BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL 0F1EHII, 
OPENING EXERCISES 
AND 
ADDRESS 
PROF. W. K. PAYNE, M L)., 
OF BATH, MAINE. 
AT 
WESLEYAN HALL, 
BOSTON, NOV. 5, 1873. 
B O S T 0 N : 
18 7 1. BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE. 
OPENING EXERCISES 
AND 
ADDRESS 
PROF. W. E. PAYJNTE, M. D. 
OF BATH, MAINE. 
AT 
WESLEYAN HALL, 
BOSTON, NOV. 5, 1873. 
BOSTON: 
1874. BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE. 
Tiie opening exercises were held in Wesleyan Hall, on Wed- 
nesday evening, Nov. 5, 1873. The Faculty, a large portion 
of the students, the officers of the University, of the Massa- 
chusetts Homoeopathic Hospital and of the Dispensary, to- 
gether with other invited guests, were present. Among these 
were His Honor the Mayor, Ex-Governor Claflin, Hon. Jacob 
Sleeper, Hon. Rufus S. Frost, and others. The Dean, Dr. I. 
T. Talbot, presided. Rev. W. F. Warren, D.D., President of 
the University, invqked the divine blessing in the follow- 
ing — 
O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the 
earth! Thou hast set Thy glory above the heavens. We 
praise Thee for our being, praise Thee for every good and per- 
fect gift vouchsafed us by Thy love. Especially do we bring 
Thee thanks to-night for this auspicious hour. Thou knowest 
the days and weeks and months of toil and anxious planning, 
which have looked forward to this glad consummation. Thy 
gracious hand hath, one by one, removed all obstacles. Thy 
kindly providence hath fostered and combined and made 
strong the things that were weak. Thou hast given favor in the 
eyes of the people to Thy servants, who have wrought and 
sacrificed for the establishment of this school. Thy wondrous 
power hath even overruled opposition for good, making the 
wrath of man to work Thy praise. 
Prayer. 
We give Thee hearty thanks for all Thy favoring provi- 
dence— thanks for the large and yet enlarging public, which 
follows with quick and generous sympathy the swift develop- 
ment of this school; thanks for the ardent devotion of this 4 
great body of instructors, anxious to advance a beneficent 
science, and to alleviate the miseries of mankind; thanks for 
this goodly array of students, eager for the instruction and 
training which shall fit them for the higher service of God in 
and by the service of their kind. For all we are indebted to 
Thy gracious help ; for all we render heartfelt thanks. 
We beseech Thee, Heavenly Father, graciously to favor us 
with Thy further presence and help. Vain are all our human 
endeavors without Thee. Except the Lord build our house, 
we labor in vain who build it. Do Thou, therefore, direct in 
all the counsels of Trustees and Faculty. Ward off every 
disturbing influence. May the motives of all promoters of the 
cause be pure and lofty. May the character and influence and 
instruction of all who shall ever teach in this institution be 
such as shall elevate and ennoble its students. May all those 
who shall resort to it for instruction be unselfish, pure-minded, 
loyal to Thee, lovers and servants of their suffering fellow- 
men. May no skill or knowledge, here acquired, at any time, 
in any place, by any soul be prostituted to unholy purposes. 
So may this school be only a fountain of blessing, sending forth 
into all lands living and healing waters. 
Be with us, O Lord, in all the exercises of this opening eve, 
in all the labors of the year. We pray for Thy blessing, also, 
on all the other branches of our growing University. May 
each be shaped and fostered by Thine own good hand. Bless 
Thou our goodly city and our Commonwealth, our Mayor and 
Governor, our Magistrates and Judges. Under righteous laws, 
may we enjoy peace and prosperity. And wilt Thou bless all 
institutions of Christian learning in this and in every land. 
Unbar their gates to all who covet knowledge, — to all Thy 
children of whatever race, condition, sex. Assist them in 
diffusing everywhere the blessings of true culture, in mitigat- 
ing humanity’s pains, banishing its superstitions, righting its 
wrongs, and so preparing the world for its blessed day oi 
promise. 
And when we individually have accomplished all Thy will 
in this probationary state, when we have wrought life’s work, 
take us, we humbly ask Thee, from this pain-shadowed, sin- 5 
filled earth, unto that better land, where no inhabitant shall 
ever say, "I am sick; ” where, according to Thy dear promise, 
there shall be no more death, neither sighing nor tears. Thine, 
then, shall be glory forever, and ever. Amen. 
After a solo on the piano by Mr. J. C. D. Parker, Dr. Tal- 
bot made the following — 
Inaugural Address. 
Ladies and Gentlemen: The occasion of our assembling 
here this evening is one of no ordinary importance. The found- 
ing of a medical school is no trivial matter, even though it 
were to educate and send forth but a single physician. That 
one man, in an active professional life of forty years, would, at a 
moderate estimate, have in his care the health and lives of forty 
thousand people. But when we consider that this new school 
is a branch of a University which is to exist, let us hope, not 
for years but for centuries; that it is supported by numerous 
and earnest friends; that it begins its first course of lectures 
with the prospect of nearly a hundred students, — how respon- 
sibility opens upon us from this hour. 
It has been the aim of the Trustees of this University and. of 
the Faculty of its Medical Department to establish this school 
upon the broadest foundation, and to include in its teachings a 
thorough course of medical instruction. Thirty professors, 
lecturers, and instructors have been provided, —teachers well 
qualified in their several departments, and who bring enthusi- 
asm and self-sacrificing devotion to the work which they have 
undertaken. A three years’ term of study has been fixed as 
the least time in which students can attain the full honors of 
this school. And it opens its doors only to those who satis- 
factorily pass a preliminary examination, — an exaction from its 
students of previously acquired scholarly attainment such as, I 
believe, no other medical school in this country demands of its 
matriculants. The prescribed course of study aims to furnish 
the highest medical education, including the teaching of ther- 
apeutics according to the modern and successful principles of 
homoeopathy. 6 
It is no longer a problem whether woman shall enter the 
medical profession; being in it, her interest, your interest, the 
interest of humanity, demands that her education should be 
thorough and complete. Accordingly she enters this school 
on equal terms and conditions with man. And she comes not 
into the University empty-handed. She brings with her the 
first medical school for women ever established. I do not pro- 
p ise now to discuss this subject, so suggestive of thought; but 
I cannot allow this occasion to pass without some slight tribute 
to one who has done so much for the medical education of 
women. Dr. Samuel Gregory for more than twenty-five years 
devoted his energies, and his life even, to this one cause. 
