may, indeed, seem 
a strange paradox, to say, that while Homeopathy is based on 
law, it is often practiced empirically; and yet that is the real 
meaning of what is sometimes called ‘ ‘ routine practice.” 
It may not have occurred to many persons that there is any 
very direct connection between the law of gravitation and the 
law of cure; yet such is the case. 
Newton’s first proposition in regard to force declared that 6 
action and re-action are equal and opposite. This equation, or 
the problem of the parallelogram of force, is by no means con- 
fined to the sun and planets; to cosmic movement, and terres- 
trial phenomena; but it obtains in all life, and lies at the basis 
of every molecule of protoplasm, of every tissue cell, and of 
every drop of blood in man. Drugs, whether medicines or 
poisons, act on man according to this principle ; for in man it is 
the basis of all action, the law of all life. 
Similar action implies opposite action; or else all action must 
cease. Between these opposite actions the sum of energy, or 
vital force, maintains an equilibrium. This equilibrium is what 
we call health. Disease results when action and re-action, 
though still opposite, are not equal; and it is the province of 
the remedy to restore the lost equilibrium. It was formerly held 
that in electricity there were two fluids, one positive and one 
negative. Then it was held that there was one fluid acting in 
opposite directions; and finally the idea of a special fluid called 
electrical was abandoned, and an electrical or magnetic condi- 
tion of all substance was conceived, in which tension, or polarity, 
is manifest by two poles. 
Similar theories have been held in regard to the human body, 
and its condition in health and disease; and such theories are 
still held by even those who call themselves homeopaths. 
Empirical prescriptions and blood purifiers are often the result. 
Losing sight of the dynamic action of drugs in accordance with 
exact law, the most speedy and beneficent effects are also often 
unrealized, for they do not uniformly occur. There is in man 
a tendency to health, and a tendency to disease ; a tendency to 
life and a tendency to death; and the only beneficent effect a 
drug can have is to give direction to this tendency. This action 
is dynamic; one of adjustment, not of quantities or equivalents 
of force. 
Homeopathy has to-day two rivals in the realm of dynamics 
with which it can not blindly contend and hope to maintain its 
position. These are so-called Hypnotism and Christian Science. 
Both of these proceed empirically. Names count for nothing. 
Each is dominated by an idea, but neither discerns clearly an 
underlying law. Believing as I do in the reign of law and the 
survival of the fittest, I think it desirable that we re-examine our 
foundations, to see whether or not they are secure and com men- 7 
surate with our present need, and sufficient for future progress. 
In the new age now dawning, Homeopathy is being put to a 
new test. It thrived under old-school opposition and abuse, but 
how will it fare in the presence of these new rivals that meet 
it on its own ground in the realm of dynamics? Empiricism 
under the homeopathic garb may be less harmful than many 
other forms of empiricism, but there is nothing to show that it 
can be more enduring, nor is there any reason why it should be 
so. Nothing short of science based on law will stand the test. 
The law must be universal, and the science must be applicable 
to, and commensurate with, the trend of the age. It is true that 
no one can obtain letters patent on a law of nature; but it is 
precisely for [the discovery of a law of nature as a basis of cure 
that we give credit to Hahnemann. The application of this law 
to the cure of disease by no means confines itself to drugs. It 
is the law, the principle of action, the method of application, that 
is covered by the homeopathic claim for recognition; and this 
law, this method, this application, is as broad as human nature, 
and commensurate with the life of man. We have wrangled 
over potencies till we have lost sight of principles. We can, 
indeed, afford to smile complaisantly at the ridicule and opposi- 
tion of the old-school doctor, for he has often persecuted us into 
popularity, and cursed us into a competency! Denial and abuse 
count for very little in this age, in the presence of demonstrable 
results. But are we ready to change places with the old-school 
doctor and become abusers and denyers while others demon- 
strate results? 
For one, I am as complaisant in the presence of Hypnotism 
and Christian Science, as before the Rip Van Winkles of a gen- 
eration ago, with their boluses and their blood-letting. For the 
first time since the advent of Homeopathy it meets a rival in its 
own domain; viz., dynamics. 
So far as under any name the practice of medicine consists in 
drugging the sick, I am in favor of anything that opposes drug- 
ging. Beyond this point I am in favor of law as opposed to 
empiricism, even though empiricism may hide under the name 
of Homeopathy. 
