to revolve on its axis undisturbed, and without even an oscillation.

In the Constitutional Convention of the State of New York, a feeble endeavor was made last year to engraft anew a proscriptive policy upon the jurisprudence of the State, and one or two speeches were made upon the prevalence of quackery, the poisonous properties of lobelia, and the unjustifiable practice of a medical college in Philadelphia of peddling degrees of doctor of medicine to whomsoever would purchase their disreputable parchment. But the Convention, by a large majority, rejected Mr. Calahan's proposed section. Again, the attempt was made in the Legislature, under the auspices of old school physicians and homœopathists. How the animosities of the two sects were sufficiently obviated to enable this joint conspiracy to subvert the freedom of the practice of medicine, has not been shown; but let it be placed on record that, for once, in the year 1868, there was an illustration of the old crucifixion episode: "And the same day Pilate and Herod were made. friends together; for before, they were at enmity between themselves." A bill providing for a board of State censors to license every person to be permitted to practise medicine and surgery in this State, was introduced into the Senate; but the individuals who were pressing it found speedily that the ethics of the afternoon of the nineteenth century were not derived from the Star Chamber or the Office of the Holy Inquisition. They were glad to beat a retreat, one which came very near being ignominious.

The evangel of the present period in the history of the world is the freedom of the individual; freedom to worship God intelligently as well as reverently; freedom to adopt vocations without restriction; freedom to entertain and promulgate sentiments which are honestly entertained. Relig ious, political, and social freedom go hand in hand. The pen of Luther disturbed the tiara of the Pope, and the propaganda have not been able to readjust it to the present day. The divine right of kings and prelates has gone with Simon Magus and his money. There is hope for a social

system in which drunkenness and considered necessary elements. participator in all such benefits. must determine its prerogatives.

prostitution will not be Medicine is necessarily a Utility and not statutes

This vantage-ground has been secured by the exertions of Thomsonians and Eclectics. Homoeopathists have offered to strike hands with their natural adversaries, to exclude all others from the arena of practice; while our friends have patiently demonstrated the benefits of their methods of treatment, and besieged Legislatures till the arbitrary statutes of former years were expunged.

But the school of Eclectic medicine cannot long stand or retain public confidence if its practitioners and patrons rest satisfied with these achievements. It is never enough to conquer independence, the benefit must be confirmed by the establishment of proper institutions. The Goths of Spain, the Franks of Gaul, and the Normans of England, despite their conquests, passed away and were absorbed into the peoples whom they subdued; and the medical eclectics of the United States have not yet placed themselves beyond an analogous peril. To be sure, they have improved surgery and revised the system of materia medica, but they can secure no patent for their improvements. The old school practitioners have only to adopt them, and the eclectics, as a distinct body, have no adequate basis on which to maintain a separate existence. Thus far, a bigotry, a vanity, and a malignancy only equalled in religious circles, has precluded this advantage from being taken. The Romanish unwillingness of the old school physicians to employ medicines which were not classed as "officinal," and their pompous affectation of contempt for what they style "empiricism," have kept better informed men from becoming members of their more numerous fraternity. The eclectic gospel will be received, east of the Atlantic, by medical men of all schools, before the bigots of America have well learned its features.

The Eclectic physicians are but thousands, while the old school tells its practitioners by tens of thousands. The City

upon Seven Hills has a similar analogy. The medical colleges of the old school exist in every large village and city; the homœopathists are also liberally supplied with instructional facilities, but the Eclectics have only a single college worthy of the distinction east of the Alleghany mountains. Several have been established, and maintained by extraordinary and unremunerated effort, during the last twenty years, but they have ceased to exist. Has there been indifference on the

part of eclectics to this fact? The very continuance of the eclectic school of medicine is vitally dependent upon its scientific merit, and this cannot be long possessed without proper institutions for the instruction of physicians. Young men will require very strong prepossessions for Eclectic practice, to be willing to attach themselves to a medical denomination that has incomplete facilities for teaching. Ignorance may be the mother of devotion, but the reputation of being ignorant will not enable a class of physicians to sustain respectable position before the public. Before the eclectic physicians of the Atlantic States are the alternatives to maintain suitable colleges for medical instruction, or to be justly regarded by the community as an unworthy rabble of medical pretenders, boorish, untaught, and entitled to little confidence. It is of little use to assail the old school, or publish pretentious declamations against bleeding, the use of mercury and other noxious medicaments. The old school will outlive such pygmian assaults. Medical eclecticism must stand on a foundation of its own, as a distinct federation, and not depend for its propagandism upon the strategy of guerrillas and the tactics of bushwhackers.