Early and late he labored earnestly, conscientiously, self-sacri- 
ficingly, rising superior to every discouragement. If he failed 
in accomplishing all that he desired, how must his spirit now 
rejoice to see the work not ceasing with his life, but taken up 
and carried to a completeness which even his sanguine hopes 
had never dared to anticipate ! And you, Trustees, and associ- 
ates in his work,—you cannot but feel a proud satisfaction 
that in your hands has thus been advanced the sacred charge 
which in his dying moments he committed to you. 
As one who knew him well, and aided him much, I would 
call upon Franklin Snow, Esq., President of the New England 
Female Medical College, to address you. 
Mr. Snow responded as follows : — 
Remarks of Franklin Snow, Esq. 
Ladies and Gentlemen: We are gathered this evening to 
begin, — or rather to continue a work begun many years since, 
which is taking on a new form, and is acquiring new friends. 
And I am glad to present the congratulations of the Trustees 
of the New England Female Medical College, and to assure 
this audience that we all arc now acting in perfect accord, and 
with unabated interest in this enlarged effort to establish this 
medical school on a sure foundation. When Dr. Gregory, late 
Secretary of our Board of Trustees, died, about two years since, 
it was said at his funeral, by Rev. Mr. Murray, that possibly, 
in consequence of Dr. Gregory's death, some new interest 7 
would be awakened in the cause ivliich he held so dear, — the 
medical education of women,— and that the work might be more 
effectually carried on than ever before. To-night, this large 
attendance assures us all that this hope is realized, and that the 
interest in this noble cause is increasing. May it continue till 
its success is complete ! Let each of us do what we can ; and 
the result will not be doubtful. 
In the absence of the Governor, Hon. Rufus S. Frost, mem- 
ber of his Council, made a few remarks, in which he heartily 
and cordially endorsed the effort which had been made to estab- 
lish this school, which is to teach in accordance with a system 
of medicine, from which, for twenty-five years,, he had person- 
ally derived so much of benefit. He felt confident of the com- 
plete success of the school; and, while regretting that the 
governor could not be with us in person, he could assure us of 
his hearty sympathy in e\ ery laudable undertaking. As ex- 
pressive of this, he then read the following — 
Letter from Goy. Washburn. 
Greenfield, Nov. 4, 1873. 
Dear Sir,—I regret that an imperative business engagement 
takes me out of the State ; so that it will be impossible for me 
to accept the kind invitation to be present at the gathering of 
the friends of the new Medical University on Wednesday even- 
ing. Please assure those present that, if it were in my power, 
I should show by my presence that I feel no ordinary interest 
in the result of their enterprise. The State is deeply interested 
to have every institution " which has for its end a higher and 
more thorough education of the medical profession,” prospered, 
and placed upon an enduring foundation. That the friends and 
patrons of this new enterprise may be prospered in their noble 
endeavor is the earnest wish of, — 
Yours, most truly, 
W. B. Washburn, 
To Hon. R. S. Frost. 
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe then read the following poem, written 
for the occasion : — 8 
The Master said: I am the Door. 
The world is dark with doubt and sin, 
Hidden the good that men explore, 
But after Me ye enter in. 
The ancient barriers I disown, 
The distant and the dark control, 
Who with one onward step have thrown 
God’s sunshine open to the soul. 
Small blessing should it prove to you 
If I were here to block the way, 
Even should some lightened panel show 
I stood between you and the day. 
Another mystic door I know, 
The entrance to this world of ours, 
And she who opens it bears low 
A wondrous weight of pains and powers. 
Oh! men that plan the stately pile 
Where law and learning hold their sway, 
And drive with subterfuge and wile 
Your mothers from the door away. 
With pain your infant strength we rear, 
Guarding the life we win with cost, 
But where you build, and we draw near, 
You warn us off, with empty boast. 
Undo the doors! in God’s high noon, 
An equal heritage have we. 
Your cold exclusion’s out of tune 
With Nature’s hospitality. 
Behold the portal of the skies 
Unfolding to your simplest prayer, 
The Saviour sits in Paradise, 
And for your entrance tarries there. 
See where the word of freedom lives 
To bridge the gulf of ages o’er. 
Learn how the Eternal Giver gives, 
And keep, with Christ, the open door. 
The Open Door. 
After a solo by Miss McQuesten, William E. Payne, M.D., 
of Bath, Me., Professor of Materia Medica in the Boston 
University School of Medicine, delivered the following address. 
After the close of the address, another song was sung by Miss 
McQuesten; and the exercises were closed with a benediction 
by Bishop Isaac W. Wiley. 9 
ADDRESS. 
BY PROF. W. E. PAYNE, M.D. 
Gentlemen and Ladies, Physicians and Students : 
The occasion which has brought us together to-night is one 
of peculiar significance. It is the establishment of a new school 
of medicine, in which the comparatively newly-discovered truths 
in therapeutics, characterizing a new epoch in medical science, 
are to be taught. 
The founding of an educational institution is always an 
event full of interest and importance, not only to those directly 
concerned, but also to all true friends of culture and human 
advancement. But the auspices under which this school is 
about to be established makes the present occasion one of more 
than ordinary interest. 
The Boston University, an institution largely endowed, 
the educational aim and purpose of which is the building 
up of a series of collegiate and professional schools, for the 
purpose of bestowing upon all those who may enter its portals 
the highest attainable degree of intellectual, {esthetic, moral, 
and physical development and culture, has, through an intelli- 
gent foresight of its trustees, decided to place its first medical 
department under the guidance and control of the homoeopathic 
school. This is a distinction to which homoeopathy has never 
before attained. Though homoeopathic schools and societies 
have been chartered by State governments, hospitals recog- 
nized, and chairs for the teaching of homoeopathy established 
in a few of the continental schools of Europe, and, in a single 
nstance, in this country, yet this is the first instance in which 
a university has voluntarily given such a tribute of confidence 
to this school of medicine. This advanced step indicates that 
the distinctive truths of homoeopathy are being recognized by the 
learned cultivators of science, as well as by those philanthropic 
promoters of human advancement who establish and control 
our higher institutions of learning. And the generous support 10 
given to the homoeopathic schools already in operation shows a 
great advance in popular recognition and favor. 
