The London School of Homoeopathy : a lecture introductory to its first winter session, delivered October 2nd, 1877 / by Richard Hughes.

Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The London School of Homoeopathy : a lecture introductory to its first winter session, delivered October 2nd, 1877 / by Richard Hughes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    attendants who will treat them homoeopathically should be prepared for so doing as thoroughly as their colleagues of the old school for the practice followed by them. They have a right to demand such preparation, and the duty must rest some- where of supplying it. The founders of this School, feeling its obligation, have made provision for supplying the need. I have spolcen thus far in vindication of our institution in the eyes of our brethren of the old school. We are unwilling that they should think iis actuated by any sectarian spirit in what we have done. If men a-ill practise homoeopathically, they surely had best be instructed how to do so to the best advantage; if patients iciU have homoeopathic attendants, let them be able to secure duly qualified men. You will not, and perhaps can not, supply this instruction : do not blame us if we set ourselves to give it. We cannot do otherwise, convinced as we are of the reality and value of our method. By proclaiming the supplementary character of the teaching we give, we shew our desire that all who adopt homoeopathy should be thoroughly conversant with every branch of medical science— that they should even know the pharmacodynamics and thera- peutics of ordinary practice ere they come to study ours. We trust, therefore, that no reproach may come upon us from this side; but that our step may rather win for us the respect always accorded to those who have the courage of their opinions. You would not have thought the better of us if, situated as we have been, we had never set up owx homoeopathic hospitals, dispensaries, societies, journals. We should have been poor- spirited had we not acted for ourselves in instituting these ; and it is for the same objects, and with no sectarian intentions, that we have now established our School. But, alas! it is not only to the profession at large that we have to justify the existence of this institution. It cannot be disguised that it does not receive the countenance of all those who adhere to the system it is designed to teach. Its opponents form indeed, all told, but a small minority of our body, from the great bulk of which Ave receive full sympathy and support. But their existence, however few they may be, is a weakness and a sorrow to us ; and I cannot but face the fact on such an occasion as this, and deal with it to the best of my ability. There are, first of all, a few of our colleagues Avho from the beginning have vieAved this movement with coldness and dislike. They have objected to it as prematujie, inopportune, and so forth ; though without telling us under wliat circumstances the time for it would become ripe and proper in their eyes. They