f fv' INTRODUCTORY LECTURE MEDICAL COUR \ %lt ^mmyvMt ^tXxtw College OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, D, D. SMITH, M.D., professor of chemistry and physiology. OCTOBER 15th, 1861. Published by the Class. NEW YORK: AMERICAN HOMOEOPATHIC REVIEW PRESS. 1861. Homoeopathic Medical College of New-York, November 4th, 1861. Prof. D. D. Smith, M.D., Dear Sir : At a meeting of the Students held this day, it was unanimously resolved to solicit, for publication, a copy of your very instructive and eloquent introductory address, delivered on the 15th ult. Believing, Sir, that it will advance the cause of truth and of our noble science, we, the committee, sincerely hope you will comply with the wishes of the class. Awaiting your reply, We remain, Yours, with respect, R. J. P. Morden, London, C. W., Chairman, F. B. Mandeville, New Jersey, Secretary. L. M. Lee, Conn., J. M. Barden Penn., E. S. Warner, Ohio, Melleville Bryant, Brooklyn. H. V. Miller, New-York. J. W. Savage, Maine, C. H. Miller, N. Y. City, E. B. Hopkins, Mass., C. F. Della Bella, Italy, C. M. McLaurie, 111., New-York. December 3d, 1861. Mr. R. J. P. Morden, Chairman of the Committee on Publica- tion, and others, Gentlemen : Your generous missive of the 4th ult., requesting a copy of my Introductory for publication, is before me. The lecture was prepared amid pressing engagements, and lacks the completeness in arrangement and composition desirable for publication. But, having no opportunity to revise it. and not feeling that I have the right, though I possess the inclination, to refuse a compliance with the request of the class, I send herewith the manuscript. Most respectfully, D. D. Smith, M.D LECTURE. The words of the poet-critic address themselves to the medical student with peculiar force and significance: " A little learning is a dangerous thing ! Drink deep, or taste not, the Pierian spring j There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again." A man of limited medical attainments, only partially edu- cated, filled with bigotry, deluged in self-conceit, and rushing upon ground which the angel of knowledge treads with fear and trembling, is an unsafe guide in the pathway to the temple of health. But, in our day, a rich and varied thought clusters around and mantles the spring of medical knowledge. It gives the assurance to him who thirsts for wisdom and understanding, that, if he but approach the fountain, and feel the spray of its purifying waters, he will be cleansed from the corruptions of ignorance, and made clean and pure in his search for truth. And the acquisition of truth fully demonstrated will clear the mental eye, and single it to the one object of attaining to the qualifications needful to per- form rightly the God-like labor of healing the ills to which flesh is heir Never has the history of man presented an epoch when a variety of knowledge in the physician was so requisite to sue- 6 cess as it is in our day. Look over the face of our own proud and bleeding country ! we possess, it is true, a land, like ancient Goshen, flowing with milk and honey ; our sails whiten every clime ; our noble ships plough every sea ; our flag flut- ters in every breeze; our broad territory stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, embracing every variety of soil, climate and product; we have fields of waving corn and golden grain ; garners full of all manner of precious store ; mines of silver and gold, and every precious mineral and metal; and, as a crowning glory, we are blessed with a con- stitution, with laws, and with a system of political economy, better adapted to foster education and to secure the prosperity and happiness of our people, than any system of government enjoyed by a nation since Adam flourished in primeval inno- cence and bliss in the Garden of Eden. But, amid all this prosperity and excess of national blessing, we hear of " wars and rumors of wars." Rebellion lifts its desecrating hand, presents its bloody form, and threatens the proud Temple of Constitutional Liberty with utter prostra- tion. Brother has raised his hand against brother. The paths across the country are hedged up by hostile armies. We have already seen the devastation of the battle-field ripe in its multiplied fruits of widows and orphans. Gar- ments rolled in blood moisten the verdant field, and the dun smoke of the conflict casts a lurid glare over the ocean, that great pathway of nations. The end is not yet. Husbands and fathers—brothers and sons—friends and lovers—have gone forth clothed in the pan- oply of war, to do battle for our country. How will they return ? Maimed, wounded or dead ? Before this work of destruction ends, how many houses will be draped in mourn- ing? How many hearts will be mantled in sorrow? How many will wear the garments of sadness ? How many will require the surgeon's aid, the physician's healing art, and the consolations of our holy religion ? In the midst of these shifting scenes of blood, carnage and sorrow, the physician will be called upon to act an important 7 part. He must be prepared for every form of labor and prac- tical skill, which the tragical times demand of him, and the suffering require at his hands. Not only on the field of battle, amid the cannon's roar, must he employ the surgeon's knife, and give constitutional treatment, and utter words of hope and consolation, and receive the last message of the dying soldier, and this too while the whistling bullet, and hissing death-missile rattle by or plow the earth at his very feet; but, in the circle of his home practice, he must prescribe for the maimed and exhausted soldier, who has crept from scenes of strife, to breathe his last among friends and loved ones. He must be ever ready to give the nourishing draught, the heal- insr balm, and the word of christian comfort. In the absence of God's ambassador, he must "minister to a mind diseased," and do his utmost to " pluck from the memory a rooted sor- row ; " calling to his aid the stores of his art, he must put forth his best efforts to " raze out the written troubles of the brain," and, provided with, " some sweet oblivious antidote," essay to "cleanse the stuffed bosom of the.perilous stuff that preys upon the heart." Nor must the physician allow the palsying conclusion to possess his mind, that such benign labor is " the work of the Divine rather than the physician." His well stored mind, rich in every variety of knowledge that can tend to relieve human misery and pity and soothe where it lacks the power to heal, will lead him, as he stands beside the dying soldier, who, in his last dreams of deadly strife, mutters of hostile armies and dashing charges, to substitute the song of angels for the war-cry; the white garments of the purified immortals for the blood stained armor; the sound of harpers, harping with their harps, for the notes of the war-trumpet; and the waters of life for the bitter waters of Meribah. The physician must not seek to cast this worthy toil on the minister of religion alone; he must gird up his loins—buckle on the armor of light—and give battle to every foe that makes war upon the health and happiness of man. But the acknowledgment should not be withheld from you, ;t should be made, as it is, with profound