894

are unconscious of the treatment they receive, and theirrelatives in another land, it may be, know nothing of it, andyet it seems as if the claims of honesty and due respectwere disregarded in this case. It would be well, perhaps,if some of our continental neighbours were to acquire ameasure of that feeling which they call the English " spleen,"and they might then agree with us that a life and death ofsoldierly devotion are at least deserving of a grave.

"HOMŒPATHIC LEAGUE TRACTS."HoMtEOPATjET has throughout had marks of quackery.

One of the most unmistakable is its appeal from the pro-fession to the unlearned. Discarded and discouraged inevery medical society, and in all the universities of Europe,it has sunk so low as to distribute tracts calculated to

impress the vulgar, in which the most ridiculous argumentsare used, and the most unworthy motives are ascribed tothe medical profession. We have not noticed these "l3omoeo-pathic League Tracts" in detail, and we have no intention ofdoing so. One is now before us, and we may take it as a sample.It is entitled "Allopathic Misconceptions of Homoeopathy."and descants on the ignorance of medical men in regard tothe "great" subject of homoeopathy. The most honoured menin the profession, and those whose names stand out con-spicuously as having advanced medical science, are shownto be most hopelessly ignorant of homoeopathic science, or,worse still, of that moral principle which would lead themto do it justice and to fall down and worship Hahnemann !The rank and file of the profession are represented as

abettors of the immoral use of narcotics, and of any theory ormode of treatment that promises to give the doctor more todo ! They adopt with uncritical haste any innovationswhich do not diminish their profits! The germ theory andthe doctrine of the prime importance of subduing painare adduced as illustrations of this immoral credulityof medical men. This is a pretty cool libel of the

profession of Jenner and Simpson, of Parkes andSimon and Lister. Sir Joseph, who has the slightdistinction of having wellnigh abolished erysipelas and

gangrene-in hospitals at least,-and a few other such

plagues, "is" (so the ignorant readers for whom the" Homaeopathic League Tracts" are prepared are told) " nowseldom spoken of." Times must be very bad with homcoo-

pathy when its advocates have to resort to such weapons asthis, and to appeal to an audience that can receive suchstatements. The author of this tract, indeed, admits asmuch. He talks of the flowing tide being with the homoeo-paths, but he says it seems to flozv but slowly in Britainand Europe." So we think. And our homceopathic friendswill find that the great public of the end of the nineteenthcentury is not going to accept a theory of medicine whichinvolves the detraction of those benefactors who havedone so much to relieve the suffering of their fellows.It would be as reasonable to accept a theory of chemistrythat left out the work of Lavoisier and Davy, or a

theory of biology that discarded Darwin and Huxley.The instinct of the public-not its knowledge-keeps itfrom such a fatal blunder, in spite of "Tracts" and" Leagues." This seems the last card of homoeopathy, andit is a veritable confession of failure. No wonder thatG the tide flows slowly" in favour of homoeopathy when ithas to live by traducing medicine and the leaders of medicine.But there is another reason-the exceeding attenuation ofits achievements. Here is its disparity in the conflict withtrue medical science. After nearly a hundred years of

boasting it cannot be credited with one palpable effect. Itis easy to decry the germ theory and the remedies whichrelieve pain. But what would homoeopathy give for suchfruitful and palpable additions to scientific discovery, andto the abatement of human misery and disease as are repre-

sented in chloroform and its congeners, or in the antisepticand germicidal theories of disease, or in the great results ofthe allopathic treatment of hyperpyrexia. The achievementsof homoeopathy are, like its doses, impalpable.

HOSPITAL PROVISION AROUND BRADFORD.

WE have already drawn attention to the somewhat com-plicated position of affairs which has been brought about inthe neighbourhood of Bradford by the transference of theBradford Fever Hospital to the Corporation of that borough,subject to a payment of ;E4000 to be made to the guardiansof the surrounding North Bierley Union for the provision ofsimilar accommodation to take the place of that which willno longer be available. Unfortunately, the guardians arethe wrong body to receive this compensation; whereas noless than seventeen urban sanitary districts have a claimupon it. Under these circumstances appeal was made tothe Local Government Board to advise as to the allotting ofthe money, and as to the best arrangements for meeting thewants of all these districts as regards isolation. The resulthas been an investigation of the circumstances affectingthe district by Dr. Barry, and at a recent public meetingMr. Kennedy, barrister-at-law, was associated with himin conference with the several sanitary authorities con-cerned. The final proposal made is that the seven-

teen sanitary districts comprised within the North BierleyUnion shall be united into four districts for hospitalpurposes, each group to be constituted under a joint hos-pital board, and each to receive towards the commencementof building operations a certain proportion, based on popu-lation, of the .4000 named. With the exception of fourdistricts, the representatives of some of which were unableto make up their minds, the several bodies meeting in con-ference assented to the scheme, and it is to be hoped that aplan so obviously reasonable and likely to suit the require-ments of the sanitary districts involved will not be allowedto fail because of a few dissentients. It was also suggestedthat, at the expiration of two years, any district which hadremained out of the amalgamation and had neglected toprovide hospital accommodation should have its proportion.of the funds handed over to the hospital board exercisingjurisdiction over the area to which it geographicallybelonged-a suggestion which appeared to meet with verygeneral acquiescence. -

EXPERIMENTAL TYPHOID FEVER.

AFTER reviewing the literature of the subject of experi-mental typhoid fever, and after detailing the results of somefresh experiments, Dr. Perret, in the Province Medacale,No. 16, comes to the conclusion that Eberth’s bacillus freshlytaken from the human body, whether living or dead, doesexhibit a poisonous effect when injected into certain animals.The resulting experimental disease, however, does not bear afaithful resemblance to true typhoid fever, but is really ssepticaemia, perhaps capable of a certain measure of attenua-tion, as seemed to be indicated by the recent researches ofPerret and others.

___

THE AUSTRALIAN DENTISTS ACT OF 1887.

THE colony of Victoria has passed an Act to regulate thepractice of Dental Surgery. The measure follows very muchthe lines of the Dentists Act in this kingdom. It provides,says the Journal of the British Dental Association, for theformation of a Dental Board consisting of five dentists andthree doctors holding office for three years, and a DentalRegister is to be compiled. It will not interfere with vestedinterests-that is, all persons practising dentistry at thetime of the passing of the Act, whether qualified or not, willbe entitled to register.