====== MISCELLANEOUS.====== 

{{anchor:s2}}HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THE COUNTRY OF KINGS.{{anchor:s3}}-At the Annual Meeting of this Society, held in Brooklyn, May 9th, 1859 the following gentlemen were elected Officers for the ensuing year:-President, A. COOKE HULL, M. D.; Vice-President, WILLIAM WRIGHT, M. D.; Recording Secretary, R. C. MOFFAT, M. D.; Corresponding Secretary, H. E. MORRIL, M. D.; Treas. J. B. ELLIOT, M. D., Censors, A. WRIGHT, M. D., W. H. HANFORD, M. D., P. P. WELLS, M. D.

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{{anchor:s5}}HOMOEOPATHY IN CANADA.{{anchor:s6}}-We have received the report of the select committee of the Canadian Parliament, to whom was referred a petition asking for the passage of an Act, granting to Homoeopathic practitioners the same rights and privileges as those enjoyed by the old school. {{anchor:s7}}The petitioners state as some of their grievances:

{{anchor:s8}}That being debarred by the law from legally recovering any remuneration for their professional attendance, advantage is in many instances taken by dishonest persons, to evade paying for services from which they have derived benefit.

{{anchor:s9}}Homoeopathic Physicians are precluded, by their position as unlicensed practitioners, from many legitimate sources of emolument which are open to those now licensed. {{anchor:s10}}Such as:

{{anchor:s11}}From granting certificates of exemption from attendance as jurors or witnesses or from Militia service, to such of their patients as may require them; From signing certificates of insanity, to obtain the admission of any of their patients into the Lunatic Asylum; From giving evidence and receiving the fees allowed by law to the licensed practitioners for attending at coroner's inquests; &c.

{{anchor:s12}}These disabilities, however, do not press on the Homoeopathic practitioners alone, but a very large and influential part of the community, who confide in, and employ them, are likewise the sufferers.

{{anchor:s13}}For example:-A gentlemen falls sick, and having, from bitter experience, a dread of the nauseous remedies and formidable appliances of the regularly licensed practitioner, and having, on the other hand, full confidence in the superior efficacy of the Homoeopathic mode of treatment, sends for a physician of that school. {{anchor:s14}}During his illness, he is summoned to attend Court, either as a juror or as a witness. {{anchor:s15}}To escape being fined, he must procure a certificate of his inability to attend. {{anchor:s16}}How is he to obtain it? {{anchor:s17}}His Homoeopathic physician is unable to grant one of any validity; he is compelled therefore at great additional expense to send for one, who, however incompetent to <span grade2>cure</span> him, is nevertheless qualified by law to certify that he is sick! and it may very possibly happen, that from the antagonism likely to arise under such circumstances, the regularly licensed practitioner may raise futile and vexatious objections to granting any certificate at all.

{{anchor:s18}}Cases may occur in which the testimony of the attending physician may be all-important to prove the competency of an individual to execute a Deed, or a Will, and the welfare of a whole family may be compromised, in the event of this physician's evidence being received as that of a <span grade2>layman</span> only, which would be the case if he were an unlicensed Homoeopathic Physician, under the law as it now exists.

{{anchor:s19}}It is a grievance to which the poorer class of the community, who may believe in Homoeopathy, are subjected, that they should when sick, be either altogether deprived of the advantages afforded by the public Hospitals or be compelled to submit to a mode of treatment which they hold in fear and abhorrence. {{anchor:s20}}But if Homoeopathic Physicians were duly recognized by law, the Trustees of public Hospitals would have it in their power to appropriate a ward for the reception of such patients as might desire to be under the care of physicians of that school.

{{anchor:s21}}This report in favor of the petition aroused considerable opposition among the old school; but an Act was passed, some of the clauses of which we publish.

{{anchor:s22}}1. Until other persons are appointed, as hereinafter provided, Duncan Campbell, of the City of Toronto, II. D.; Joseph J. Lancaster, of the Town of Galt, M. D.; Alexander Thomson Bull, of the City of London, M. D.; William A. Greenleaf, of the City of Hamilton, M. D., and John Hall, of the City of Toronto, M. D., shall be a Board (of whom three shall be a quorum) to examine all persons who may desire a license to practise medicine, according to the doctrines and teachings of Homoeopathy, within this Province.

{{anchor:s23}}5. Every person who desires to be examined by the said Board, touching his qualifications to practise Physic, Surgery and Midwifery, or either of them, according to the doctrines and teachings of Homoeopathy, shall give at least one month's notice in writing to the Secretary of the Board; and must show that he is not less than twenty-one years of age, that he has followed medical study uninterrupted for not less than four years under the care of one or more duly qualified Medical Practitioners, and that he has attended at some University or Incorporated School of Medicine not less than two six month's courses of Anatomy, Physiology, Surgery, Theory and Practice of Medicine, Midwifery, Chemistry, Materia Medica and Therapeutics, respectively, and not less than one six months' course of Clinical Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence respectively.

{{anchor:s24}}6. If the Board be satisfied by such examination that the person is duly qualified to practise either or all the said branches of Medicine, as they are understood and practised by Homoeopathists, they shall certify the same under the hands and seals of two or more of such Board.

{{anchor:s25}}7. The Governor, on the receipt of such certificate, may, if satisfied of the loyalty, integrity and good morals of the applicant, grant to him a license to practise Physic, Surgery and Midwifery, or either of them, in Upper Canada, conformably to the certificate.

{{anchor:s26}}8. The Governor may, without any special certificate, grant the Provincial License to practise to such of the above named members of the Board as have not yet obtained it.