The progress of Homeopathy does not depend on the repeti- 
tion of a formulary, and the practice of empiricism. It depends 
solely on the apprehension of the universality of the law, and 8 
its intelligent application to every departure from health, whether 
of body or mind. This law is involved in every physiological 
process, in all hygiene and dietetics, no less than in the adminis- 
tration of remedies for disease. Applications under the law 
must vary according to the realm involved, but the principle of 
application remains the same. In the use of electricity, and of 
hot and cold water, for example, the principle is clearly shown. 
But I need not particularize here. 
If the practice of medicine in its application to the body, and 
on the physical, plane, is by no means confined exclusively to 
medicinal substances, so on the sensuous and mental planes does 
it necessarily include many things besides drugs. What these 
adjuncts may be and how they should be applied is a question 
now pressing for consideration. Having a guiding law, applic- 
able to every department of man’s being, we ought to be able 
to discover the hygiene and dietetics of the mind as well as of 
the body. This is precisely what Dr. Talcott is doing at Middle- 
town, and he is simple overwhelmed with patients, though he is 
as one man against an army. When merely for sport or pastime 
people are thrown into syncope or catalepsy by persons entirely 
ingorant of physiology and the laws of life, when a glance of 
the eye, or the shimmer of a coin, or a mere “suggestion” is 
shown to act as powerfully as the strongest drug, it is high time 
for those who know something beyond mere empiricism to dis- 
cern and apply both mental and moral hygiene. 
Hitherto the progress of Homeopathy has been the progress 
of an idea. This idea has been to apply potencies rather than 
ponderables, dynamics rather than drugs, to the cure of disease; 
and this application has been based on natural law. Through 
this application the law has been demonstrated times without 
number. Something more is necessary to constitute real prog- 
ress. We have all the elements of progress within our grasp, 
and these are the elements of a science as far-reaching as the 
nature and the needs of man. That a homeopath may also be 
an empiric would, perhaps, generally be denied; and yet one 
may be a homeopathist without being a scientist; but no one 
can be a scientist in therapeutics and ignore or be ignorant of 
the basic law to which I refer, and which stands as the founda- 
tion of Homeopathy. It is no doubt true that if the practi- 
tioner of medicine must be an empiric, he will do more good and less harm as a homeopathist; but the real progress of medi- 
cine as a science, and therefore the true progress of Home- 
opathy is not to be secured through empiricism in any form. 
It would be out of place at this time to enter into any lengthy 
argument to show that the action of similars under our law of 
cure is by no means an action restricted to the administration of 
drugs to the sick; and yet this is just the procedure that in my 
humble judgment is so necessary to the progress of Homeop- 
athy per se. In noting carefully the symptoms in a case of 
disease our method is that of all exact science. The process is 
one of careful observation and exact analysis. A true picture 
of the diseased condition is formed from the totality of the symp- 
toms. The process by which we derive this picture is one of 
synthesis, and is the exact opposite of scientific analysis. In 
other words, it is philosophical. These are complementary proc- 
esses in the application of the law of cure, and induction and 
deduction here go hand in hand. The terms science and phi- 
losophy, be it observed, refer to processes or methods of proce- 
dure, not to formulated results. The results are true just in 
proportion to the range and number of facts involved, and the 
correctness of our methods of using these facts by induction 
and deduction. 
There is a further value to these exact methods, viz. : they 
point unmistakably to the real nature of disease, and thus offer 
a logical and exact basis for pathology. The various forms of 
energy and modes of motion observable in the organism may 
be synthesized as vital force. Every so-called disease, with all 
its varying symptoms, may thus be regarded as a disturbance of 
vital equilibrium. 
In the normal manifestation of vital energy we observe an 
ebb and (low of energy, action and re-action, systole and dias- 
tole. In other words, to use Newton’s formulary, action and 
re-action are equal and opposite. There is an incoming tide of 
food, and outgoing tide of effete matter. There is the process 
of assimilation, and the process of disintegration, the process of 
decay and the process of continual rejuvenescence. While both 
matter and force are thus constantly re-distributed, and the bal- 
ance of power is thus constantly being adjusted and maintained, 
an ideal equilibrium is, nevertheless, to be preserved. 