satisfaction, that we 8 seldom have occasion to instruct our young students in this practical part of christian theology. They come to us from the watch-care and pious training of fathers and mothers, whose fervent prayer and holy teaching are law to them. The three-fold cord of paternal, maternal and filial affec- tion, binds them to the law of right, and prepares them to sympathize with the afflicted ; while their religious instruc- tion qualifies them to speak a good word in due season, and to give " the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." Hence it is, when they first enter our lecture room, at the very commencement of our instruction, they are prepared to study the architecture ot the house fitted by the plastic hand of God for the resi- dence of the immortal mind, with pleasure and profit. Our duty is to guide that mind, in its search for knowledge, in the departments over which the members of this faculty re- spectively preside. Of the nature of mind, of its mysterious relations to and connection with the body, wTe promulgate no bigoted dogmas ; we leave speculations to poets and dream- ers. When the imagination is about to plume its wings for a flight into the regions of fanciful theories, we baptize our- selves in this truth: " Here stop my soul, no further seek to go! What God reveals, is all that man should know.'' For acquiring a medical education, the student of our day enjoys incalculable advantages over the youth who matricu- lated one hundred years ago. Our country's resources then were limited; anatomical material was difficult of procure- ment ; the combined resources of the world did not furnish the disciple with the facilities for a medical education, which are now scattered profusely among the medical schools of our rural districts. Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Potassium, Sodium, Chlo- rine, Bromine and Iodine, wTere then unknown. Physiology had not then clearly taught the world the functions of the human organism. Galvani had not proclaimed the animal 9 currents of electricity, nor had Aldini demonstrated the truth of Galvani's teachings. Yolta's pile was unknown ; and the most profound chemist was ignorant of facts now familiar to the youngest student of chemistry. But it is not in place for me to portray all the changes of the last century, nor to attempt an exhibition of all the fruits of scientific discovery that so plentifully surround us ; a few of the most prominent discoveries of the last one hundred years may be glanced at with profit. The fact that pure water is composed of but two gases, is inflammable and will burn; that the common salt of our tables, with which we flavor and season our viands, is iden- tical with the article that constitutes one of the proximate principles of the human body, incorporating itself with every structure save the enamel of the teeth, and deprived of which, a man would as effectually approximate starvation as he would if you took from him all nourishmen ; that phos- phorus, the inflammable substance that so readily inflames and burns, by friction, in the common match, the discovery of which has thrown out of use the tinder-box and flint and steel, and saved the fingers of the early riser, is identical with the phosphorus, that, combined with lime, forms betwTeen five and six-tenths of our bones ; that the lightning, which flashes in its transit from cloud to cloud, is identical with the electricity that snaps and sparkles from the simple frictional machine, and that it can be seized, bound, harnessed to a car and be made a servant of man and the messenger of his thoughts ; that men and beasts may live for days without brains, and some a life time with only a limited supply; that digestion and absorption proceed together; that some articles of food are digested in the stomach, while others are not; that a man manufactures sugar in his liver, and may have it in excess and become too sweet; that an animal sub- stance may be so prepared that putrefaction will not approach it, even though it be suspended in an atmosphere swarming with the agents, and agencies, of putrefaction; that our bodies, even though the vital spark may escape, can be saved 10 from the devouring worm, and repose above ground, without offence to the olfactory powers of the most fastidious; that the pains and sorrows pronounced upon Eve and her fair daughters can be obviated by a " sweet oblivious antidote," making the young mother unconscious of pain, and allowing her to awake from a profound slumber and sweet dreams to experience the first throb of maternal love and pride on hear- ing, for the first time, the low wail of her helpless offspring, which has stolen to her arms unperceived by her vigilance ; that the molar may be extracted, the eye straightened, the luxation reduced, the fracture, whether simple, com- pound or comminuted, may be adjusted; the excrescence excised, the limb amputated, the abscess punctured, the cancer removed, the tumor extirpated, the actual cautery applied, and all without pain or a knowledge of the opera- tion on the part of the patient. These, with many others, belong to the discoveries of the last hundred years ; the larger portion of them are items written in the history of the last twenty-five years. What a group of beneficent discoveries ! How they raise the dignity and importance of the healing art! In view of them, how fiction ripens into truth ; how dreams of philanthropists, indulged in days of yore, have been inter- preted by reality; how prophecy tallies with accomplish- ment; how the pictures of ancient fancy are antitvped by actual fact; how the hope, long deferred, ripens into fruition before the heart is made sick ; how the fairy tale of Eastern lands is transmuted into the history of modern discovery. The wishing carpet of the Arabian story finds its counterpart in the oblivious ether and chloroform, which rob the surgeon's knife of its gloomy associations and dreadful apprehensions, and while they inspire dreams of heaven, quietly land the sufferer in the road to health, with the offending member removed, the arteries ligatured, and the dressing completed ! See how the vagaries of the alchemist, by chemical disco- very put on the garb of actuality ! In physiology, the func- tions' of organs, long draped in mystery and ignorance, 11 which a bitter controversy could not rend, have been made clear as day by the demonstrations of Magendie, aided and furthered, as those demonstrations have been, by the experi- mental investigations of Bernard, Lehmann, Carpenter, Muller, Mattieuci and a host of others, both in Europe and America. True, miracles exist not, but science takes their place and demonstrates that he, who proved himself of God by works and miracles, was no empiric, but a true expounder of God's law in man. The physician of our day, thoroughly instructed in his art, knows so well the language of the healthy organism, that he can interpret, with clearness and accuracy, the inti- mations of disease, which were formerly an unknown tongue. By the symptoms, that are plain to the educated mind, he reads the locality and nature of abnormal conditions for which he is to prescribe : to his clear apprehension and sharpened vision, the body of man announces the