The medical profession, as is well known, is divided into two 
distinct schools, popularly known as the allopathic and the hom- 
oeopathic. But the reason of the separation, and the exact 
point where it occurs, are not perhaps so well understood. We 
shall therefore endeavor to point out the distinctive character 
and relative position of the two schools, by showing in what 
they agree, and in what they differ. 
The science of medicine in its perfection is the sum of all 
the sciences; but in a more restricted sense, as at present 
formulated, it embraces anatomy, physiology, pathology, symp- 
tomatology, surgery, midwifery, botany, chemistry, etc., and 
is crowned with the science of therapeutics, towards which all 
the others tend, and in which they culminate. 
All educated members of the medical profession, whether 
homoeopathic or allopathic, accept fully, and without reserve, 
the sciences of anatomy, physiology, pathology, surgery, mid- 
wifery, chemistry, and botany. 
Each and every succeeding generation of physicians claims 
as its inheritance all of the established facts and principles dis- 
covered by preceding generations in the several departments 
above named. They all consult the same authorities; they 
use the same text-books, and together work on to advance the 
whole to a greater degree of perfection. So far, both schools 
agree. But when they come to therapeutics, — that depart- 
ment which relates to the healing of diseases and the choice of 
the remedy,—they separate into two distinct schools, the one 
maintaining that there is no law to guide the physician in the 
choice of his remedies, and the other that there is a law, which 
was discovered by Hahnemann, in 1790, and which he aphor- 
istically expressed by the Latin phrase, Similia similibus 
curantur, or, Like cures like. 
This law, when formulated in our own language, stands 
thus : Every disease which arises in the system from natural 
causes is to be cured by that medicine which has the power of 
producing in the healthy body a disease in every way similar. 
It is the realization of the popular and common-sense idea 11 
that every disease has its remedy; that is, until it arrives at a 
certain point, — for there is a point in the course of disease 
beyond which a restoration to health is not possible. 
A misapprehension prevails in the public mind with reference 
to the true character of the homoeopathic law. The idea quite 
extensively entertained is, that the homoeopathic law demands 
that whatever operates to produce disease must be used in 
smaller quantities to cure it. For example, in case of poison- 
ing by arsenic, smaller doses of arsenic should be given for the 
cure, provided the homoeopathic law be true ; or, if made sick 
by opium, opium in smaller doses would be homoeopathic to 
the case. And, strange as it may seem to the thoughtful, this 
obviously false interpretation has been given, by medical men, 
to the homoeopathic maxim, "Like cures like.” 
In vain does the homoeopath insist that this is not homoeo- 
pathy ; but that homoeopathy is the curing of diseases produced 
by extraneous or constitutional causes, with drugs that have 
the power of producing in the healthy body diseases having 
similar but not identical symptoms. 
Notwithstanding denials, explanations, and affirmations on the 
part of the homoeopath, the opponent continues his antagonism, 
not by rational argument, not from experimentation at the 
bedside, — the only place where he can ever settle this question, 
— but by sarcasms, innuendoes, and flippant witticisms. 
That we have not mistaken the position of the allopathic 
branch of the profession with reference to the law of cure, a 
few quotations from their acknowledged authorities will testify. 
Dr. John Hughes Bennett, Professor of the Institutes of Medi- 
cine in the University of Edinburgh, and author of a highly- 
esteemed work on clinical medicine which has run through 
several editions, in discussing the principles and practice of 
medicine before his class, says, " All sciences possessing a 
primitive fact or law are called exact, . . . and those 
which do not, are called inexact. . . . Medicine belongs to 
the latter class. . . . In its present state, it possesses no 
primitive fact, or law. . . . We know.that quinine cures 
ague, lemon juice scurvy, and sulphur the itch; but why they 
do so, we are entirely ignorant. ... A truly scientific 12 
medicine is yet to be created. . . . Is it not possible that 
this may be the case at some future time ? ” 
Dr. Jacob Bigelow, of this city, a man who has attained to 
considerable eminence in the profession, as you all know, in a 
little volume which he published a few years ago, entitled 
" Nature in Disease,” says, " Pre-eminent among the inexact sci- 
ences stands practical medicine, — a science older than civili- 
zation ; cultivated and honored in all ages ; powerful for good 
or evil; progressive in its character, but unsettled in its prin- 
ciples.” 
Dr. John Forbes, the very able ex-editor of the "British and 
Foreign Medical Review,” in discussing the subject of homoeo- 
pathy with Prof. Henderson, of Edinburgh, who had become a 
convert to homoeopathy, and had published a book entitled, "An 
Inquiry into the Homoeopathic Practice of Medicine,” said in his 
famous editorial, denominated "young Physic,” which made a 
good deal of stir in the medical world at the time, " I admit it is 
not going much beyond the truth to assert that the whole practice 
of medicine, in as far as it consists'in the administration of 
drugs, is a system of traditionary routine and conservatism, 
hap-hazard and guess-work ; ” and still he looked forward to a 
hopeful future for so-called " regular medicine ” in the line that 
the profession was then, and had been pursuing for more than 
two thousand years, and denounced homoeopathy, for the rea- 
son, forsooth, that it professed to be governed by law in the 
choice of its remedies. 
In the appendix to Renouard’s " History of Medicine,” the 
most recent work on the subject, a writer, in discussing the dif- 
ferent and various methods of prescribing medicines for the sick, 
says, "This branch of the science (meaning therapeutics) is 
without contradiction the least advanced of all the departments 
of medicine. Only a few feeble gleams of light pierce the 
thick darkness.” This opinion was not expressed with refer- 
ence to any uncertainty in the condition of the subsidiary and 
collateral branches of medicine, but on account of the uncer- 
tainty of therapeutics. 
