Mr. President and Members of the Congress:.
IN proceeding to the discussion of the topic assigned for this occasion I pause to remark that expositions of the varied resources and products of nature and of art have been made in one country and another, but nowhere and at no time has there been one organized so well calculated to show the intellectual and moral, as well as the physical possibilities and achievements of our race, as the one which we are now taking part.
The action of Congress devised by the Exposition Auxiliary for the display of the various departments of science, morality and religion, which aim to elevate and ennoble, as well as prolong, human life, is destined to mark a new era in the advance of civilization on the globe.
The step taken by America, in this Columbian year, toward a more free expression and interchange of views upon a recognized platform, the new beside the old, and the heterodox beside the orthodox, must tend to soften harsh antagonisms and lead on to more united, as well as earnest, efforts for human welfare.
As we approach the end of our Medical Congress, held at this time in commemoration of one of the greatest events noted in history, it is well, in addition to the views and reviews relating to the past and present, to let our mental vision run on before to see what the future has in store for the healing art.
That the condition of medicine and medical organizations is long to remain as we see it to-day is not to be expected, nor should it be desired. Well satisfied as we may be with much in the constitution and resources of Homoeopathy, we yet look forward to what is even better. It is my mission, in the brief address, to speak of some of the better things therapeutic that continued observation and experience may bring. Had I the gifts of a prophet, enabling me to look forward a few decades clearly to discern coming changes, my task would be easy and you would doubtless enjoy a rare intellectual treat.
The Retrospect. -As it is, I must ask you, for a brief time, to cast the search-light of memory back upon the way we have come, and the eye of observation over the fields no occupied by our school of medicine, as we look forward only in the light of the past, calculating what will be from what has been and what is.
The retrospect at the outset brings to view one great fact, never to be forgotten, namely, that the discovery of the Homoeopathic principles was unlike any other discovery concerned in the art of healing, in that it brought to light a natural law, fixed and paramount in therapeutics. It defined the relationship that must exist, between the medicinal agent and the disease to be overcome, in the words Similia Similibus Curantur.
So many have been the changes for the better in the current medical teaching and practice of the world since that day, it is not easy for us to realize the surprise and even consternation that prevailed upon the announcement of Hahnemann’s discovery. What was then feared, in due time became a reality, the knights of venesection, and the cupping and leeching barber, and the blister-spreading and heroic dose mixing apothecary were sent into comparative retirement.
With feelings of satisfaction we look back upon the steady development and spread of the therapeutic system based on the law of similars, especially upon the decided triumphs over such great destroyers life as the Asiatic cholera and the yellow fever. Had it done no more to demonstrate its worth down to this time, than the indubitable records show it has done in the epidemics of those two well-marked and fatal diseases, it would deserve the confidence and esteem of the world.
The reception we see accorded to the new therapeutic doctrine by the medical men of the early part of the century, was hardly such as became scientific men. The attitude of medical journalism was decidedly adverse to its discussion.
Hufeland was the only editor with magnanimity and courage enough to open his pages to Hahnemann. In his journal for 1796 had appeared the dawning of Homoeopathy, the first suggestion of its basic principle. But even Hufeland afterward closed his columns, in difference to the wishes of medical men who were unable to bear the criticisms of Hahnemann, and in obedience to an authoritative medical censorship. And the prevailing policy from that time on has been either to ignore or simply ridicule Homoeopathy. Hence the necessity for journals of our own, through which the new truth could reach the profession and the public, and by which its triumphs could be made known.
But as time went on and the followers of Hahnemann became more numerous, a curious state of things, puzzling to men of the other learned professions, developed in the ethical attitude of the dominant school. Graduates from the old colleges were cut off from fellowship and declared no physicians because they had ventured to push their studies beyond the old curriculum and to give their patients the benefit of the farther inquiry; and some students, avowing their intention, after graduating, to investigate and probably adopt the Homoeopathic method, were refused diplomas.
Doctors with a less complete education and less extended medical armamentarium, assuming an attitude of superiority, refused them professional aid. But the effect of such professional manners, while temporarily embarrassing to the ostracized physicians and their clients, was afterward very greatly in their fever. It led on to the organization of colleges and societies devoted but creditable to the good sense of the Old School-they on the one side looking down with apparent contempt on us of the other, and denouncing us as ignoramuses and quacks, when processed of the same learning as themselves, plus knowledge attacks, calling for organized means of defense, the New School had to contend, in countries, with an unfriendly governmental censorship.
Examining boards with assumed and arbitrary standards, authorized by the State, have had a tendency to keep medical practice in the old ruts, and such will always be their tendency whether called Allopathic, Homoeopathic or Eclectic. And great military establishments with dictatorial surgical staffs and red- tape methods, have always been unfavorable to the careful consideration and ready adoption of new therapeutic measures.
The traditional supply table for the army navy surgeons and for hospitals under governmental control, a have known little change form generation to generation. Considering the influence of great standing armies and of authoritative boards of medical censors, it need not be surprising that Homoeopathy has had to make its way inch by inch, in Germany, Austria, Italy, France and even England. As might be expected the fairest field presented for its adoption and growth has been in America, away from the domination of military medical staffs and arbitrary censorships.
But our retrospect, if it shows obstacles met with also shows advantages enjoyed, in the progress of the new medical philosophy.
We see that among medical men, not alone in this country, those who have been most ready to examine and adopt it, have been the well educated and most enterprising.
Physicians weighed down by an inordinate sense of authority and ‘regularity” or industriously plying their art, as in a tread-mill, never looking or moving about to see what may be found that is better, are not the first to appreciate what is new. And among the people, the very first to comprehend the value of curative methods based on a law of a nature, have been the educated and most cultured classes.
If the old medical journals were closed against us the columns of the public press were not. If unfair representations appeared in the daily papers calculated to mislead the public and create prejudice against our cause, the opportunity was freely accorded for reply and defense. If suits in court were instituted us in our rights. And in matter of legislation where efforts have been made to check our progress contrail our freedom, law makers have listened to our arguments and refused to deal unfairly with us.
The Present Status. -In surveying the present fields occupied by the New School, much is to be seen that is encouraging. There are numerous journals in different countries and different tongues, devoted to the therapeutic measures of Homoeopathy and covering likewise every department of medical and surgical inquiry. More than a score of them are issued monthly in the United States alone. And our colleges, each with a full curriculum, and all up to the highest standard-indeed foremost in the extension of the general course and lengthening of annual sessions, are a source of credit and support to our cause.
In the matter of colleges, the disadvantages imposed by the censorship system of the Old World is very plainly seen. They have prevented charters for our schools, so that we have not to- day a whole school of our own in Europe, possessed of the power to confer medical degrees upon its students. Even in enlightened and liberal England, our school based on the London Homoeopathic Hospital and conducted by some of the very ablest medical men in Great Britain, cannot grant a diploma after ever so much study or upon ever so through and satisfactory an examination.