existence, or forma- tion, of diseased conditions and painful lesions, in language too plain to be misunderstood. And the young man who drinks deeply at the fountain of knowledge, now open to the medical student, and suffers not neglect, nor indolence to fetter his brain and blind his intellect, will be prepared to go forth on his mission of mercy, to heal the sick, and cause the lame to walk and the blind to see. But, I must not forget the fact, that, on the present occa- sion, I speak as the authorized exponent of the Faculty of the New-York Homoeopathic Medical College, located in the City of New-York. Here let me premise, that, our State and City are not deficient in medical schools, nor are teachers wanting in number, or capacity, that the friends of this institution have obtained a charter from the State Legis- lature, authorizing the creation of a faculty and a board of council, clothed with power to instruct in the art of healing, and to confer the Degree of Doctor of Medicine, on such as are found to be qualified, on critical examination, to practice medicine and surgery, according to the laws of this State. We have no disposition to build up our own institution at 12 the expense of a sister school, nor to give a negative lauda- tion of our faculty by detracting from those of other medical colleges. We will not, intentionally, pluck one leaf from the wreath that binds the brow of an honorable member of the profession, who has honestly acted up to the light of his day; nor are we disposed to throwr the physic of our antagonists " to the dogs." But we claim the right, and we shall exer- cise it, to prepare and take their physic in accordance with our own interpretation of nature's laws; and wre shall teach others to do so. This right has been secured to us by our country's constitution and lawrs. It is especially conferred upon and guaranteed to us by our charter, and the enact ments of our State Legislature; and neither ridicule, nor medical bigotry, nor the frowns of ignorant Sangrados, shall intimidate us, or drive us from its legal exercise. We shall pursue the even tenor of our way, despite the finger of scorn and the language of ridicule. And why should we not both teach and practice Homoe- opathy ? And, why should not our drugs be dispensed to the people? True, we have not garnished apothecary shops, with extensive show-windows, brilliantly lighted with gas, and adorned with attractive glass balloons filled with colored water. It is true, we have no apothecaries with " meagre looks and overwhelming brows, in tattered weeds, culling of simples." Our pharmaceutists are not worn to the bones by sharp misery, the result of preparing their own medicines and taking poisonous drugs, by olfaction and inhalation. You will find among us no needy shops " adorned by a hung tortoise, a stuffed alligator and skins of ill-shaped fishes ;" nor about our shelves will you discover a " beggarly account of empty boxes, green earthen pots, bladders and musty seeds, remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses, thinly scattered to make up a show." No ! No! When a second Shakespeare comes to judgment, and in glowing verse paints the person and shop of the vendor of homoeopathic remedies, he will not soil his muse by such doleful sketches as England's immortal bard found it needful to employ in painting, truthfully, the apoth- 13 ecary and drug shop of ancient Mantua. Nor will the keen eye of a Burns discover among our dispensers of healing drugs one to whom the character of Dr. Hornbook is appli- cable ; one of whom it may be truthfully said : " A' doctor saws and whittles, Of a' dimensions, shapes, an' mettles, A' kinds o* boxes, mugs, an' bottles, He's sure to hae : Their Latin names as fast he rattles. As A, B, C." A careful inspection of the private case of the homoeopa- thic physician, the closed drawers of the pharmaceutist, the shelves of the dispensary so carefully concealed from the light and air, when open to the eye of the curious, reveal only the carefully selected and accurately prepared remedies, from the mother tincture, to the highest attenuation, all fitted and prepared, and adapted, to meet and battle with disease, in any and every part of the human organism, from the largest viscera to the structure so minute and deli- cate, that the unaided vision and unassisted sense cannot take cognizance of its existence. And, like a skillful mechanic, you will ever find the homoeopathic physician adapting his prescriptions to the character of the diseased structure and the kind of malady that afflicts his patient. Nor does he regard the minuteness of the organism deranged as a sufficient reason for the non-application of his remedy to the part, or an argument in favor of increasing the surface of disease by deranging healthy structures through the exhibi- tion of deadly poisons in heroic doses. The curious may enquire : Is there a necessity for the exis- tence of your peculiar medical institution ? Of course we give you an affirmative reply. They may interrogate us further : Why not employ the medical schools already organized and endowed, and save the expense and labor inci- dent to establishing and maintaining your college ? A fair question, and reasonably propounded. This is our answer: First: We lack faith in the loose method of prescribing crude drugs practised in the school of Allopathy. 14 Second: Our young men are not fairly treated in any of the institutions of our country where medical science is taught, if it is known that their proclivities are in favor of treating disease upon the basis of the therapeutic law, so clearly expressed by its discoverer and demonstrator, in the familiar motto " Similia similibus curantur." The finger of scorn is pointed at them; they are liable to insult at the clinic ; to unfair examinations, and to many petty annoyances: these blind the mind, blunt its tender sensibilities, impair its appe- tite, and produce inconvenience and sorrow. Besides, what can a student learn of Homoeopathy from its enemies ? He may be taught to sneer at its author ; to ridicule its claims to reason ; to caricature its doctrines and precepts; to laugh at those who practise it, and to insinuate to the prejudice of the sound sense of all those who allow themselves and their families to be cured in any other way than by swallow- ing Castor Oil by the glass, Calomel by the spoonful, Quin- ine by the drachm, and Emetic Tartar in quantities sufficient to remove the entire mucous membrane. No; we are not satisfied with the medical schools in which most of us were educated. They are behind the times in many respects; they come not up to the demands of our age. We have out- grown their medical teachings. Themselves being the j udges, their method of exhibiting drags to the sick, which has pre- vailed for so many centuries, has resulted in incalculable wretchedness and evil. And, if the best educated among them are not content with the popular prescriptions, how can we be satisfied ? fourth: Still further. We cannot give our support to the medical institutions of the allopathic fraternity unless they will establish in them three chairs, viz.:—one for clinical instruction ; one for instruction in theory and practice ; one for instruction in