Dr. Palmer, a Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine in 
the Medical Department of the University of Michigan, and who 13 
on this account may be quoted as authority, said to tb Senate 
committee of the Legislature which was sent to inquire into the 
affairs of the University, with the view of establishing two chairs 
of homoeopathy in that institution, that "no general rule was 
given in his lectures as applicable to the therapeutical use of 
medicine. The medical faculty adopts no exclusive system of 
teaching,” meaning that no general law of cure was recognized 
or acknowledged. 
In a recent work " on the present state of therapeutics,” the 
author, Dr. James Rogers, who has held some posts of profes- 
sional eminence under the British government, says, "There are 
no fixed principles in therapeutics.” 
But proof coming more directly under your cognizance may 
be found in the charges preferred by the Massachusetts Medi- 
cal Society against its obnoxious homoeopathic members. In 
the 29th of May issue of the "Boston Medical and Surgical 
Journal” is a summary of the reasons, both positive and nega- 
tive, upon which the arraignment, trial, and expulsion of its 
recusant members were based. " No one,” says that journal, 
" objected to their [the homoeopaths] giving any medicine they 
chose ; no one cared if they thought that a curative effect was 
produced by the ten-billionth of a grain of anything; no one 
had anything to say because they pretended to believe that 
the more a medicine is diluted the more its power is developed ; 
no one disputed their right to believe that chronic diseases all 
originate in the itch. The fault found was, that, having signed 
an agreement to do certain things, they violated that agreement 
by professing to practise according to a certain dogma.” In 
other words, the homoeopaths were obnoxious to the members 
of the Massachusetts Medical Society, arraigned and expelled, 
because they publicly professed to practise medicine in accord- 
ance with settled principles, that is, in accordance with law. 
Not a word was said in the charge about disqualification on 
account of defective medical education, no charge of immoral- 
ity was brought against the accused members; but the head 
and front of their offending was, that they professed to treat 
diseases according to fixed principles, as though our Heavenly 
Father had brought us into being through an organization far 14 
more intricate and delicate in its construction than any instru- 
ment made by human hands, and surrounded us with influences 
that constantly tend to work disorganization and generate dis- 
ease, and left us to the caprices of poor human judgment in 
the choice of the means by which to protect ourselves. Such 
a view is not only inconsistent with reason, but a reproach upon 
the beneficence, the ever-watchful care of the Creator over His 
helpless children, without whose notice, we are told, not a 
sparrow falls to the ground, and by whom even the very hairs 
of our head are all numbered. 
In the August number of the same journal, the editor, in re- 
plying to a correspondent who had criticised a previous article 
" on the suppression of quackery,” says, " We regret very much 
that it should be necessary to inform our correspondent that 
there are no systems in regular medicine.” The boast of our 
allopathic brethren has always been, that they are the only 
representatives and custodians of " regular medicine.” But it 
would appear, from these voluntary confessions of the unreli- 
ableness of their therapeutic rules, that there is no great regu- 
larity in so claimed " regular medicine ” after all. 
Similar declarations and confessions might be cited, to an 
indefinite extent. 
No class of scientists have more striking and convincing 
proofs of the existence of law and order in the works of the 
Creator than the physician. In his anatomical, physiological, 
and pathological investigations, he sees law and order written 
everywhere ; and the more deeply he is imbued with knowl- 
edge of this wonderful piece of mechanism, the more he per- 
ceives that a great plan,—that law and order underlie and 
govern the whole fabric. In his study of the anatomy of the 
human organism, he sees symmetry and order at every step. 
The same structure, shape and relative position, and general 
uses of the various organs of which the human body is com- 
posed, have appeared with wonderful precision in every gen- 
eration throughout the whole history of the human race. The 
same orderly and undeviating processes are observed in its 
physiological movements: digestion, assimilation, the mo- 
tions of the heart, and the respiratory processes are all 15 
carried on by the same unvarying laws, and under similar 
conditions. The same diseases recur, run their course, and 
terminate without variation, modified only by change of cir- 
cumstances and condition. And still, with his own observa- 
tions to confirm it, and the accumulated evidence of centuries 
before him, he denies the existence of principle, — of law, in 
that most important of all the duties he is called upon to per- 
form, viz. the selection of the means by which to restore the 
human body from a state of disease and suffering to a state of 
health. 
I have said that the discovery of the law of cure separates 
the medical profession into two distinct and irreconcilable 
parties or schools. There are, however, other important dif- 
ferences ; but they have all grown out of the discovery and 
acceptance of the law of cure. They are the legitimate results 
of the acceptance of law on the one hand, and non-accept- 
ance on the other. Thus the materia medica of each school 
differs widely from the other in its construction and use. It is 
the result — the exponent — of a law of nature on the one side, 
and of theories and speculations on the other. The mode of 
preparing drugs for use is also unlike. And symptoms, as a 
guide in ascertaining the true character of disease, and its 
locality, and in the choice of the remedy, are held in very dif- 
ferent estimates in the two schools. 
The materia medica is the armament of the physician. He 
can do nothing without it. However learned he may be in all 
the other departments of medical science, if he has not a 
proper materia medica, and a thorough knowledge of his reme- 
dies, he stands comparatively helpless before disease; yea, 
more than this, he is constantly liable to do absolute harm. 
Moreover, a formulated materia medica accords with the ideas 
entertained about the nature of disease, and the proper way of 
removing it. 
The difference between the materia medica of the two 
schools in general is this : the homoeopathic is made up of 
provings upon the healthy human body; and the allopathic is 
the record of observations upon the sick. 
If it be true that diseases are to be cured by those medicines 16 
which are capable of producing similar diseases in the healthy 
body, it became, at once, obvious to the discoverer of the hom- 
oeopathic law, that the disease-begetting power of drugs must 
be, first of all, ascertained before they could be made available 
in the treatment of natural diseases ; and it was no less obvi- 
ous that this knowledge could be ascertained only by trials 
upon the healthy human body. 
What a field of labor here opened before Hahnemann! 