From this standpoint must arise our concept of disease. The 
9 10 
idea that there are many diseases with a multiplicity of symptoms 
is not consonant with the well-known operation of our law of 
cure. As the one vital energy of the body is the motor back of 
all varied physiological process, and as any disturbance of this 
vital energy manifests as symptoms and constitutes disease, so 
may we conclude that there are not many diseases, but rather 
one disease manifesting in a great variety of forms. Innumera- 
ble immediate causes may promote disease through localized 
effects within narrow areas; but before these effects can mani- 
fest themselves, the vitality in parts or as a whole must be dis- 
turbed or disarmed. Add to these considerations the phenom- 
ena of all physiological action, viz.: hyperaemia and its concom- 
itants, which local disturbance of equilibrium is permissible 
with a return of normal equilibrium through the fund of vitality, 
and we have the basis of all pathology. All diseases have a 
common root in disturbed vitality, however various their mani- 
festations or symptoms. All restoration to health depends on 
the restoration of equilibrium. Every disturbance of equilib- 
rium manifests itself as disturbed function, disturbed nutrition or 
decreased vitality. 
Returning now to our basic proposition, viz.: that action 
and re-action are equal and opposite, we find that as a result we 
have a normal tension and an equilibrium incident to health. 
The life force, or vitality per se, is thus consonant with mag- 
netism, for it manifests as polarity. Polar tension with general 
equilibrium, or an organized system of vital magnetic areas, 
gives a comprehensive idea of the animal body. Here then we 
have a complete philosophy of the law of cure; not based on 
the theory, but logically deduced from the phenomena of life. 
That disturbance of equilibrium which we call disease, whether 
in tissue, in organ, or in organism, is a disturbance of polari- 
ty. Bearing in mind now the well-known law of magnetic 
attraction and repulsion, viz. : that likes repel, and unlikes 
attract, we can readily see why a remedy will both cause and 
cure a given disease manifesting as a group or totality of symp- 
toms. The drug remaining unchanged and the polarity of or- 
gan or body being reversed, the effects are also reversed. 
It may thus be seen that what we call our law of cure is not 
confined solely to the action of drugs, but that it has its basis 
in the one law of life; that all manifestations of life, health, and disease operate under this law; and that its adequate apprehen- 
sion will furnish us with a key to both pathology and progress. 
In thus claiming for Homeopathy its full birth-right, and de- 
monstrating its basis as founded in exact science and the sound- 
est philosophy, lies the future progress of our school. These 
foundations are invulnerable; they are always open to investiga- 
tion ; they are demonstrated ten thousand times a day by the 
action of remedies under the law, and we can rest securely in 
their everlasting verity. 
In the further progress of dynamics as now foreshadowed by 
every form of hypnotism, Homeopathy is not to be superannu- 
ated and left behind. We are almost wholly ignorant of man’s 
nature in the higher aspects of his being; but unless we admit 
an ideal and unalterable disharmony as man’s normal condition, 
we must conclude that the law of action discerned in the lower 
realms of man’s nature equally obtains throughout his entire be- 
ing. Otherwise man would be hopelessly at war with himself, 
and disharmony and disease his normal condition. 
Few individuals are ready to deny their own identity. This 
identity presents itself as self-consciousness. Consciousness is 
the supreme condition of man. As a fact, it is unconditioned, 
though depending on conditions for its manifestations. All con- 
ditions below the mere fact of consciousness, that is, all motions, 
sensations, feelings and mental processes depend upon the law 
already pointed out; that is, they consist of actions and re- 
actions, regulated by the general principle of normal equilibrium. 
Passing by all these lower manifestations, though involving them 
more or less as results, hypnotism directly modifies our states of 
consciousness. In doing this it reveals the nature of conscious- 
ness itself. Under hypnotic suggestion the will is in abeyance, 
dominated by an idea, without motive, and hence irresponsible. 
In other words, reason and judgment are dethroned, and the in- 
dividual is to all intents and purposes obscessed. 
It could easily be shown that this is the condition of many in- 
sane persons, and in the inception of the disease whenever 
hypnosis has occurred most beneficial results have followed. 
Did time and opportunity permit, it could easily be shown that 
here, also, is the operation of our law of cure; but in order to 
do this it would be necessary to examine in detail that which 
we call mind, thought, or intellection; and, still further, the re- 12 
lation of mind to the laws of physiology, to mathematics, and to 
consciousness. This would involve a volume, rather than form 
a part of an hour’s talk. 
In the so-called “mind cure,” “ metaphysics ” and “ Christian 
science,” we have various forms and degrees of hypnotic sug- 
gestion, however stoutly this may be denied by the advocates of 
these methods. They one and all aim directly to modify states 
of consciousness, or, as they term it, modes of thought and 
belief. These processes are not altogether void of good results. 