the Materia Medica upon the basis of Homoeopathy, as expounded by Hahnemann. The reasonableness of our demand will appear in the fact, that, although in operative surgery, in toxicology, and in general, descriptive, microscopic and pathological 15 anatomy, and in chemistry and physiology, we claim, for the instruction of this institution, no distinction from that imparted by every faculty of medicine, in our City and State, operating like our own under charter from the State Legis- lature, yet, in the constitutional treatment of surgical cases, and in the morbid conditions that sometimes follow amputa- tions, and in the reactions that occur after the removal of tumors, the diet we recommend, the drugs we exhibit, the preparation of these drugs, and the law regulating their pre- scriptions, together with the careful notation of symptoms and other considerations, render even homoeopathic surgery peculiar, and demand for it distinct and specific instruction. And in theory and practice, the necessity for the existence of our college becomes so obvious, that argument is unnecessary. True, our professor of anatomy teaches, as other professors of anatomy teach—only, as his partial friends believe, more thoroughly ; and in chemistry and physiology our professor will undoubtedly do the best he can. But in view of our Materia Medica, and our system of therapeutics, the necessity for a Homoeopathic Medical College assumes such gigantic proportions, that a superficial statement of the case, without argument, is all that is required to satisfy the most sceptical of the duty imposed on all, who profess regard for our law of cure, to give our College their encouragement, their smiles of approbation, and their generous support. In the old school dispensatories you will see much of our " stolen thunder." There, the Arnica is recommended for bruises; soluble Mercury is mentioned in connection with Hahnemann ; the Belladonna is called a prophylactic, and the credit of its use, in this character, is justly attributed to the famous author of Homoeopathy. In Wood and Bache's Dispensatory (Edition 1843), under the article Belladonna., we find this paragraph : " Within a few years it has acquired great credit (in Germany), as a preventive of scarlatina—an application of the remedy first suggested by the famous author of the hom- oeopathic doctrine, and founded on the idea, that, as the 16 symptoms produced by scarlatina in the nervous system closely resemble those which result from large doses of Bel- ladonna, the former might be prevented by establishing the latter, as small pox is prevented by vaccination, or rendered milder if the system has already come partially under its influence." And this plan of giving the Belladonna to prevent a vio- lent development of scarlatina has prevailed in both the North and South, among allopathic practitioners. We do not blame them for using our discoveries, or prescribing our remedies: " 'Tis but a just and natural desire, To light a taper at a neighbor's fire." But why should they complain, or ridicule us, because we receive the whole of what they partially adopt ? It is clear that many of our remedies are named, described and recom- mended, by allopathic physicians and authors ; but our method of preparing them and the symptoms indicating to us their use are carefully kept from view. Nor would the student, should he attend any allopathic school in our country, from now until doomsday, learn aught of Homoeopathy, of its discoverer, of its law of cure, of the changes it has effected in medical practice, of the improvement it has wrought, of its mission, or of its triumphs. We have realized deeply this medical void and are trying to fill it: blessings upon the heads of those who founded this institution, upon those who secured the charter of this college, upon the friends who sustain it and advocate its claims. You may tell me that they, our opponents, have good and sufficient reasons for excluding Homoeopathy from their schools. Doubtless they have ; " for none want reasons to confirm their will." But if you confront us with one of these men, and allow us to meet his objections and answrer his reasons, you will discover, that, 1' Fixed before, and well resolved is he, As men that ask advice are wont to be." Why should men be so bigoted in medicine, who anxiously 17 and actively seek for truth and improvement in every other field of investigation ? This to me is an enigma— a riddle. I am not unmindful of the fact, that I have assumed, that Homoeopathy is a medical truth, its author a true benefactor, its advocates men of veracity, and the practitioners who dis- pense its doctrines, in a practical form, are in every way, and in every respect, competent to administer the healing art. I reaffirm it all, and challenge successful contradiction. The sincerity of my professional brethren, and their competency to treat every form of disease, are not open to argument; to offer proof of their skill and competency would be an insult to their patrons, and to the allopathic schools also. Most of our physicians have been pronounced competent to practice medicine and surgery by the best medical schools in this country ; some of them have reviewed their studies in Europe, and have been diplomated by the savans of the mother country ; some have taught in Allopathic Colleges, and their names are written upon the diplomas of not a few who are recognized for their skill and learning. Surely, the additional knowledge of Homoeopathy, and the practical wisdom gained by the proving and testing of drugs upon their own persons, have not lessened their competency nor impaired their skill. We do not, therefore, admit inferiority in our practitioners of the art of healing. But, the scien- tific truthfulness of Homoeopathy, the reliability of our law of cure, the good effected by the system of medicine intro- duced by Hahnemann; these we open to controversy, and we enter the lists, with the bravest opponent, with confidence and certainty of success. This brings us to the question: What is Homoeopathy ? Answer : It is the system of medicine introduced by Samuel Christian Frederick Hahnemann, of Germany, in 1790, one year before Galvani discovered the animal currents of electricity, and which, for a quarter of a century after its discovery and introduction, attracted the attention and excited the deepest thought of the scientific men in all the countries of Europe. 