Homoeopathy. Speech at the Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society; notes on the peculiar theological opinions of some of Hahnemann's disciples; and remarks on the alleged law, "similia similibus curantur" etc., etc / by James Y. Simpson.

  • Simpson, James Young, 1811-1870.
Date:
1852
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Homoeopathy. Speech at the Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society; notes on the peculiar theological opinions of some of Hahnemann's disciples; and remarks on the alleged law, "similia similibus curantur" etc., etc / by James Y. Simpson. 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.

    7/68
    PRELIMINARY REMARKS. In reference to the resolutions of the Colleges and medical bodies alluded to in the preced.ing Introductory Note, it is perhaps right that the public should distinctly understand that the practitioners of Homoeopathy, particularly those in Great Britain, have generally affected and asserted that the doctrines of Hahnemann regarding infinitesimal doses, &c., formed merely additions to and improve- ments upon that system of medicine, which had hitherto occupied the minds of men, and been tested and confirmed by the experience of ages, and were not fundamentally and exactly opposed to it in its principles and practice. Homoeopathists fortified the belief of the public in this misconception by pointing to the fact, that they possessed the same medical licenses and degrees, and belonged to the same medical colleges, societies, &c., as the practitioners of legi- timate medicine. Long, and as I conceive properly, the common law of England and Scotland has been such as to allow to British subjects the most perfect freedom as to patronising or practising any form whatever of medical superstition and pretension ; and the late resolutions of our medical corporations and societies were 'not, therefore, intended to interfere in any degree with homoeopathists continuing to treat all those who applied to them, according.to their own peculiar creed. But the resolutions were intended to show that the differences between the doctrines and practices of legitimate physicians, and the doctrines and practices of homoiopathists, were so great as to render any further intercourse and co-operation be- tween them impossible in the conduct o{'professional matters, and in the duties professional life. Hahnemann himself had long before pronounced precisely a similar opinion regarding the proper relations of legitimate practitioners to homoeopathists, and the impossibility of the disciples of homoeopathy countenancing the doctrines and practices of legitimate physicians, or, as he chose to term them allopaths. A