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{{anchor:s28}}THE LONDON LANCET ON HOMOEOPATHY.{{anchor:s29}}-In the Feb. number of the London Lancet an extraordinary effort is made against Homoeopathy. {{anchor:s30}}Extraordinary, we say, not because we are unused to such efforts, on the part of our opponents, but, because a Journal so generally elevated in its character, has so far forgotten all logic and all fairness as to make such serious charges upon most flimsy pretexts.

{{anchor:s31}}Having no knowledge of the case, set forth by the Lancet, except that obtained from its own columns, we make no defence for the physician over whose back the blows are aimed at Homoeopathy; nor shall we at all question the facts stated in reference to his treatment.

{{anchor:s32}}Let us look at the premises given, or order that we may more clearly see the monstrous character of the conclusions.

{{anchor:s33}}The Lancet says, a Dr. G., calling himself a Homoeopathist, and practicing at Toronta, Canada, had a case of <span grade2>inguinal hernia,</span> in which he failed to discover the presence of a rupture; that he prescribed simply for the pain, vomiting, &c.; and that a surgeon was called in, who detected the real nature of the disease, but too late to save the life of the patient; that a coroners inquest was held after the death and this verdict brought in by the jury,-"that the deceased died from mortification of the bowels, which T. C. G., a homoeopathic surgeon, through ignorance and mal-practice, failed to discover.{{anchor:s34}}" The Lancet further says, that Dr. G. confessed he had no "license."

{{anchor:s35}}Upon these premises the Lancet opens its article thus:-

{{anchor:s36}}"Once more we have to record a death in the name of Homoeopathy," and concludes solemnly-"No human knowledge can compass the hidden details of the thousand secret catastrophies which have been thus wrought since the introduction of Homoeopathic quackery."

{{anchor:s37}}We know not whether most to pity the ignorance or to laugh at the assumption and folly of the Old Lancet.

{{anchor:s38}}Can it be possible that he has never read the rules laid down by Hahnemann, for the guidance of the practitioner in examining his patients? {{anchor:s39}}Does he not know that an examination conducted under those rules would never allow such a rupture to pass undiscovered? {{anchor:s40}}Has he never read the requirements made, of those applying for membership, in every Homoeopathic Society? {{anchor:s41}}Does he not know that a man is never admitted into them without either a Diploma or a License?

{{anchor:s42}}If he does not know these facts he is more culpably ignorant than is reputable to his position; and if he does know them, he is too fearfully dishonest to bear well his present responsibilities. {{anchor:s43}}How many practitioners, graduates too, of renowned old school colleges, have been convicted of mal-practice? and how many more of them deserve conviction? {{anchor:s44}}Yet we do not charge all their blunders, sins of omission and commission, upon their Alma Maters, nor upon the Societies to which they belong, and more especially, not upon the entire school of medicine in which they have been ranked.

{{anchor:s45}}This violation of logic, this gross absurdity, we leave for those to perpetrate, who are sadly wanting both in facts and arguments wherewith to oppose what they affect to despise, yet greatly fear.

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**{{anchor:s47}}BOOKS RECEIVED.**

<span grade2>{{anchor:s48}}The Homoeopathic Domestic Physician and Travellers Medical Companion;</span> By DR. FERD.G{{anchor:s49}}USTAV OEHME. 12 mo., pp. {{anchor:s50}}165-Concord, Edson C. Eastman- 1859.

<span grade2>{{anchor:s51}}Hints toward Physical Perfection,</span> or the Philosophy of Human Beauty; By D. H. JAQUES. 12 mo., pp. {{anchor:s52}}244-New York, Fowler & Wells-1859.

<span grade2>{{anchor:s53}}N. A. Journal of Homoeopathy;</span> New York, May, 1859. From DR. PETERS.

<span grade2>{{anchor:s54}}British Journal of Homoeopathy;</span> London, April, 1859.

<span grade2>{{anchor:s55}}Monthly Homeopathic Review;</span> London, May, 1859.

<span grade2>{{anchor:s56}}The Homoeopath;</span> New York, May, 1859.

<span grade2>{{anchor:s57}}Allgemeine Homoeopatische Zeitung;</span> Leipzig. Vol. 68, Nos. 16 and 17.

<span grade2>{{anchor:s58}}New Zeitschrift fur Homoeopatische Klinik;</span> Dresden. Vol. IV, Nos. 7 and 8.

<span grade2>{{anchor:s59}}New York Journal of Medicine;</span> New York, May, 1859.

<span grade2>{{anchor:s60}}The American Druggists' Circular;</span> New York, April, 1859.

<span grade2>{{anchor:s61}}Medical News and Library;</span> Philadelphia, May, 1859.

<span grade2>{{anchor:s62}}American Medical Monthly;</span> New York, May, 1859.

<span grade2>{{anchor:s63}}Semi Monthly Medical Newt;</span> Louisville, Ky., May, 1859.

<span grade2>{{anchor:s64}}Maine Medical and Surgical Reporter;</span> Portland, May, 1859.

<span grade2>{{anchor:s65}}British and Foreign Med. Chir. {{anchor:s66}}Review;</span> New York, April, 1859.

<span grade2>{{anchor:s67}}College Journal of Medical Science;</span> Cincinnati, May, 1859.

<span grade2>{{anchor:s68}}The Eclectic Medical Journal;</span> Philadelphia, May, 1859.

<span grade2>{{anchor:s69}}Historical Magazine;</span> New York, May, 1859.

<span grade2>{{anchor:s70}}Tiffany's Monthly;</span> New York, May, 1859.

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====== DOCUMENT DESCRIPTOR ======

^ Source: | The AMERICAN HOMOEOPATHIC REVIEW Vol. 01 No. 09, 1859, page 429-432 |
^ Description: | MISCELLANEOUS. |
^ Author: | AHomeo01 |
^ Year: | 1859 |
^ Editing: | errors only; interlinks; formatting |
^ Attribution: | Legatum Homeopathicum |