18 The name, Homoeopathy, expresses its essential character —A like affection. It teaches that the remedies employed, in the treatment and cure of a disease, should be such as, if taken by a person in perfect health, will produce a similar, but not precisely the same disease ; but an artificial, or med- cinal disease, resembling the affection, for the cure of which, we prescribe the medicine. The homoeopathic law of cure is set forth in these words: " Similia similibus curantur "— " Like cures like." It stands out boldly in contrast with the Ilippocratic law of cure, thus expressed : " Contraria contra- ries curantur" which for twenty-three centuries, in various forms, has governed the practice of the medical profession. Homoeopathy teaches us to find such a medicine to act against any given disease, as will, upon the healthy organism, in full doses, produce a group of symptoms, the totality of which will present the similimum of the symptoms for the cure of which we prescribe it. Acting in accordance with this doc- trine, we determine, by experiments on the healthy person, the effect of drugs : we note the symptoms thus obtained with great care: and having thus proved our remedies, arti- ficially, but physiologically, we establish and record their pathogenetic character; and then, in their exhibition, we feel certain that we reach, and set up our medicinal action in, the affected parts, leaving the normal structures untouched and unimpaired by our drugs. Still further: Homoeopathy teaches us that disease creates susceptibility of the organism to the action of the proper remedy ; that small doses are alone required because of this susceptibility; that the dynamic power of drugs is increased by their disintegration and subdivision; that but one drug should be given at a time ; that strictness of diet should be observed to the end that medicines may not be counteracted by the food and condiments taken by the patient: and the conclusion is reached, that the specific remedies relied upon for so many centuries for the cure of certain diseases, owe their effectiveness to the homoeopathic law in obedience to which they have been exhibited. 19 Now\ where did this law of cure originate ? It was pro- claimed by Hippocrates twenty-three centuries ago ; it was re echoed by Paracelsus 1500 years afterwards ; but it owes its full proof and development to Hahnemann, the scholar, chemist, and accomplished physician. The story of his dis- covery is an unvarnished tale and is quickly told : Lie wras translating Cullen's Materia JMedica, and not being satisfied with the author's explanation of the antipyretic principles in the Peruvian Bark, resolved to discover, by experiment, on what the power of the bark, in intermittent fever, depended. He took a large dose of the drug while in health ; it produced a chill, or ague, similar to the intermittent marsh fever, for which it was then, and is now, considered a specific. lie seized this hint of nature, and incorporated it with his prac- tice, making it his therapeutical law. He tested other drugs in like manner, upon himself and family. Founding his practice on this discovery, he effected remarkable cures by his homceopathical applications of medicines. His success caused him to be bitterly reviled and cruelly persecuted by physicians and apothecaries, whose craft he endangered. The venom and violence of the bigoted and ignorant drove him from place to place, narrowed his means of support, deprived his family of a home, reduced their income to a fraction, brought hunger into the household, and threatened them with starvation. But God sent an angel of help in the person of the Duke of Anhalt-Cothen. He gave Hahnemann an asylum and protection in his own palace, where, after a persecution of eleven years, he lived in peace and enjoyed prosperity for a long time. (See Encyclop. Americana.) I need not pursue the history of Homoeopathy further, nor sketch the subsequent discoveries of Hahnemann. Are not all these things recorded in his learned volumes? Our assumption is this: Homoeopathy teaches us to pre- scribe medicines which will produce artificial diseases, if o-iven to persons in health, similar to those lesions for the cure of wiiich we exhibit them. Now, have we proof that this law is founded on scientific accuracy ? Echo repeats not 20 this interrogatory ; but, stubborn facts, admitted by those of the contrary part, give a most decided answTer in the affir- mative. We have seen that the Cinchona, or its active prin- ciple, Quinine, is regarded, by the old school, as a specific for intermittent fever, sometimes called " fever and ague," or " chills and fever;" and, it is proven, that the same drug will produce a similar disease, artificially, when taken, in large doses, by a person who is in perfect health. Dr. Thatcher, in his dispensatory, recommends the Lobelia inflata as a specific for mucous asthma; in the use of this drug he cured himself of that disease after he had suffered from it for several years. Lobelia, if taken in large doses by a person in health, will pro- duce an artificial asthma, painful and troublesome. If you doubt it, try it. I have tested the drug, by olfaction, inha- lation and deglutition, and have no desire to repeat the experiment. Mercury will cause salivation, and will it not produce the disease ptyalism ? Homoeopathic doses of lead will cure lead paralysis; Tart, ant, Ipec, Scilla and Sanguin- aria are given for affections of the trachea, and irritations of the air passages, by all popular physicians, and in domestic practice. Will not these drugs irritate and inflame these organs if received into the healthy body, whether absorbed by the skin, injected into a vein, forced into the alimentary canal, placed upon the tongue, or brought in contact with the schneiderian membrane ? Do not our leading physicians, in the school of Allopathy, give Strychnia, Nux vomica, for paralysis ? And, if given to a man, or animal, in health, will it not produce a type of the disease ? Certainly they give the Belladonna homceopathically. We all know that they prescribe Arnica for bruises and contusions, and they have been so long in the habit of doing it, that, forgetting the source whence they derived a know- ledge of the medical virtues of the drug, many claim it as a part of the allopathic materia medica. Ere long some bold blasphemer will affirm that we are indebted to them for our knowledge of its healing power, and will further declare that they have taught us care in diet and the use of small doses ! 21 It is clear, then, that our allopathic brethren do, to some extent, practice homoeopathy. The character of many of their remedies, the circumstances under which they exhibit them, and the diet they advise, all have the marks of the hom- oeopathic fraternity stamped upon them. The medicines now popular in the community, the articles you will discover carefully wrapt up in Latin, in the prescriptions of popular physicians, owre their introduction and use to the much abused system of Homoeopathy. The employment of our medicinal preparations, by our opponents, may result from accident or their ignorance. This I shall not pretend to determine. We throw medical truth broad-cast upon the community ; those who want it, take it. If a Nicodemus is about, and can re- ceive instruction only in the dark, we give him an opportu- nity to study in the shades of the evening; if others fear the mighty, we allow them to hide from persecution under a • mantle of secrecy and cover a simple remedy with obsolete Latin. Now, some are willing to admit the efficacy and soundness of our lawT of cure, because it was proclaimed by the Divine Old Man of Cos, twenty-three centuries ago, and re-echoed by Paracelsus fifteen centuries after Hippocrates fell asleep, but they object to its application, by our school, in the form of small doses. With such, " the head and front of our offending hath this extent—no more: " we give our remedies in doses too small! they will sanction the bolus of gigantic proportions, but the tiny pellet of sugar and starch, the mere