A letter to the President of the Royal College of Surgeons, on the late proceedings of that body, regarding homoeopathic practitioners / by James Russell.

  • Russell, James, M.D., F.R.S.E.
Date:
1851
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the President of the Royal College of Surgeons, on the late proceedings of that body, regarding homoeopathic practitioners / by James Russell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    was urgently wished by the patient, ■ ■i^fe the germs of mortal diseases certainly larger than these doses ? Is it not absurd to ejqDect results from such inert substances as some homoeopathic remedies are ? Sir E. Home once complained to Sir Joseph Banks that the natural philosophers would not give a hearing to some speculations and experi- ments of his about the circulation of the blood, saying the thing was physically impossible. He was encouraged, in a manner worthy of the President of the Royal Society of London,— Never mind whether it be possible or not, if it be true. Speculative impossibilities are daily disposed of. Steamboats cross the Atlantic in defiance of predictions from shallow philosophy; and one navigator sails over what seemed Red Mountains* to his predecessor, having enjoyed a better light and a nearer view. A submarine electric telegraph, retching to France, would have been counted absurd enough some years ago. Competent observers say they have found these substances not inert. Let them be searchingly tested, and their proper scientific place assigned them. _ I regret that, on this occasion, our College, instead of taking her usual place at the head of every generous movement, has followed in the train of other less dignified bodies, who have in various places been gesticulating of late With all the prettincss of feigned alarm, And anger insignificantly fierce. To stand alone. Sir, in our College, as perhaps I now do, is not an enviable position; but I have occupied it before The measures adopted by the profession, Avhen cholera first attacked our city, seemed to me so objectionable, that at a meeting of the College of Surgeons I moved a series of reso- lutions, condemning the steps taken to search out and shut up every one suspected of having been near an infected place, * Arctic Regions.