knowing ones!"—"must be reached by the known!" Anatomy, physiology, pathology are in the a, b, c category; whilst poor old Medicine is still represented as an unknown quantity x, y, or z. Vive l'Algèbre! there never was a more adequate notation. As one part of "the indipensable basis on which a lasting superstructure of a true science of medicine can be raised," Professor Owen mentions "the nature and powers of medicines." Now, we beg to assure him that these are investigated, by the homoeopathic school alone, in the true spirit of Baconian induction and with a selfdenying perseverance, by which our "medicine-provers" have earned and are earning the gratitude of the latest posterity. To their self-inflicted sufferings is due the considerable amount of actual knowledge which we already possess of the "nature and powers" of an extensive and growing Pharmacopoeia; whilst the old school have to rely, in aid of their experiments on the sick, on poisoning cases, or the involuntary sufferings of patients who pay them in the hope of getting cured! And we may safely say that, whilst the discovery and abundant confirmation of the LAW OF SIMILITUDE has raised Medicine to the rank of a Science in the hands of those who accept and follow that law, she never can become a science where Bacons' lessons are set aside; where the example of "Wells on Dew," is despised, and experiments on the specific action of medicines are confined to cases in which a simple answer to the "Interrogation of Nature" is absolutely impossible; viz. cases of persons already exhibiting morbid symptoms-their own poor unfortunate patients! "It is," as Prof. Owen observes, "interesting to consider how a public ignorant of, and careless about, the grounds and proofs of an established science, does in time come to believe in and trust it." our science has long since come to be trusted, on the strength of "previsions" and "fulfilments," which are indisputable as facts, by thousands who are so utterly ignorant of our philosophy that they seriously injure the cause by the nonsense they talk in its praise !

And

When the worthy Professor, in another part of his oration, ridicules the homœopathist and the infinitesimal globules, he

is, first, indulging in a stale joke, repeatedly answered in earnest in a way that would command his respect if he would condescend to inform himself of the facts of our history and practice.

Secondly, he is shooting beside the mark; since it is notoriously the choice of a suitable remedy, and not the amount of the dose, that is really the point at issue between the old and new schools.

Thirdly, being assuredly an honest man, he must be extremely ignorant of the subject to speak of it as he does.

Fourthly, it would be still more honest to go to school for the removal of that ignorance, before he lends the weight of his name to the persecuting opposition which " the Faculty" are carrying on in England against their successful rivals.

As it is not Hellebore that Prof. Owen requires, we venture to suggest that he should consent, for the good of science and his own reformation, to assist in the "proving " of Chelidonium majus, just now before the Homœopathic public as a polychrest remedial agent (see page 455 of this Journal). It has already numbered amongst its symptoms "Steifigkeit im Nacken. Schauder über den ganzen Körper, mehrmals hinter einander worauf sich die Eingenommenheit des Kopfes verliert."-He will not be the first ill bairn that has been the better of a guid shaking. O. P.

470

REVIEWS.

Memoria sobre la especialidad de las aguas minero-medicinales de Segura, par el D. ANASTASIO GARCIA LOPEZ, Zaragoza, 1865.

DR. LOPEZ's memoir on the minero-medicinal waters of Segura, in the province of Zaragoza, read before the Spanish medical congress, held in Madrid the 26th day of September last, contains the chemical analysis, and a series of clinical cases of various eye affections.

Dr. Lopez says he was the first medical man who discovered the special action of this therapeutic agent on the organs of sight.

The chemical composition of the mineral waters, according to Dr. Lopez, is as follows:

One litre of water, which is equal to 1·760 English pints, contains the following ingredients:

Carbonic acid gas, azote, and oxygen, with a constant temperature of 19° R.

Its specific gravity is in the proportion of 1 to 1.005, which is almost equal to distilled water.

* A gramme being equal to 15,434 grains.

The ophthalmic ailments in which Dr. Lopez has found the waters to be most beneficial, are blepharitis, and simple conjunctivitis, from scrofula; ulcerated conjunctivitis, with or without iritis or hypopyon; granular conjunctivitis; spots in the cornea; cataracts, particularly from rheumatic origin; amblyopia; amaurosis, glaucoma, and hemeralopia.

He ascribes the cures and ameliorations described in several clinical histories exclusively to the special action of the mineral waters, and endeavours to prove it by clinical experience only; but he forgets the use he made of other remedial agents, Atropine particularly; wherefore it is open to doubt whether those cures and ameliorations, obtained by the mixed treatment, were effected by the specific powers of the waters exclusively. No pathogenetic provings are adduced to confirm his assertions, except a few ophthalmic symptoms manifested in some persons who took the waters internally in large quantities; and he describes its action on the different organs of others who drank it freely. He administered the waters, in ophthalmic ailments, externally in local and general baths.

The mineral springs of Segura, which are situated about forty-five miles from Zaragoza, the capital of the province of the same name, in Spain, is rather too far for us to undertake the task of verifying Dr. Lopez's assertions; and we shall be pleased to learn that the author of the memoir before us will at some future day devote part of his spare time to institute systematic provings of that therapeutic agent, in order to render himself more useful to the cause which he has embraced, and to the numerous ophthalmic patients who continually flock to the establishment which the government of Spain has placed under his care. At the same time, it is to be hoped that he will administer the waters without adjuvants of any kind.

The treatment of Rheumatism, Epilepsy, Asthma, and Fever; being clinical lectures delivered at the London Homœopathic Hospital. By DR. J. R. RUSSELL. London: Leath and Ross.

E

We have lately read with great interest Dr. Handfield Jones's Clinical Lectures on Diseases of the Nervous System. In these we have a good example of the newest tendency of therapeutic progress, and one which is mainly brought about by the influence of homeopathy. They are, in fact, very similar to the practical observations of those of our school who draw the indications of the medicine mainly from clinical experience, guided by the more general physiological action of the medicines, i.e., those called specifickers by the more complete homœopathists, who keep in view the finer shades of the pathogenesis. There is the same heedful minute analysis of the fundamental varieties of morbid states and the correspondence of these to certain individual medicines which are thus given alone in doses not much differing from ours; and, in fact, a great many of Handfield Jones's cases have their counterparts in our literature. If any one will look back to Sydenham's complex prescriptions, and compare them with those of physicians of our day, he will find a much greater difference between the two, than between the latter and ours. And with H. Jones and Dr. Laycock, he will find positively no difference at all between some cases of these and the specifickers of our school. We may make the same remark about Dr. Laycock's papers in recent years, as about Dr. Handfield Jones's, and we, as homoeopathists, have read them with pleasure and instruction. But having gone thus far, the thought is continually forced upon us, why do they not go further in this road to the true philosophy of therapeutics? They evidently apprehend that that lies in the relation of the specific physiological effects of medicines to their therapeutic effects. But they dare not follow to the end and hear from pure experiment alone the