medium, alarms them. And what is the implication here? This—our medicines are inoperative, because we exhibit them in attenuations too high. The doctrine of high dilutions does not legitimately belong to Homoeopathy; " Similia Sim- ilibus Curantur " does not necessarily imply the exhibition of drugs in infinitesimal doses—under all circumstances—for a physician may prescribe a drug in an appreciable dose, and vet act in obedience to this law. Hence, we have in our ranks high and low dilutionists. But, as the high dilutions, or attenuations, trouble our medical antagonists, and as we are 22 obligated to regard their peace of mind, we will meet the objec- tion fairly, and look the doctrine of high dilutions and atten- uations and the objection of Homoeopathy founded upon it, fully in the face. Here let me state our position clearly. We maintain that the minute subdivision, or disintegra- tion of a drug, imparts to it a dynamic power, while increas- ing its surface, wiiicli the drug does not possess in its crude state. In its subdivided and attenuated character, it can be more readily liquified, and more easily absorbed into the cir- culation, and more effectually fixed in the structure, where wTe wish to establish our medical action ; and wTe claim that this view is supported by both physiological and chemical demonstration. A small portion of any nutritious substance, carefully and properly prepared, thoroughly disintegrated by mastication, and effectually insalivated, is easily liquified, readily absorbed, and furnishes a large relative amount of nutriment, while a great quantity of a substance, equally nutritious in character, but received into the stomach in a crude state, unmasticated, and not insalivated, is quite indi- gestible, almost entirely insoluble, and difficult of absorption, and furnishes very little nutriment. It cannot fail to inflict serious mechanical injury upon the digestive organs, and to produce painful inconvenience. May not the same be true of medicines administered in a crude state ? Nowr, why is Mercury given in the form of blue mass, or blue pill, in the old school practice ? Why do they not administer the crude Quicksilver? Because, in the crude form, it is inert, and it cannot be absorbed; but, when long rubbed with conserve of roses, or some similar article, it is disintegrated and divided into an infinite number of small globules ; and the greater the disintegration the more effective is the medicinal pro- perty of this metal. The same is true of Opium in the Comp. Ipec, or Dover's powder, where one grain of Opium is found to be more efficacious, than a larger quantity would be, if given in substance as a bolus. And it is a matter of physi- ological record, that, while Iodine, in full doses, is immedi- ately excreted by the renal organs, in the minute dose, pro- 23 perly prepared and subdivided, it enters the circulation and acts therapeutically. Hence, the French physicians and phy- siologists, rendering their discoveries practical, have mixed Iodine with the fodder of the cow, and by giving the milk in small quantities, to strumous patients, have obtained cura- tive results which they could not realize by the exhibition of the crude drug. Nor have their safe experiments, with minute doses of medicines, been arrested at this point. They have gone further; and although they may be startled at the danger of being called the disciples of Hahnemann and the practical advocates of Homoeopathy, yet they continue to discover and proclaim the truth. " What's in a name ? " That which we call Homoeopathy, by the name Allopathy, will be as savory and will cure as effectually; they have proved that there is virtue in high dilutions, and we receive their discovery and co-operation most thankfully. 1 have conversed with men, who believe that substances, whether elements, compound bodies, or salts, whether metallic or non-metallic substances, cannot be subdivided to the extent of our highest attenuations. One answer to such would be a proclamation of the infinite divisibility of matter. The mountain may be divided, and subdi- vided, until its particles become so minute that they will be driven by the wind in the form of dust, and yet each grain of dust will be perfect in form, and will possess a defi- nite organization and be subject to a fixed and unalterable law. A o-rain of gold may be so spread out that it will cover 600 square inches of surface on silver wire; and one ounce of gold may be so attenuated that it will cover 1300 miles of such wire. Dr. Wollaston manufactured gold wire so small that 530 feet of it weighed only one grain: it was T v\v of an inch in diameter ; and he made platinum wire only ^Vo of an inch in diameter. One grain of musk can give odor to twenty billion grains of atmospheric air, and yet retain its peculiar fragrance : one drop of assafcetida will effect, for it can be divided among, twenty times twenty million drops of water ; and the same is true of Kreasote, and other agents. 24 For those who maintain that highly attenuated drugs lose their power to act chemically, and physiologically, I present the following facts : One grain of Sulphate of Iron (green vitriol), dissolved in and diffused through 20 million grains of water, can be de- tected by the proper tests. Prussiate of Potash will produce a blue, and tincture of Nut Galls the black tinge. The one- ten thousandth part of Grape Sugar can be detected in a liquid by the per. Salts of Copper. Other illustrations, in the form of facts known to learned men, could be adduced, but our time will not permit their production. But, unable to answer, and not satisfied with these demonstrations, our antagonist changes his position, and puts forth as argu- ment, the assertion that our small doses of the 25th or 30th dilution of a drug, must lose their power to act, and be de- prived of all curative character, when they come in contact with the mighty structures of the human body. This we recognize as either gross ignorance, or unfair, and carefully concealed ridicule; no matter—we will meet the objection and answer it with facts. Assumption: A drug does preserve its character, and does act, to some extent, any where, and under all circumstances- First fact: Phosphorus burns in Chlorous acid gas; provide this gas any where, under any set of circumstances—in a body of ice, or in and under water, and the phosphorus, if present will burn it in—in the ice and under the water—and neither the ice nor the water can quench the flame. Second fact: Oxygen gas supports combustion; it forms one-third of water—according to some authorities, it forms one-half of wrater: throw into water a substance like Kalium, that has a great affinity for oxygen, and it will seize the oxygen from the wrater, and a flame will appear upon the surface of thew7ater; and thus, by the application of a chem- ical law, we may set a river on fire. Now look into the human organism and note some of the many combinations existing there. 