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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    symptoms similar to those of fever and ague—a disease for the cure of which it had long been deemed a specific. A new light, like that which flooded the mind of Newton as he gazed upon the falling apple, or quickened the intellect of Gallileo, as he beheld the swinging lamp at Pisa, now dawned upon the brain of Hahnemann. With the true spirit of inductive philosophy, he set himself resolutely at work- examining the records of ancient medical writers, to ascertain whether other examples might not be found of remedies which had cured symptoms similar to those which they were capable of producing. He soon found, that the case of Peruvian bark was not a peculiar one, and that the archives of medical his- tory furnished the apparently singular disclosure of many cures, accomplished by drugs capable of producing s}'mptoms. similar to those which had been cured, and administered by physicians who had never dreamed of any such rule of guidance, but yet strictly in accordance with the homoeopa- thic principle. Hahnemann soon announced his great discovery to the world in his Essay on a New Principle for Ascertaining the Remedial Powers of Drugs, with a Few Glances at those hitherto Employed. By the commencement of the present century homoeopathy was fully presented to the investigation of the medical profes- sion. Let us for a few moments glance at its position in those early days as contrasted with its present state and influence. The reception of homoeopathy may best be seen by the treat- ment which Hahnemann himself received. The man who had gained the esteem of some of the first physicians of his time who was distinguished as a linguist and a classical scholar, who was intimately conversant with the Hebrew, Greek, Latin Arabic, Italian, French, and English, who was deeply read in the literature of the medical profession, both of his own and ancient times—the able chemist, the experienced physician was at once charged with the opprobrious epithet of illiterate quack.''1 Medical men took but little notice of the hundreds of patients from every portion of Europe and America, whom his skill restored to health, but every failure was magnified