307

122

331

171

44

7

THE NEW ENGLAND MEDICAL GAZETTE, VOL. XVII.

It seems but a little time since the first number of the first volume of this journal went to press. Already its volumes fill a long shelf, and a review of its original and selected articles would exhibit a favorable comparison, both in quality and manner, with those of any other medical journal published. With deep regret we are compelled to announce that the able editor who, for the past three years, has held the sole editorial management, is obliged to relinquish a great part of that work; but at the same time he joins in an association of physicians which will unitedly perform the editorial work, and will, we trust, bring to the pages of the GAZETTE a freshness, clearness, and vigor that will make it more than ever valuable.

While it will be our aim to do our work well, let us remind our readers that they have it in their power to add greatly to the value of the journal by a cordial and thoughtful assistance. No especial changes will be made in the form or in the opinions of the GAZETTE. While we shall welcome to its pages all facts and experiences which will tend to elucidate doubtful points in medicine, and shall allow the greatest latitude in the opinions herein expressed, we shall endeavor to avoid, as far as possible, the vague and illogical theories and personal polemics which weaken rather than aid our progress.

*

HOMEOPATHIC INSANE HOSPITAL.

PETITIONS are in circulation throughout the State, asking that homoeopathic treatment may be accorded to the inmates of insane asylums when desired. With four hundred physicians of our school in the State of Massachusetts, and the tens of thousands of citizens who use only this method of treatment, it would seem that a petition from them in a matter of such evident justice should not be unheeded by the Legislature of the State. But as all reforms need to be urgently and persistently pressed in order to be successful, so this will require the earnest effort of all our friends. Let the petition be circulated at once in every quarter. Even citizens who employ only allopathic treatment for themselves when sick should be willing to allow homopathic treatment to those who prefer it; and many such would sign the petition if asked. The assistance of the press, the clergy, and of all philanthropic people should be secured in this matter. A few days of earnest work given to this subject may obtain in Massachusetts an asylum for the insane which, like that of New York, shall be a credit to the profession, an honor to the State, and a lasting benefit to the people.

*

"DEATH OF HOMEOPATHY."

It is now just forty years since that delightful poet and quasi physician, Oliver Wendell Holmes, gave to the Boston public two lectures on "Homoeopathy and its Kindred Delusions." In these lectures homoeopathy was denounced as the most absurd of all medical delusions; and the prophecy was then made that it would be short-lived, and that “not many years can pass away before the same curiosity excited by one of Perkins's Tractors will be awakened at the sight of the Infinitesimal Globules. If it should claim a longer existence, it can only be by falling into the hands of the sordid wretches who wring their bread from the cold grasp of disease and death in the hovels of ignorant poverty." Thirty years passed away, and in 1872 the "lifeless delusion," as Holmes called it in 1842, had become a power in the land. Its practitioners were numbered by thousands, and its believers by hundreds of thousands. In Boston it had a dispensary for the sick