Reply to Dr. Simpson's pamphlet on homœopathy, and, Second edition of the letter to the President of the Medico-Chirurgical Society : with a postscript / by William Henderson.

Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reply to Dr. Simpson's pamphlet on homœopathy, and, Second edition of the letter to the President of the Medico-Chirurgical Society : with a postscript / by William Henderson. 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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    instance of inflammation of the lungs ; and in regard to other acute inflammations, we have no data whatever from Allopathy to enable us to form an estimate of its inferior- ity. I may add, however, that besides the diseases men- tioned above, Dr. Fleischmann’s table for the eight years prior to 1844 shews 181 cases of erysipelas of the face, and only two deaths ; 31 cases of inflammation of the mem- branes of the heart, without a single death ; 44 cases of dysentery, and two deaths ;—results which are far beyond the reach of any other known method of treatment.* Dr. Forbes, apparently surprised at the results published in one of Dr. Fleischmann’s tables, yet combating the notion that the cases must have been slight which recovered under what are commonly believed inadequate means, observes, “ It would be very unreasonable to believe, that out of 300 cases of pneumonia, (inflammation of the lungs,) 224 cases of pleurisy, and 1 05 of peritonitis, (in all 629 cases,) spread over a period of eight years, all the cases, except the fatal cases (27 in number) were slight, and such as would have seemed to us hardly requiring treatment of any kind. In fact, according to all experience, such could not be the case. But, independently of this a priori argument, we have suf- ficient evidence to prove that many of the cases of pneu- monia, at least, were severe cases. A few of these cases are reported in detail by Dr. Fleisclimann himself, and we have ourselves had the statement corroborated by the private testimony of a physician (not a Homoeopath) who attended Dr. Fleischmann’s wards for three months.’’*!* And he says of Dr. Fleisclimann, that he “ is a regular, well-educated physician, as capable of forming a true diagnosis as other practitioners, and he is considered by those who know him * Since 1844 the German hospital statistics give us 164 cases of erysipelas, without a death ; 84 of peritonitis, with 4 deaths ; 75 of pleurisy, with 1 death, f Brit, and For. Med. Rev., p. 243, No. 41.