25 You will find there some of the articles, we call medicines, as proximate principles; and they exist there in homoeopathic attenuations ; and it is by no means impossible that, when we prescribe them as healing agents, according to indications, they act chemically; or, physiologically, as food, supplying a deficiency that may exist, or, by perfecting and restoring a combination that has been deranged or partially destroyed. Third fact: In milk, the young animal finds every thing requisite for the nourishment and growth of every structure of its body, including the earthy substance of the bones which gives the osseous structures their hard and resis- tant character. Now, this substance, the Phosphate of Lime, a common medicine, forms more than one-half of the bone. This earthy substance is held in solution in milk ; it is there in sufficient quantity to make the bones of an animal hard and firm, when milk alone is relied upon for its nourishment; yet the analysis of milk shows, that in a thousand parts, there are but two, some say six, parts of the Phosphate of Lime. In the use of this article in milk, as a food, mother nature is most surely a high dilutionist. Fourth fact: In the human saliva, so essential to diges- tion and the preparation of our food for absorption into the circulation, embracing the secretions of the parotid, maxil- lary and sublingual glands, and the buccal, or secretions of the mouth, in a thousand parts, there are but six fractional parts of the Sulpho- Cyanide of Potassium ; in this propor- tion it preserves its integrity as a component part of the secretion. Yet what allopathic physician would prescribe so small a dose, if he thought this drug indicated ? Does not reason teach that the dose of a remedy should be smaller than the proportion of the remedy is to the secretion, of winch it is a component part Fifth fact: In the egg of the domestic fowl, for an emer- gency, nature has placed but one small bubble of air. Sixth fact: In the coloring matter of the blood, in one- hundred parts, we find but a few fractions more than six parts of iron: (6'66), a homoeopathic indication. 26 Seventh fact: In 100 parts of the gastric juice there are but six fractional parts of iron ; and the iron is preserved, in health, in this small relative proportion. Yet with such teaching in the volume of nature, men are found who claim to be educated physicians, who thrust iron into the system of an invalid, when pallor and debility appear, in doses so heroic, as to lead to the conclusion that man literally possesses an iron constitution, and can be iron-cased, iron-bound, and iron- lined. And it seems to be a study to prepare iron as an oxide, or a carbonate, or as a muriated tincture, so that the dose can be increased until the patient's head whirls, and his lips grow purple, and his limbs tremble ; until his last state is worse than his first. We do not so read God's natural laws. Eighth fact: Again ; in the human bile wTe find but two equivalents of Sulphur; yet wiio, but homceopathists, exhibit Sulphur, as a remedy, according to this indication ? In do- mestic and old school practice more Sulphur is given in one dose, than is found, as a proximate principle, in the entire organism. In addition to the facts now stated, it may be observed that nature employs all important substances in a diluted, or attenuated, form ; and she excretes many articles in portions so infinitesimal, that they cannot be detected in individual cases. The animal matter, exhaled with the gases from the lungs, is so minute and limited in quantity, it can be detected only when collected from a multitude of people by suspend- ing a sponge in a large room, occupied by hundreds of persons. The Carbonic acid gas, that is mixed with and forms a compo- nent part of the pure air we inhale, is only as 1 to 2000! And even Oxygen gas, so requisite to arterialize the blood, cannot be inhaled with safety in its pure state; it is therefore diluted by being mixed with other gases—Nitrogen gas, a purely negative element, is employed to dilute the Oxygen; and in our common pure atmospheric air, we have but one-fifth of Oxygen to four-fifths of Nitrogen. From the chemical and physiological facts we have noticed, the conclusion is unavoidable, that it was unkind in Dame 27 Nature to give so many indications of the correctness of the homoeopathic method of prescribing the remedies she has so bountifully provided ! It was ungenerous in her to lay so sure a foundation for the overthrow of a system, that pro- fesses to cure a diseased structure, by creating maladies in healthy organs with deadly drugs in poisonous doses: it wras too bad for her to pay so little regard to a medical system recommended only by its age and the superstition and bigotry of its devotees; to undermine a method of cure that would extract all the blood from the body, wash and cleanse the red and purple channels with powerful purges, and save them from all further disease, by painting their walls with caustic alkalies and antiputrescent chemicals. Ninth fact: But, let us go one step further and take note of the observations and demonstrations of experimental phy- siologists, who have, with delicate tests and microscopic eyes, proved to us that the globules of the blood, so minute, that they can be recognized only by a powerful microscope—those little ships, alternately freighted with Oxygen and Carbonic acid gases—are, nevertheless, complete anatomical structures, per- fect in their organization, and absolute in their functions. Are we prepared to deny that disease may reside in one of these? That the comfort of the whole body may be disturbed by an infectious cargo confined in one of these tiny vessels ? That others may be affected by sympathy ? That wild disorder may be spread through the entire organism from such pri- mary disease ? But, if disease can occur in so minute a struc- ture and we seek to apply a remedy to the affected part, how absurd to attempt a cure by the use of a potent drug in a monster dose! As well subject the machinery of aminature watch to the blacksmith's anvil and sledge-hammer; or your chronometer to the steam-trip-hammer; or load a canary-bird as you would an elephant; or cast the armament of a seventy- four into a birch canoe. These facts sustain the homoeo- pathic proposition, convert our hypothesis into a well-estab- lished truth, while our antagonists change their position and are made to assume the defensive ; and there I leave them. 28 We claim that medicines act, as we prepare them : I. Chemically, II. Mechanically, HI. They exert a dynamic power on the nervous system, IV. They are physiological in their influence, as already intimated. But time will not permit me to illustrate these positions. I must leave them for a future occasion, or consign them to abler brains and readier tongues. Some adopt the first, others regard the second as the more correct, while some receive the third and fourth as the only reliable or safe hypo- thesis ; I adopt the four as the fragments of one great truth. The discoverer, and first open advocate of Homoeopathy, encountered persecution and detraction. Thanks to the pro- gress of scientific discovery, and the prevalence of Christian charity, and the toleration inspired by our institutions, we are persecuted in a milder form, and only in accordance with the spirit of our age. We do encounter medical bigotry ; the hospitals are closed against us—not quite; friends at court have opened one door to us : others will not always be barred against our entrance; we