A review of Professor C.B. Coventry's introductory lecture : delivered before the class of medical students of Geneva College, session of 1843-4 / by C.D. Williams.

  • Williams, C. D. (Charles Draper), 1812-1882.
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A review of Professor C.B. Coventry's introductory lecture : delivered before the class of medical students of Geneva College, session of 1843-4 / by C.D. Williams. 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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    to the arts of the charlatan, instead of relying on the merits of his pretensions. If this be true, why, let me ask, has a medical book ever been published ? Why does every physician, after having discovered any means of treating his own patients, more successful than that followed by his pro- fessional brethren, at once publish it, if he be honest, and sustain his view of the subject by every argument in his power ? Can we suppose it for any other reason, than be- cause he is influenced by the desire of benefitting his race and of meriting the best wishes, the gratitude and esteem of the thousands who are suffering under disease ? And instead of his being consigned to a companionship with felons, we see honors, wealth and every earthly blessing showered upon his head. But, it is said that regular physicians have be- come Homceopathists, and, having tried both systems, should be competent to judge. Some have asserted, and I doubt not with truth, that they have been more successful than when practicing on their former principles.. For once in his Introductory, the Doctor has confessed that he does not doubt what is really true. For the large majority of prac- ticing Homoeopaths are, not those who from their incom- petence to practice in the old school have left it; but men who, after seeking every advantage of medical schools, and receiving from them diplomas, some even in the very school in which the Doctor himself graduated, and finding how unsafe a guide were the principles on which these diplo- mas certified they were qualified to practice, have abandoned them, and adopted a system whose principles they may fol- low without being led continually into a labyrinth of error. But these are not the reasons assigned by Dr. Coventry: these are not the cases he cites. To escape the unavoidable conclusions which the admission of the above facts would lead to, he affects to explain the manner in which they may be converted. And, first, he supposes the case of a physi- cian whose business has been engrossed by a Homceopathist