How then does the case stand? A paper on the homœopathic treatment of a disease-and we have seen many such in all the allopathic periodicals of late-is published in a journal that affects to despise and condemn homoeopathy, and because the word "homeopathy" does not occur in it the editor puts it forth as sound allopathic practice. This procedure reminds us of the dodge of the priest of old, who ate his fat capon on an abstinence day with an easy conscience after pronouncing over it the miracleeffecting words fiat piscis. But simple onlookers did not see that the fowl was changed into a fish in consequence of the Latin adjuration, nor do we see that homoeopathy becomes allopathy because it appears in the pages of the Lancet. The fact is that the medical trades-union and its periodical organs have conspired to ignore homoeopathy as it really is, and to continue to misrepresent it as the ridiculous caricature that was drawn of it twenty or thirty years ago, by persons of no reputation, such as the author of Homœopathy Unmasked. This conspiracy effectually deters the great body of the medical profession from reading our works or periodicals, and so they have no idea that the articles cooked up for them by the Lancet and its allopathic contemporaries are often merely very good homœopathy with this word omitted. We are defenceless against this trades-union plot, but its existence is clear and should incite all among us who are capable to lend a helping hand to the completion of the therapeutic portion of the Repertory, which will show what homœopathy really is, and will, we hope, deter these allopathic daws from decking themselves with our feathers.

But what are we to say of Professor Sydney Ringer and his frequent appearances in the character of a rechauffeur of trite bits of homoeopathic practice on an allopathic dish? "Flat burglary as ever was committed," no doubt it is; but we cannot help being amused at the unconsciousness of the professor that he is doing anything wrong in thus appropriating the labours of others without a word of acknowledgment, and at the simplicity of his medical brethren who look upon him as a wonderfully original therapeutic genius.

Liquor Soda Chlorate in Metrorrhagia.

The following letter has been received by Dr. Cooper, and we have pleasure in publishing it, as it is an allopathic testimony to the efficacy of the treatment recommended by him in this Journal, vol. xxx, p. 683.

"ESTEEMED Colleague,

"I am happy to be able to send you the details of two cases in which I have successfully employed the Liquor Soda Chlorate which you had the kindness to send me. A third case in which I prescribed it I unfortunately lost sight of. I admit that two cases prove little, though they were successes, but I have no doubt that the employment of this remedy in future cases which may offer, and respecting which I shall keep you informed, will confirm the hopes you entertain of this medicine, and encourage you in the unwearied and laborious researches which you are making in order to be able to construct a complete history of this medicine.

"Obs. I. Mlle. N. V-, æt. 39, weak constitution, lymphatic temperament. For several years past she has suffered from chloro-anæmia and leucorrhoea. Catamenia abundant, lasting from eight to nine days; clots appear in the discharge. Every catamenial period is preceded and followed for several days by the sensation of a weight low down in the pelvis, as if all would be forced out at the vulva, with pains extending to the kidneys, back, and mammæ, especially the left. The general treatment (consisting chiefly of chalybeates, nourishing diet, good hygienic conditions, &c., together with astringent vaginal injections), though it produced a good effect on the general state, had but little influence on the catamenia, which remained as profuse as before. I now had recourse to the Liquor Soda Chlorate. The first time I prescribed seven drops in fifty grammes of water three times a day, on the fifth day of the menstrual flux, and the following day the discharge had completely stopped. On the two following catamenial periods the same remedy was given on the fifth day, but in the dose of five drops only, and the same successful result was obtained. At the following period I did not give your remedy at all; the menses followed almost normally, without clots, and lasted only seven days, quite insignificant the last two

days. I may add that the weight she complained of in the pelvis did not occur after the second administration of this remedy. It is true that in the interval between the catamenial periods Miss V— continued to take the steel medicine, but I think it is without doubt that it was the Liquor Soda Chlorate alone that arrested these discharges, which may be termed hæmorrhagic.

· “Obs. II.—Mme. R—, æt. 40, six years married, mother of five children, the youngest of whom is two years old. Robust constitution, nervous temperament. This lady came to ask my advice for her menses, which she said lasted eight days and are always very copious. This has been the case for two months. A month ago they were just the same. Since then she constantly complains of discomfort in the lower part of the abdomen, feeling of a weight, with shooting pain in back. The only treatment I recommended was six drops of the Liq. Sod. Chlor., to be taken in three times as above, and the following morning all the discharge had ceased. This uncomfortable feeling went off gradually, and a week later she was quite well. Since then her catamenia have been normal.