Scarcely a footprint was discernible. Absolutely nothing had 
been accomplished in this direction in the centuries that had 
gone before. Self-sacrifice, bodily and mental suffering, were 
the offerings to be laid upon the altar. Undaunted at the 
prospect before him, he, together with the members of his own 
household and a few intimate friends, who were in sound 
health, entered at once upon the work. A drug was selected, 
and, under the close supervision of Hahnemann, was taken by 
each of those who had consented to make the trial. At length 
the effects began to develop. Every symptom, every sensa- 
tion, both physical and mental, that could be reasonably re- 
ferred to the influence of the drug, was carefully noted. The 
time of day or night in which it occurred, the length of 
time of its continuance, the circumstances under which it 
was aggravated or diminished, its precise locality, together 
with all its conditions and concomitants, was recorded. 
In this critical and painstaking way, the proving of drugs upon 
the healthy body was carried on, the provers often suffer- 
ing severely, and sometimes dangerously, from the diseases 
thus induced. 
After a sufficient number of drugs had been proved in this 
way, Hahnemann proceeded to test the truth of his surmises 
with reference to the law of cure. 
He noted every attainable symptom of tlie disease which he 
was about to treat, in the same critical way that had been fol- 
lowed in noting the symptoms of the drugs. After obtaining a 
complete picture of his case, he went to the drug symptoms as 
they had been developed and recorded by the pro vers; and, 
when he had made out an exact correspondence, — an exact 
likeness between the symptoms of the drug and the symptoms 17 
of his case,—lie gave the drug, and the result was a rapid 
and permanent cure. 
Hahnemann and his co-laborers followed this course of rigid 
experimentation,—proving drugs upon themselves, and con- 
firming them at the bedside, — until what was at first conjecture 
merely was seen to be a settled principle : what was hypothesis, 
was proved to be a law of cure. 
This proving of drugs upon the healthy body has been car- 
ried on by the homoeopathic school down to the present moment, 
and every year is adding new remedies to the list. 
Between ten and eleven hundred different drugs have been 
more or less proved, many of them exhaustively so. The 
provings thus obtained constitute the homoeopathic materia 
medica; and it is a splendid and enduring monument to the in- 
dustry, pains-taking, and self-sacrifice of the homoeopathic 
profession. 
The allopathic materia medica is a very different instrument. 
Instead of being a record of the effects of drugs upon the 
healthy human body, as is the case with the homoeopathic mate- 
ria medica, it is the record of the effect of drugs upon the sick, 
as observed at the bedside, and of their irritating and poisonous 
qualities, as exhibited when taken by accident or design. 
Most of the drugs of which this materia medica is composed 
owe their acceptance by the profession, and introduction into 
the materia medica, mainly to chance and a venturesome em- 
ployment in domestic practice. 
Prof. Dunglison, than whom there is no better authority 
in the allopathic ranks, in the preface to his work on the mate- 
ria medica, says, "It is only by empirical trials that we become 
informed of the properties of any medicinal agent.” 
Two effects, the opposites of each other, follow the introduc- 
tion into the system of all medicinal agents. Indeed, this 
seems to be a general law of nature. Action and reaction is an 
accepted axiom in mechanics, but is no less true of all known 
vital and vitalizing forces. Plunge your hand into cold water 
or snow, and the first effect is a cold, pale, and shrunken con- 
dition of the parts; but soon, by the reactive power of the 
vital forces, the hand becomes, in a corresponding degree, red, 18 
hot, and swollen. A violent and liquid disgorgement of the 
contents of the bowels is the result of the irritating and poison- 
ous properties of all cathartic drugs ; but the opposite condition, 
constipation, as surely follows. Deep sleep, and its opposite, 
inordinate wakefulness, are the result of massive doses of opium. 
Over-stimulation is sure to be followed by a corresponding 
degree of depression of the vital forces ; and so on through the 
whole catalogue of medicinal agents. 
This first or impressive effect of drugs alone is recognized 
by the allopathic school; and this only when given in massive 
and irritating doses. For example, the first or impressive effect 
of ipecacuanha is nausea and vomiting, when taken in massive 
doses. It is therefore put down in the allopathic materia med- 
ica as an emetic, for which purpose it is mainly used ; though, 
in combination with other drugs, it is sometimes used for other 
purposes, but with the idea that it is effective only by virtue 
of its emetic properties. Now, instead of a single symptom 
or property, the provings of this drug, as recorded in the 
homoeopathic materia medica, sIioav it to be capable of produ- 
cing not only nausea and vomiting, but also great oppression 
of the chest, resembling asthma, spasmodic cough, convulsions, 
ha3morrhage from various organs of the body, chills, fever, diar- 
rhoea, dysentery, vertigo, headache, scarlet rash, together with 
many other forms of disease which may be known by consult- 
ing the provings. 
Now each of the above-named ipecacuanha diseases has a 
counterpart in natural diseases, and it should cure them, if the 
homoeopathic law be true, whenever a proper application is 
made. And this it will do. It has been abundantly confirmed 
in practice that ipecacuanha will cure nausea and vomiting, 
spasmodic asthma, convulsions, haemorrhages from internal 
organs, intermittent and gastric fevers. It will bring out a 
retarded, and restore a receded rash, when these conditions are 
accompanied by oppressed breathing, which threatens suffoca- 
tion. It will cure certain kinds of diarrhoea, cholera, and dys- 
entery, and that kind of vertigo which is brought on or aggra- 
vated by turning the head suddenly, and attended by sudden 
interruption of thought. But in all these cases the condition 19 
of success is, the drug must be used strictly in accordance 
with the homoeopathic law. 
By these few illustrations, it may be seen that there is a wide 
and radical difference between the materia medica of the two 
schools. 
Having no law to guide in the choice of the remedy, the 
materia medica of the old school has constantly undergone 
varied and conflicting fortunes. Selected, as the drug is, in 
accordance with some theory instead of a specific law, now it 
commands the confidence of the profession ; but, failing to meet 
all the expectations of the theorist, it is at length consigned 
to forgetfulness, being replaced by other drugs, which, in due 
time, share a similar fortune. A few remedies only have sur- 
vived the wreck; and these have maintained their ground by 
virtue of their homoeopathic relation to the diseases for which 
they are held by the old school as specific. For example, 
cinchona, or its salt — quinine, — which maintains its position 
as a specific in fever and ague, does so simply because it has the 
power of producing in the healthy organism a disease in every 
way similar; and the same is true of a few other remedies only. 