There has been enough achieved to know that this can be done. The fact that with an imperfect organization, illiterate practitioners, and a powerful adversary to contend with, the statutes of the country have been expurgated from their illiberality toward "irregular" physicians, demonstrates a power, both social and political, that is most formidable. The growing disuse of the lancet and the substitution of remedies from the organic world for those of the inorganic, evince a subtile influence at work, eating away the very

foundations of the system of "Old Physic." The willingness of intelligent physicians and editors of medical journals in Europe to give the Eclectic medicines a candid examination, shows the further dissemination of the beneficial influence. The Eclectics have also broken down the wall of partition which the modern system of medical ethics had established to exclude women from the study and practice of medicine, and thus given to an entire sex their place in the arena of honorable effort in a learned profession. Valuable contributions to anthropology and other departments of knowledge have been made by members of their school. So there is intellectual capital, scientific and other advantages, robust energy and power of accomplishment enough to warrant the maintenance of a permanent and efficient medical commonwealth.

The friends and practitioners of Eclectic Medicine should therefore take this subject into especial consideration. They have it in their power to assure the continuance of their favorite system of practice in its integrity; while, by indifference and neglect they are likely to contribute to its disintegration and final subversion. The requisite of success is organization. It is high time to make organization perfect.

There has been established in the city of New York an Eclectic Medical College, with full powers and privileges. It has been in operation two years. The instruction which. has been given by it has been as thorough as its circumstances permitted. It will not suffer in this respect by comparison with the Homœopathic and other medical institutions of the city. The student receiving from it a degree will be personally at fault whenever failing in professional success. This College deserves the countenance and support of the friends and physicians of the Eclectic Practice of Medicine. The importance of giving it such countenance and support is apparent to every one. It will enable this department of the profession to be recruited with educated practitioners, able to cope with their Old School rivals, to hold whatever ground the Eclectic School now occupies, and to make new achievements. It is essential to maintain Eclecticism in a

respectable social position. It is vital to the permanency of the Eclectic School as a distinct medical practice. Without facilities for education, young men, will shun association with Eclectic physicians as disreputable; Eclectic medical societies, important as they are to the maintenance of the distinctive school, will languish and finally pass out of existence; and the very name of "Eclectic" will be regarded as synonymous with quackery, pretentious ignorance, and professional loaferism. On the other hand, with a vigorous college annually swelling the ranks of reformed practitioners, the Eclectic profession will command respectful consideration; its physicians will be allowed official recognition, appointed to membership in Boards of Health, and otherwise honored where they are now discarded. In due time, with their regenerated practice of medicine and surgery, their professional skill and their superior culture, they can sweep the field.

Hand in hand with an efficient Medical College, there should be first-class books in Eclectic practice.' There are publications enough, such as they are, already. But in point of literary merit many of them do not come up to the mark. Generally they are defective in style. Many Eclectic practitioners, even men of merit otherwise, are fond of what is called "highfalutin." The advertisement of a quack nostrum too closely resembles the professions of many eclectics. There is also too little acquaintance with the English as well as with the classical languages. I am often shocked and even disgusted with the diction and orthography employed by physicians. To be sure, the Old School physicians are not much better, but they are not the standard. The Homœopathists, more shrewd and observing, take great pains in these respects. Let the Eclectics prepare a set of medical works, exhaustive of the topics treated, finished in their style and erudition, and, what is equally important, perhaps, printed and bound in an acceptable manner.

In the ways here suggested, it does seem that the Eclectic School of Medicine may retain its aggressive character, uphold its distinctive existence, and finally, so far as it is