shall patiently bide our time. We encounter opposition in many forms. One of the most potent weapons used against us, with the popular mind, is ridicule. But ridicule is not argument; it is a game at which two can play. No system of truth, however pure, can be saved from, or defended against, the shafts of sarcasm. Satirical poets and pseudo-philosophers have sharpened their wits, and used their steel pens to record stolen thoughts at the expense of Homoeopathy and its advocates. This does no real harm. We have been treated to homoeopathic soup made of the shadow of a chicken long boiled in water. We have, by the " Autocrat of the breakfast table," been favored with homoeopathic punch, manufactured of a lemon, a glass of old Bourbon whisky, and a teaspoonful of sugar, all stirred into the waters of a lake—and we have been invited to drink and be jolly ! '' We forgive the Professor for what he has said ; That poet will write of what turns his own head." 29 Besides, he has since proposed to benefit the progeny of Adam by throwing the whole Allopathic Materia Medica into the ocean. He would have executed this benevolent recommendation, but, being a lover of the finny tribes and not wishing to spoil his breakfast, he was unwilling to do so much harm to the fishes ! I do not wish to disguise the fact that some embrace Hom- oeopathy without understanding or fully believing its law of cure. Such make a showr of learning by compiling and arrang- ing the intellectual labors of others and publishing them as original. They foist themselves into prominent places, and put forth claims to positions they do not merit; and when unsuccessful in securing the admiration of those sound in the faith, they cast off the lion's skin, exhibit their long ears, and bray out out a " Benunciation " in bad Latin, confessing to gross ignorance of Homoeopathy, and revealing a personal history of professional life, replete in hypocracy, empiricism and unpardonable ignorance. Such reason against reason— renounce and adopt our system in the same paragraph; propound unanswerable interrogatories and answer them ; claim to have been Homoeopathists from boyhood through the force of circumstances, and then distinctly admit they never understood the law of " Similia Similibus Curantur ;" and conclude a letter of renunciation, by proving, that they renounce what they never understood, nor believed, nor prac- ticed. Such submit, to the public, objections to Homoeopathy! It is sometimes objected that we are insincere in our pre- scriptions and latitudinarian in our teaching ; that we give our pupils, when we graduate them, permission, in the event of their failing to cure disease by the homoeopathic use of medicines, to employ allopathy, hydropathy, electicism, or spiritualism. We make a broad and unqualified denial of this charge. It is entirely without the shadow of truth. If any statement of the kind is made with the seeming counte- nance of this faculty, it is by us wholly unauthorized; we enforce, rigidly, the law " Similia Similibus Curantur." We humbly trust that no student will leave our institution, with 30 the impression, gathered from our instructions, that he can induce convulsions at pleasure, that he may be able to demonstrate how readily he can cure fits, without violating the doctrine taught in this College. I shall not attempt to answer all the petty objections urged against Homoeopathy by hypocrites. I have considered the most important submitted by honest men ; the others are like bubbles, they burst if you touch them with the finger of reality. As we glance at the past, the good resulting to our race from Hahnemann's discovery, looms up in such a cloud of benevo- lent glory, that we grow charitable towards his traducers, and our enmity for those who ignorantly slander our system of medical practice is transmuted into pity and pardon. We can gently answer them in words of charity : What has so revolutionized the practice of medicine in the last twenty-five years ? Homeopathy. What has changed and regulated the diet of the sick, les- sened the dose of the crude drug, and diminished the fre- quency of its exhibition? Homoeopathy. What has rusted the lancet, and caused Sangrado to aban- don the idea of curing disease by letting out all the bad blood, and washing out the body with warm water ? Homoeopathy. What has silenced the snap of the bloody scarificator, and made the Scotch, Spanish, Swedish, and every other kind of old-fashioned leech, a drug in our market? Homoeopathy. What has caused intelligent parents to object to the twenty- grain dose of Calomel for a child, and wiiat has withheld the blister from the head of the little sufferer ? Homoeopathy. What has brought before the community so many intelli- gent and skillful men, who note symptoms with care, and give no drug they have not themselves taken ? Homoeopathy. What has opened the patlrway to improvement in the healing art, and done more than all things else combined, to inspire the hope of attaining to exactness in medical practice ? Homeopathy. We draw7 consolation from the history of the past, assu- rance and increase of faith from the facts of the present, 31 wiiile the future is draped with the fondest anticipations. As scientific truth spreads itself over the world, the public will be prepared to receive a system of medicine founded in fact, and resting, for support, upon the full knowledge of the laws of life. The shafts of ridicule and detraction may be hurled at Hahnemann, but his untarnished name shall blazon among the benefactors of man, when his defamers and perse- cutors are buried in oblivion. Yea, his name shall live in song after his maligners have gone down to ;' The vile earth from whence they sprung Unwept, unhonored, and unsung." The name of Samuel Christian Frederick Hahnemann, who laid the corner stone of our medical superstructure, shall live and shine, while good men are remembered and honored, as though it were written, with a pencil of living light, on the blue arch of Heaven, between Orion and the Pleiades. The proud temple his genius has reared, by the blessing of God, shall stand unmoved amid wars, rebellions, and all the moral, political, and religious commotions, and revolutions of all coming time. It shall lift its golden dome to the clouds of heaven, catch and kiss the first beams of the morning light, and the last glimmerings of departing day shall linger and die on its summit. Those who seek its destruction will but bring their own heads in contact with its adamantine walls, and find no yielding to their puny assaults. Thus, in the language of the poet: " The feeble seabirds, blinded in the storms, On some tall light-house dash their little forms, And the rude granite scatters for their pains Those small deposits that were meant for brains. Yet the proud fabric in the morning sun, Stands all unconscious of the mischief done ; Still the red beacon pours its evening rays For the lost pilot with as full a blaze— Nay, shines, all radiance, o'er the scattered fleet Of gulls and boobies brainless at its feet. I tell their fate, though courtesy disclaims To call our kind by such ungentle names ; Yet, if your rashness bid you vainly dare, Think of their doom, ye simple, and beware." -. -»*«*» .«„,. •