But stimulated, perhaps, by disappointment in the workings 
of their materia medica, and by knowledge obtained from the 
homoeopathic school of a more rational method of acquiring 
information about the properties of drugs, namely, by provings 
upon the healthy body, the allopathic branch of the profession 
have latterly entered upon, and are prosecuting with consid- 
erable zeal the work of proving drugs, mainly upon the lower 
order of animals. This undoubtedly is a step in the right 
direction. But however extensively and thoroughly this work 
may be carried on, upon both quadruped and biped, it can 
result in no essential benefit to the sick without the law of 
cure to guide in the selection of the remedy. 
But, with all its imperfections, it is but just to say that the 
allopathic materia medica has performed an important use ; 
and he who looks upon it as useless, or as an instrument of evil 
only, has but a limited comprehension of its true character, and 
its hitherto indispensable relation to the necessities of mankind. 
It seems to have been adapted to that period in the progressive 20 
evolution of medical science when simple palliation was the 
extreme limit to which the profession had advanced in real 
therapeutic knowledge. Moreover, it is the work of and 
self-sacrificing men, — men who, with immense labor, have laid 
the stepping-stones over which we, as a school, have advanced 
to the commanding position we now occupy, and entered a new 
and more fruitful field, and rejoice in the possession of a clearer 
light. 
Another important and wide difference between the two 
schools is the comparative estimate in which they hold the 
symptoms of disease. 
The allopathic branch of the profession regard symptoms as 
valuable only so far as they render aid in obtaining knowledge 
of the pathology of the disease; and even here they hold 
them as corroborative only of the evidence afforded by the 
sense of touch, sight, and hearing. 
But the homoeopaths regard symptoms as of the utmost im- 
portance,— not only as revealing the locality, the nature, and 
all that can be known of disease, but as the only sure guide 
to the selection of the remedy. Symptoms are the language 
of disease. This proposition let us briefly define : Language, 
in a universal sense, is the expression of interior states and 
conditions. The interior states and conditions of every object in 
nature, from the highest to the lowest, are revealed by certain 
signs or expressions, which may be appropriately termed lan- 
guage. In this sense, language is not peculiar to the human 
race. With the human family, language is, to a greater or less 
extent, artificial, conventional, and varied, — made up to ex- 
press the whole interior condition of the mind, both as to 
thoughts and affections : it varies in accordance with the ever- 
changing mental and interior states of the individual man, or 
mankind collectively. 
The language of the animal world is more circumscribed ; 
not artificial in the same sense, but is the natural outbirth or 
expression of the instincts and passions of the creature. 
The vegetable and mineral worlds have their language, 
which is no less expressive, but growing in simplicity as we 
descend the scale. 21 
The language of disease is not less emphatic and discrimina- 
tive. It is made up of those signs or symptoms which the 
disease exhibits, either to the internal consciousness of the suf- 
ferer, or the cognizance of the observer : it is the way in 
which distressed Nature tells the story of her sufferings ; and 
we can know nothing of the intrinsic nature, distinctive char- 
acter, or locality of disease, except through their agency. As 
well might we expect to comprehend what is going on in the 
mind of a dumb or paralyzed man, — a man totally unable to 
speak or move,— as to understand what is going on in the 
interior of the human organism, either in health or disease, 
except through the medium of those signs or symptoms which 
the disease exhibits ; or to understand the national characteris- 
tics of the German or French people, without first learning their 
language; or to understand the character of the individual 
German or Frenchman, without studying him through his 
words and acts. 
While, therefore, the allopathic school gives to the symptoms 
of disease a very subordinate position, the homoeopathic, from 
highly rational grounds, and from long observation and experi- 
ence, holds them as of paramount importance in gaining a true 
knowledge of disease, and in the selection of the remedy. 
Hence the great particularity with which the homoeopathic 
physician inquires into the symptoms of disease, — a minute- 
ness which appears, to those who do not see the groundwork, 
almost like affectation. But upon a minute knowledge of the 
symptoms of both disease and remedy depends his success at 
the bedside. 
By taking pathology, instead of symptoms, as the guide in 
the selection of the remedy, mistakes may, and often do occur 
in the treatment of diseases. A disease may be mistaken, and 
treated for a disease which differs entirely in its character from 
that which the physician supposes he has in hand, so prone to 
error is human judgment. 
I cite the following case, which is entirely reliable, but is 
only one among thousands, as an instance in point: A physi- 
cian of considerable celebrity, who relied upon the accredited 
and ordinary methods of his school for investigating diseases, 22 
mistook a diseased kidney for a diseased ovary, as was proved 
by an examination of the body after death. In this case the 
physician relied, for his diagnosis, mainly upon the senses of 
touch and sight. Seeing a prominence, and feeling a tume- 
faction in the right side of the lower part of the abdomen, in 
the region of the ovary as he supposed, he assumed that this 
swelling indicated a disease of that organ; and forthwith 
directed his treatment accordingly. But, failing to afford the 
expected relief, the case in due time passed into the hands of a 
professor of anatomy and surgery of some note, who, differing 
from his predecessor in his opinion of the disease, but relying 
upon the same method of diagnosis, pronounced it a lumbar 
abscess, and directed his treatment in accordance with this 
decision. Poultices were ordered to bring the abscess to matu- 
rity, with the view of opening it; but, while this process was 
going on, the patient unexpectedly passed beyond the skill of 
her medical attendant; and a post mortem examination revealed, 
instead of a diseased ovary or a lumbar abscess, a diseased 
kidney, which the husband, who witnessed the examination, 
likened to a " good sized melon, with the inside thoroughly 
scooped out.” 
Now if this case had been investigated in accordance with 
the requirements of homoeopathy, — if its history had been 
traced step by step from the beginning, — if the symptoms as 
they had exhibited themselves had been carefully collected and 
weighed, and their significance fully comprehended before a de- 
cision was reached, it is quite certain that such mistakes would 
not have happened. Or, if the homoeopath had failed to locate 
the disease in the proper organ, or to have rightly comprehended 
its real character, there could have been no mistake in the 
treatment, if, in the selection of the remedies, the symptoms 
were followed strictly in accordance with the homoeopathic law. 
