Address on the past and present position of homoeopathy and the duties of its practitioners : delivered at the inauguration of the Homoeopathic Medical Society of the State of New-York, held in Albany, Feb. 28, 1861 / by Wm. H. Watson.

  • Watson, Wm. H. (William Henry), 1829-1913.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address on the past and present position of homoeopathy and the duties of its practitioners : delivered at the inauguration of the Homoeopathic Medical Society of the State of New-York, held in Albany, Feb. 28, 1861 / by Wm. H. Watson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    ADDRESS. The Past and Present Position of Homoeopathy, and the Duties of its Practitioners. Gentlemen of the Homceopatiiic Medical Society of tiie State of New-York :—Invited by the partiality of my col- leagues to address you at the Inauguration of the Homoeopa- thic Medical Society of the State of New-York, it has seemed to me not an inappropriate occasion for directing your atten- tion to the present position of our profession, as contrasted with its past history, and for making a few suggestions in regard to the duties of its practitioners. The period allotted for the life of man has not yet passed away, since Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of our school, first promulgated his discovery of the great law of cure. After an eight years' practice, pursued, (as he writes in a letter to his friend, the celebrated Hufeland) with conscientious attention, Hahnemann had so learned the delusive nature of the ordinary methods of treatment, as to be induced to relin- quish his professional pursuits. For several years he now devoted himself to literary labors and to the study of chemistry-—publishing several valuable articles upon the latter science, of which the most celebrated, a treatise upon poisoning by Arsenic, is quoted as authority, even at the present day, by Prof. Christison, and other writers upon toxicology. In the year 1790, while engaged in translating Cullen's Materia Medica, to his great surprize, he discovered, that Peruvian Bark was capable of exciting upon a healthy subject