Report of the Hunterian oration, delivered before the members of the Hunterian Society, at the thirty-third anniversary, February 4th, 1852 / by W.J. Little.

  • Little, William John, 1810-1894.
Date:
[1852]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Hunterian oration, delivered before the members of the Hunterian Society, at the thirty-third anniversary, February 4th, 1852 / by W.J. Little. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    certainty that hereafter both sides of the question will be kept before the public; the ultimate result cannot be doubtful:— “ Magna est veritas, ac prsevalebit!” That portion of society which has yielded to the seductions of this quackery will be undeceived, whilst another generation is springing up to imbibe perhaps some new folly, which, in its turn, will share the inevitable fate of Homoeopathy — to be consigned to the contempt and derision of society, as soon as its novelty has subsided, and the halo of mystery which sur- rounds it has been dissipated by the steady radiance of Truth: moreover, the mere multitude of Elixirs vitse, Homoeopathy, Hydropathy, Mesmerism, and other isms without end, must in time bewilder the beguiled, and eventually lead to the regular physician for refuge. The number of the Homoeopathic pre- tenders is said to have increased, yet the interest to credulous or dishonest men to continue to labour in the diffusion of these absurdities must diminish as their number is augmented; and even such men will find that legitimate medicine is equally or even more profitable in a pecuniary sense; when, of course, they will make a virtue of necessity, and return to the beaten path of science and of common sense. The spread of so many quackeries in the present day, even among educated men, has occasioned surprise; yet when the inducements to empirical practice are so numerous, and possess such solid attractions, there is little cause for any astonishment. All educated men are not proof against evil temptations, nor inaccessible to sordid motives. Besides, every system of quackery may contain some ele- ment of good, however much that element may be obscured or abused: Homoeopathy, for example, pretends to cure with globules, whilst the really effective agents which it can wield are pilfered from the armoury of the regular practitioner; and indeed, from this point of view, each so-called system is but an additional compliment to regular medicine, an unintentional homage to that true system of the healing art established by the unwearied researches of devoted inquirers on the basis of knowledge and sound philosophy. Thus each pretended sys- tem is but a gigantic hypocrisy unconsciously rendering, as it