But the critical thinker and observer doubtless queries : If 
there be an unfailing law for the selection of the remedy, and 
that law is the homoeopathic, why do homoeopathic physicians 
fail to cure all curable diseases which they are called upon to 
treat? The answer in general is this : In cases where failures 
occur, the remedies have not been properly chosen, —have not 23 
been selected and used in accordance with the homoeopathic 
law. The law is not at fault; but the circumstances, the con- 
ditions by which it is surrounded, render the law inoperative. 
The difficulty, in the first place, may lie wholly with the patient. 
He may not have described his case intelligibly. Owing to a 
limited knowledge of the exact signification of words, or feeble 
perceptive faculties, he fails to convey to the physician a true 
idea of his case. When investigating the case, the physician 
notes the symptoms as they are given to him; and obtains, as 
he supposes, a true picture of the case. With this record, he 
goes to the materia medica for the remedy ; and, when he has 
found what he regards as the similimum,—the true homoeo- 
pathic remedy, — he gives it; but no good results. Here the 
physician has been prescribing for a case, and not the case in 
hand ; and of course nothing but failure could follow. In this 
case, the law is not at fault, the physician is not at fault; but 
the cause of failure lies wholly with the patient: the law 
has not touched the case. Here the true homoeopath does not 
despair. He knows the law has not failed him. He sees 
where the difficulty lies, and sets himself patiently and dili- 
gently to the work of reviewing the case, questioning and 
cross-questioning the patient, and obtains a new picture, and 
perhaps a more correct likeness of the disease. If successful 
in this renewed endeavor, he finds the true remedy, and cures 
the case. If not, still another more critical and searching ex- 
amination is instituted; and so on, till success crowns his 
efforts. Failures to-day and to-morrow only stimulate the 
true homoeopath to renewed efforts ; confident that, by a closer 
study of his cases, success must eventually crown his en- 
deavors. 
But failures may arise from a different cause. The patient 
may detail his case in an unexceptionable manner, — as true a 
likeness of the disease may be given as painter ever portrayed 
upon the canvas, — and still he may be disappointed in his 
hopes. The physician may be careless, or indolent in the study 
of the materia medica, and thus fail to select the remedy which 
the homoeopathic law requires. The case may have been under 
treatment for months, or even for years ; and in all this time a 24 
remedy homoeopatliically adapted to the case may never have 
been given. 
The materia medica must be the daily, yea, the hourly study 
of the physician, if he would attain to any considerable degree 
of success at the bedside. There are no kingly prerogatives 
here, — no royal road to this knowledge. It can be acquired 
only by hard, earnest, and constant study; and he or she who 
is not prepared for this devotion, this sacrifice, had better turn 
away from the profession of medicine at the threshold. 
Failures may, and sometimes do, arise from other causes, 
but never from insufficiency of the homoeopathic law. This is 
as true to disease as the needle is to the pole. 
Thus, gentlemen and ladies, I have endeavored to set before 
you the prevailing characteristics of the two dominant schools 
of medicine; to show you in what they agree, and in what 
they disagree; Iioav far they travel $long together, and at 
what point they diverge. And, if I have succeeded in making 
this plain, it must be evident to you, though the two schools 
harmonize in the study and acceptance of nearly all the legiti- 
mate subsidiary and collateral branches of the science, that 
there is a radical and irreconcilable difference between them. 
No mutual concessions, no compromises, can ever heal the 
breach, and bring the contending parties together again. 
Either the homoeopathic branch of the profession must give up 
the law of cure, the certainty of which it has demonstrated 
and confirmed in instances innumerable, and in practice lapse 
into the blind mazes from which it has emerged; or the allo- 
pathic branch must go forward with the advancing current of 
science, cease to be led in practice by theories and specula- 
tions, and accept the law of cure as the legitimate sequence 
of evolving principles in medical science, and make it hence- 
forth the rule of practice. 
Upon such grounds and no other, upon an entire surrender 
of the one side or the other, can the contending parties ever 
come together. There is no middle ground upon which they 
can stand. 
Will the homoeopathic school ever become recreant to the 
great trust committed to its care? Will it ever renounce the 25 
great truth that has carried it triumphantly along by the bed- 
side of slowly wasting disease, and over fields smitten 'with 
pestilence ? 
Under an abiding confidence in the truth of the homocepathic 
law, under an oppressive sense of the necessities of millions 
of God’s children weighed down by sickness and suffering, 
under a firm conviction that the law is sustained by conscien- 
tious and inflexible men, in behalf of the profession, in the 
interests of humanity, I answer emphatically, No! Never 
will the firm men who have courageously dared the reproach of 
their professional brethren by leaving the paths marked out by 
Hippocrates and Galen, and trod by the profession in all the 
centuries since, abandon the great truth that leads them, as the 
star ted the shepherds by night along the plains of Judea. 
It is incumbent upon you, gentlemen and ladies, who consti- 
tute the first faculty of this college, to demonstrate and sustain, 
to the best of your ability, the great law of cure, both in your 
teachings and in your practice. Having accepted the position 
tendered you by the Boston University, the persistent effort to 
make this college during your connection with it all that the 
true friends of homoeopathy desire and expect rests upon your 
shoulders. 
In all the universally acknowledged legitimate, collateral, 
and subsidiary departments of medical science, such as anat- 
omy, physiology, pathology, surgery, midwifery, chemistry, 
botany, etc., it is expected of you that you make this institu- 
tion the equal, to say the least, of the best allopathic colleges 
in the country, yea, in the world; and in therapeutics, and all 
that pertains thereto, — the materia medica, and the way in 
which it should be studied and used, immensely superior. 
Give high or low dilutions in your practice, and teach it to 
your classes, if you will; but remember that a wilful departure 
from the law of cure is a recreancy to the great trust com- 
mitted to your care, for which an intelligent and discerning 
public, as well as the profession of which you are members, 
will hold you responsible. 