We can not ignore them, for they are too numerous and too well 
authenticated. We can not put them.down by denial or ridi- 
cule. Would it not rather be the part of wisdom to apprehend 
them by a larger apprehension of the law under which all verifi- 
able results in man occur ? I am aware that this is claiming a 
good deal for our one law of cure; but if it is the law of all life, 
and if it thus underlies the entire nature of man, then that 
which appears as breaks in the operation of the law is really 
only the gaps in our own knowledge. Our own ignorance is the 
missing link. 
Avoid it as we may, these are the fields into which we must 
enter with a science based on facts, and a philosophy guided by 
reason and analogy, or else we must submit to be superseded by 
those who can and will enter the field thus armed and equipped. 
As already pointed out, the entire progress of the age has 
been in the realm of dynamics, and toward the genius of 
Homeopathy. Step by step, as progress has occurred, Home- 
opathy has stood the test and shone with clearer light. Even 
in the manufacture of steel, the force of projectiles and the 
resistance of iron-clads, our “potencies” have been recognized. 
The io,oooth of one per cent, of carbon used in the manu- 
facture of steel represents our “6th potency.” 
I trust I have presented a picture of progress possible for 
Homeopathy other than the mere extension of our boundaries 
and public recognition of our methods. Valuable and desira- 
ble as is all this, Homeopathy may move to still higher ground 
and invite the age to follow, if we but magnify our calling 
and improve our opportunities. 
I am no stickler for creeds, either in medicine or elsewhere. 
A creed may be called a general average of inference in the 
absence of any real knowledge. The less the knowledge, the 13 
greater the inference, and the denser the ignorance, the more 
iron clad the creed. The apprehension of nature’s laws, veri- 
fied by experience, attested by facts, warranted by analogy, 
and confirmed by a far-reaching and comprehensive philos- 
ophy, is a very different thing indeed. Real knowledge 
draws inferences no less than does ignorance, and these infer- 
ences, like all forces in nature, follow the line of least resist- 
ance. They are in the trend of facts, along which brighten 
the illuminating rays of human reason, that beacon-light of 
man’s intelligence. Contrast the therapeutics of to-day with 
that of half a century ago, and blind indeed is he who fails 
to see that progress has been but a climbing toward homeo- 
pathic principles and methods—the proving of drugs, the single 
remedy, and the minimum dose. Was it a mere lucky guess, 
a bright empiricism that gave Homeopathy a century’s advance 
over the therapeutics of the world? If it was, then let us, by 
all means, hasten to amalgamate .with the scientific empiricism 
of the nineteenth century, and trail our banner in the dust. 
Does it follow because our old school brethren have minimized 
their doses that our work is ended ? The age has but just 
advanced to a plane when it is capable of apprehending not 
only the subtlety and power of dynamics, but the universality 
of law in therapeutics. Our grandest achievements lie before 
us, not in our past of trial and persecution. 
Insanity is the crying evil, the accumulating curse of the 
age. The whole realm of mental therapeutics is to-day, in 
spite of Homeopathy, and in spite of all our boasted progress, 
in even a more deplorable condition than was physical thera- 
peutics at the advent of Homeopathy. Curable cases of men- 
tal alienation are daily drugged into the hopelessly incurable, 
and while every asylum, both private and public, is over- 
crowded, the advancing army of the bewildered and deranged 
comes marching on. We have wrangled over potencies till we 
have forgotten our law. The whole question of potencies is but 
the application of the principle of the primary and secondary 
action of the drug, for every proven drug shows opposite groups 
of symptoms, and only the primary or secondary action of the 
group can determine the high or the low potency. This is but 
one phase of the operation of our law. Nor can the suscepti- 
bility or idiosyncracy of the individual change the law, though it may determine our potency. Homeopathists and Hahneman- 
ites we may indeed have been, but have we been progressive 
and scientific physicians in any large degree ? Is the single 
formula that “likes are cured by likes” all there is of this uni- 
versal law of nature ? Did Hahnemann discover the last secret 
and exhaust the possibilities of man ? Against such a supposi- 
tion stands every insane asylum of the land, while the discord- 
ant cries of thousands upon thousands of bewildered souls, of 
demented and raving human beings, protest against our lack of 
zeal and our ignorance of the nature and the needs of man. How 
many physicians pay the least attention to the habits of thought, 
the mental hygiene of their patients? We prescribe drugs for 
incipient insanity due to lust, greed, envy, jealousy and hatred, 
just as a barber surgeon might prescribe cathartics for gluttony. 