"I allow you sir, to make what use you like of these observations, if you think them worth anything, and beg to remain

66

Yours truly,

"ALPH. ROELANDTS, M.D.

Meulebeke, West Flanders, Belgium; 15th Oct., 1873."

Chips from the Workshops of the "Secret-case" Practitioners.*

By Dr. HIRSCH, Prague.

A mighty fruitful field for the worshipful company of diseasemakers is furnished without restriction by the so-called "secret cases." From year to year, and day by day, we find the announcement of these gentry in the journals-" Complete cure, speedy and certain." This is promised with a bold front, yet practically complete illness, speedy and certain, is the result of this treatment. As Leichtenberg says he never saw a genial fellow who smoked tobacco ; any one might, if this were true, receive as a settled point that the great Ricord was never a smoker, for to that grand idea which he has especially cultivated, of charming away a

*Neue Zeit. fur Hom. Klinik., Bd. 18, No. 19, Oct., 1873.

gonorrhoea in due form with a few injections, the character of geniality cannot be refused! For my part I cannot help thinking that this invention is far more genial than even that of a breechloader! For whilst the work of destruction carried on by the latter is only temporary, and finds full employment principally in time of war, we see the injecting apparatus taken in hand with never ceasing activity.

2. Whilst in the latter invention it is at once publicly known what percentage of victims fall a prey to it, and what mischief it produces, "the secret-case" doctor has this great advantage that he settles the business quietly and confidentially. The party concerned comes to the doctor with one secret complaint and very frequently steals away from him with another still more

secret.

3. The destructive mangling work of the breech-loader is limited solely to the individual sufferers, whereas the skill of the other even succeeds in transmitting to others the seeds of disease and pain.

It certainly requires on the part of these doctors a very elastic conscience or a very limited intellect either to ignore the highly mischievous effects of their work, or else really not to perceive it.

When we observe for years, with attentive eyes, the conduct of these doctors and the consequences of it in general, the idea forces itself involuntarily upon us that a higher providence has furnished two sorts of advocates for men when visited with sickness, the one are destroying angels, the other guardian angels. The answer to the question which are playing these respective parts I leave to the judgment of my respected readers.

And now let me adduce some cases in illustration of the above.

Mr. E, æt. 24, the only son of a landed proprietor, of slender build and rather delicate constitution, lively, excitable temperament and highly developed intellect, was studying jurisprudence at Prague, and was on the point of preparing for his first public examination, when he unfortunately contracted gonorrhoea; whilst a still greater misfortune was that, trusting to the seductive promises of the advertising specialists, he had recourse to one of them. Fast enough were daily injections

tried for a whole week, but not so fast did the promised "speedy cure" proceed. In spite of frequent changes in the solution injected, each gradually stronger, and in spite of the internal exhibition of medicated capsules, electuaries, and that the whole anti-gonorrhoeic apparatus that was brought into play, one could not get to any end of the relapses that kept setting in ever and anon without any fault on the part of the patient.

At last the inguinal region began to grow rather sensitive. Incredible as it may appear, yet I pledge my word of honour in asserting that, in the course of the seven following weeks, with constantly increasing development of buboes, two boxes of Sublimate pills were administered, and a complete course of ointment had to be gone through; and all this on account of an originally simple gonorrhoea!

Happily the parents, who lived habitually in the country, now came to Prague. Indescribable was their horror on finding their son lying in bed, the picture of woe. Pale and hollowcheeked, with deep-sunken eyes, there he lay, reduced to a skeleton; with tears in his eyes he made confession of the above. The parents, accustomed for years to the cautious homœopathic practice of Dr. Seegen, since removed to Vienna, at once resolved to call in a homoeopathic physician, and the choice then fell

upon me.

It was not the hard, red, and highly sensitive buboes (at least as large as half an egg cut lengthwise) that alarmed me at my first visit, but the total prostration of the patient, the general emaciation, the empty pulse, the complete loss of appetite, the greatly disturbed sleep, and lastly the copious night-sweats,—these symptoms it was that warned me to go to work, in settling the prognosis, with considerable caution. As to my treatment, I must remark imprimis that, for a long course of years, that has continued essentially the same in such cases; and this my persistency in the same mode of treatment ought to give clear evidence that the results obtained by it were always satisfactory.

Above all, I found it expedient for the patient at once to set aside the application of ice incessantly to the inflamed swelling, as prescribed by the previous medical attendant; and to exchange it for well-covered, stimulant, cold compresses, to be changed as soon as they got duly warmed.

The internal remedy was Nitric acid, in the 3rd decimal