Moreover, I would counsel you to suffer not yourselves to be 
deluded by the clamor of those self-styled progressive homoeo- 26 
paths, who are sedulously seeking some common ground upon 
which the two schools of medicine may stand. No alliance can 
be effected without a surrender on the one side, or a sacrifice of 
principle on the other. Hold fast, then, to principle. So shall 
you be honored in this life, and your memory revered when you 
shall have passed on to the life which is to come. 
Are you, then, at the outset, sufficiently impressed with the 
tremendous import of the duties and responsibilities which you 
have consented to assume, to pledge to the work before you the 
best energies of your lives? If so, go on; God helping you, 
you will succeed. 
One word in closing, in relation to the necessities of the 
college and the duties of the public towards it. 
To make the college all that the profession desires, and the 
public interest demands, ampler moneyed resources are needed, 
o Means to assure to the several chairs of the college the 
ablest minds of the profession, and to provide a large and 
well-appointed public hospital, to which students may repair 
daily, to see demonstrated at the bedside the truth of the teach- 
ings to which they have been listening, are indispensable to 
complete success. Of course, as the number of its students is 
enlarged, its ability will be increased ; but the revenue from this 
quarter, unless this college prove an exception to all others, 
must, for a long time, prove inadequate to such requirements. 
To place the former beyond a doubt, and to accomplish the 
latter, the college must look for aid to an interested and gener- 
ous public. Shall it look in vain? No worthier, no grander 
object than the advancement of the healing art can claim the 
benefa&tions of the opulent or the earnest support of the phi 
lanthropist. * 27 
A Summer Term has been arranged for the students of this 
School. It will commence on Monday, March 16, 1874, and con- 
tinue fifteen weeks, till Saturday, June 27, 1874. The Course of 
Instruction will consist in reading and a daily recitation, with lectures, 
clinics, and, as far as possible, practical demonstrations in all the 
various departments of medical science. The School will be divided 
into two classes. The studies of the first class will include Anatomy, 
Physiology, Microscopy, Botany, Chemistry, and Clinical Surgery; 
those of the second class, Obstetrics, Diseases of Women and Chil- 
dren, Surgery and Surgical Pathology, Materia Medica, General and 
Special Pathology, and Practice. 
The Winter Term of Lectures will commence on Wednesday, 
October 7, 1874, and continue twenty-one weeks. By this arrange- 
ment, the course of medical instruction will occupy thirty-six weeks 
in each year, and will be thorough, extensive, and complete. 
The School year will begin directly after the annual commence- 
ment, on the first Wednesday of March. Students should therefore, 
I practicable, matriculate before the opening of the Summer term, in 
order to derive the full benefit of the entire course. 
TUITION FEES. 
Matriculation (once only), . . . . . . $5 00 
Practical Anatomy, . . . . . . . 10 00 
Instruction for one year, including Summer and Winter 
terms, . . . 100 00 
A full course of instruction for three years, . . . 160 00 
Graduation, ......... 30 00 
For further information, apply to the Dean, 
I. TISDALE TALBOT, M. D., 
31 Mount Vernon Street, Boston. 
Or to the Registrar, 
JOHN H. WOODBURY, M. D., 
58 Temple Street, Boston. 28 
FACULTY. 
William E Payne. M.D., Bath, Maine; Conrad Wesselhoeft, 
M.U., 302 Columbus Avenue, Professors of Materia Medica and Thera- 
peutics. 
J. Heber Smith, M.D., Melrose, Mass., Adjunct Professor of Materia 
Medica and Therapeutics. 
1)ayid Thayer, M.D., 58 Beach Street, Professor of Practice of 
Medicine. 
E. Bruno de Gersdorff, M.D., 138 Boylston Street, Professor of 
Pathology and Diagnosis. 
Henry B. Clarke, M.D., New Bedford, Mass., Professor of Clinical 
Medicine. 
I. Tisdale Talbot, M.D., Dean, 31 Mt. Vernon Street, Professor of 
Surgery and Surgical Pathology. 
Holmes M. Jernegan, M.D., 9 James Street, Professor of Operative 
and Clinical Surgery. 
Henry C. Angell, M.D., 16 Beacon Street, Professor of Ophthal- 
mology. 
Francis II. Krebs, M.D., 42 Union Park, Professor of Obstetrics. 
John II. Woodbury, M.D., Registrar, 58 Temple Street; Mary Saf- 
ford Blake, M.D., 4 Boylston Place, Professors of Diseases of Women. 
Nathan R. Morse, M.D., Salem, Mass.; Mercy B. Jackson, M.D., 
681 Tremont Street, Professors of Diseases of Children. 
Walter Wesselhoeft, M.D., 6 Arrow Street, Cambridge, Professor 
of Anatomy. 
Henry C. Aiilborn, M.D., 94 Charles Street, Professor of Pathological 
Anatomy. 
Joseph R. Buchanan, M.D., Louisville, Ky., Professor of Physiology. 
N. Frederick Merrill, Pli. D., Cambridge, Professor of Chemistry. 
John Ordronaux, M.D., LL.D., New York, Professor of Medical 
Jurisprudence. 
William P. Wesselhoeft, M.D., 52 Boylston Street, Lecturer on 
Chronic Diseases. 
James B. Bell, M.D., Augusta, Maine, Lecturer on Tumors. 
Archibald K. Carrutiiers, M.D., 232 Harrison Avenue, Lecturer 
on Physiology. 
Frederic W. Payne, M.D.,27 Concord Square, Lecturer on Ophthalmic 
Surgery. 
Edward P. Colby, M.D., Wakefield, Mass., Lecturer on Pharmacology 
and Medical Botany. 
Charles R. Brown, M.D., 14 Burroughs Place, Lecturer on Histology. 
T. Dwight Stowe, M.D., Fall River, Mass., Lecturer on Diagnostics. 
Edwin C. Bolles, Ph. D., Salem, Lecturer on Microscopy. 
Frank B. Kimball, M.D., Reading, Instructor in Microscopy. 
Alonzo Boothby, M.D., 60 Temple Street, Demonstrator. 
Caroline E. Hastings, M.D., 339 Shawmut Avenue, Assistant 
Demonstrator and Special Lecturer on Anatomy. 
Denton G. Wood vine, M.D., 739 Tremont Street, Librarian. 
James H. Osgood, Janitor.