Is there any good reason why we should be at such pains to 
regulate the bodily habits of our patients, and see to their food, 
dress, bathing and exercise, a,nd entirely ignore the higher and 
more important realm of man’s being? Shall laws be applied to 
the welfare of the body, and ignorance and caprice only govern 
the mind? One half of man’s nature, and that the highest and 
most important, is habitually neglected by the average physician. 
There is, moreover, a most glaring inconsistency in our 
methods. While openly advocating dynamics, and claiming to 
recognize the potencies of nature’s finer forces, we have allowed 
ourselves to become engulfed in the crass materialism of the age. 
Man is neither all mind nor all body; he is a complex being, 
made up of many powers and potencies. We have indeed made 
great progress in apprehending and controlling his bodily infirm- 
ities, but the extent and increase of mental diseases prove, be- 
yond all controversy and all denial, that we have made no prog- 
ress in the apprehension and control of mental states. 
When we are ready to apply the same exact scientific methods 
to the study and control of mental states that we have used in 
regard to bodily disease and physical therapeutics, then, and 
then only, may we hope for similar results here as elsewhere. 
Modern hypnotism has entered the field empirically after 
wasting a century or two in reviling earlier discoverers like 
Mesmer and Von Reichenbach; and less than a decade of care- 
ful experiment and observation has already created a literature 
and promised to lay the foundation of a mental science. 
14 Our law of cure is applicable here as elsewhere, but our 
method of study and of application are at fault; and at the risk 
of being misunderstood I shall venture to point out wherein I 
think our methods are wrong. I may even be accused of taking 
advantage of my temporary opportunity to propagate heresy. 
Had such considerations had final weight with Hahnemann we 
should never have heard of Homeopathy. 
We are practically in the habit of regarding the human body 
with its functions and manifestations as really constituting man. 
More than a quarter of a century ago Dr. Draper, in his Human 
Physiology, pointed out this defect in our methods, and outlined 
the better method. This was the very method that in astron- 
omy had resulted in the most wonderful discoveries, and Dr. 
Draper could see no reason then why the same scientific method 
should not be applied to the study of man; neither can I now. 
In mistaking the manifestation for the man we not only fail to 
understand man, but we also misinterpret the manifestation as 
well. I do not care at this time and place to advocate the exist- 
ence or speculate upon the qualities of the human soul, though 
in the absence of much exact knowledge the assumption of its 
existence is quite as scientific as its denial. I do not care to 
assume anything beyond what every intelligent man and woman 
will admit, viz.: Our own consciousness and individuality—just 
what we mean when we use the personal pronoun “I.” This 
“I ” exists, and is conscious. This, then, is the beginning and 
end of my offense. This conscious “I” manifests the varied 
phenomena of life through the bodily mechanism and functions. 
The persistency of this “1,” or ego, and some form of conscious- 
ness, continues until the death of the body. The ego and its 
consciousness, then, is the point on which I insist. 
If, now, we look on all so-called mental alienation, whether 
arising from change of tissue or function, as a perversion of the 
consciousness of the ego, we shall find that they all have a log- 
ical sequence, and that we have grasped a central fact of incal- 
culable value in all our investigations. 
This is merely making a different use of facts which we all 
know, and of experiences which we all share. This is the point 
at which hypnotism strikes, and so modifies and controls our 
states of consciousness; and it is for this reason, and because 
our previous methods failed exactly here, that the new craze has 16 
made such marvellous strides of late. Not only anesthetics, but 
many drugs, like hashish and opium, modify our states of con- 
sciousness, but we have observed these modifications far less 
than the bodily changes and sensations that accompany them. 
Here, then, is the realm, and, I believe, the true method of 
future research. Let us enter this realm in the name of law, 
with the exact methods of science, and prove beneficent min- 
isters, not only to bodily ills, but to minds diseased, and so help 
to stay the tide of insanity that threatens to engulf the human 
race. 
And now, ladies and gentlemen of the Institute, appealing 
to your consideration and forbearance no less than to your 
co-operation, may I not hope that the present session of the 
American Institute of Homeopathy may not prove less effi- 
cient or interesting than the many that have preceded it ? To- 
gether, we can make it a success. Individually, I shall fail, 
even without the cloud of sorrow and disappointment under 
which we convene. I assure you that I appreciate the honor 
which contentment, void of ambition, has never led me to 
covet. I appreciate it all the more because it came unsought. 
If 1 can not return an equal honor to each of you, I can vie 
with you in fraternal regard, and in all good wishes for your 
earthly prosperity and your everlasting happiness.