spurs," could by their frequent association with their younger or less fortunate brethren, feel all the more closely bound to them, and incline to give them paternal help, and the younger and less fortunate, by frequently meeting with the successful, might learn from them the secret of success. While upon this subject I would venture to urge very strongly on the younger of our brethren the necessity for a very strict adherence to a high standard of medical morality. Opportunities are certain to offer themselves to the patient waiters upon practice, and if a man prove himself to be respectable in his social relations, and successful in healing the cases of disease which come to him, his success, in a pecuniary sense, is certain to follow. The old proverb that good wine needs no bush" is as true as it ever was, and no really good practitioner will ever find it needful to stoop to lower and unprofessional arts. It is with much regret that I have recently seen in one of the allopathic journals a just animadversion on the questionable practice of sending out a printed circular, which had been adopted by a homœopathic practitioner. Such means of seeking practice are not legitimate, and as a Society we have ever discouraged them, and have a penalty which has been exercised, and will, if need be, be exercised again against those who adopt such methods of advertisement. Therefore we should all endeavour to increase the powers and the usefulness of our British Homœopathic Society, 1st, by increasing its membership, for that pnrpose urging all good men and true among British homoeopathic practitioners to join it; 2nd, by a more thorough support of its meetings, not allowing any light cause to come between us and our monthly attendances; 3rdly, by contributing good papers illustrative of the action of homœopathic remedies in disease. The cultivation of public spirit by no means compasses any loss of private advantages; but even were it so, it is our duty to make some sacrifices in so noble a cause as that which this Society supports. All credit is due to that little phalanx of writers and thinkers whose deeds are chronicled in our Annals, as having read and discussed papers; and it is earnestly to be hoped that many whose names are unfortunately conspicuous by their absence during the past session will join us cordially and constantly in that which is to come. Before concluding these remarks I trust I may not be considered as overstepping, in any way, my present position of Vice-President of the British Homœopathic Society if I venture to express from this chair a hope that the members of our Society, while using the liberty which I have claimed as one of our most coveted possessions, will yet very jealously guard themselves against the too easy admission of new and specious methods of treatment. It is with no little regret that we have seen some practitioners, professing to be homœopaths, abandoning the first and foremost rule of our therapeutics (that the curative value of a drug in disease can only be ascertained by a knowledge of its symptom-inducing power on the healthy), and embracing with fervour the empirical practice of an Italian count who professes to cure all the ills mankind is heir to with seven secret remedies and four bottled liquid electricities. Gentlemen, I am not here arguing against the empirical use of medicines whose names are unknown in such cases as have refused to yield to known scientific means; nor do I condemn the practice of employing empirical means or secret remedies when they have been proved by clinical experiment to be truly the quickest means of restoring the sick to health; but I see no reason to believe that these seven secret remedies are in any sense superior, intrinsically, to seven of our own well-known remedies, and their curative power can never exceed that of seven such remedies. Now, is there any one member of our body who would be content to accept from one of our members seven bottles of globules, without name or dilution stated, and to receive them in firm faith as containing everything that is needful for the cure of all the diseases under the sun? I feel sure that there is no one of us who would so far defer to the dictum of the best, the most experienced, and the most learned physician among us, yet we see the spectacle of certain educated physicians showing an amount of deference to an Italian nobleman (deficient in that medical knowledge which would alone make his testimony of value) which they would refuse to give to any educated physician. It is time, also, that we should protest against the pretension that this gentleman has put forward to the title of philanthropist. Were he truly a philanthropist, and were he in the possession of seven remedies which would cure the world of disease, he would not only publish the names of the remedies and their mode of preparation, but he would spread the knowledge of the names of these drugs and of their virtues far and wide in every journal of every country in the civilised world. I am tired of the pretensions of this pseudo-philanthropist. How unlike is his procedure to that of our own noble master, who spread the knowledge of his method and system in every direction and who gladly taught his system to all inquirers; whereas this Count charges a very substantial price for his precious wares. One of our chemists who imported the seven remedies and the four bottled electricities, told me he paid £200 for his first parcel. But, say some of his supporters, he gives his advice to the poor-a very old trick, and one that has paid well over and over again. Who does not remember the advertisements years ago of a Reverend Dr. Moseley, who would gratuitously inform all inquirers of a certain cure for nervous affections. The patients who wrote received a prescription which could only be made up by one special chemist, and the Reverend Dr. Moseley made his fortune. This kind of philanthropy has been before us over and over again, and whoever reads the advertisements in our daily papers will see that it still lives in the hearts of clergymen, officers, and others, who have infallible cures which they are anxious to make known out of pure thankfulness for cures effected in their own families. It is not surprising that certain classes among the public should be imposed upon by such devices, but it is grievous to see intellectual and high-minded physicians fall into such snares. There are some minds so constituted that every new LL thing appears to have a fascination for them, and this yearning for novelty is, probably, the explanation of the aberrations above referred to; but the greatest seeker after that which is new will find abundant legitimate food in a critical study of the remedial drugs already proved, whose properties are recorded in our Materia Medica, in Hale's New Remedies, and in other parts of our literature, to the number of about or above 400. Gentlemen, with these remarks we close the 30th Session of our Society; let us express a hope that each succeeding session may show an increment of usefulness and of progress. 531 REVIEWS. Bönninghausen's Homeopathic Therapeia of Intermittent and other Fevers. Translated, with the addition of new Remedies, by A. KORNDERFER, M.D. New York: Boericke and Tafel. London: H. Turner and Co. THE first edition of this work of Bönninghausen's was published in 1833; and had the honour of being favour ably noticed by Hahnemann himself in his Organon (5th Ed., note to § ccxxxvi). After an interval of thirty years, the writer, then verging upon four score, revised and remodelled it. The preface to his second edition (1863) is given in the volume before us. It explains that, while the first edition treated of intermittent fevers alone, this limitation is now withdrawn; and the subject of the work is "Fever" itself. Under this term is to be included "the various diseased states of circulation, chill (including coldness and shivering), heat, and sweat. The treatment of the subject is as follows. A first part contains under the heading of each drug, "a short extract of its characteristic symptoms relative to fever," arranged in the four categories mentioned above. A second part consists of "a repertory which has been made as complete as possible, as regards the four stages ;" and which also includes ameliorations, aggravations, and concomitants. "The third part gives a view of the compound fevers," that is, of the successions and combinations of these fever-symptoms. The fourth and last part is a list of the pathological (nosological) names of the various forms of fever, with the remedies best accredited in the treatment of the same. This section is, of course, discredited by both author and translator. |