per cent. when he employed the common mode of
practice, I am convinced by this, his own statement, that the citizens of
Brunswick, whenever they are seriously sick, take good care not to send
for Dr. Muhlenbein!

It is evidently impossible that I should attempt, within the compass of a
single lecture, any detailed examination of the very numerous cases
reported in the Homoeopathic Treatises and Journals. Having been in the
habit of receiving the French "Archives of Homoeopathic Medicine" until
the premature decease of that Journal, I have had the opportunity of
becoming acquainted somewhat with the style of these documents, and
experiencing whatever degree of conviction they were calculated to
produce. Although of course I do not wish any value to be assumed for my
opinion, such as it is, I consider that you are entitled to hear it. So
far, then, as I am acquainted with the general character of the cases
reported by the Homoeopathic physicians, they would for the most part be
considered as wholly undeserving a place in any English, French, or
American periodical of high standing, if, instead of favoring the
doctrine they were intended to support, they were brought forward to
prove the efficacy of any common remedy administered by any common
practitioner. There are occasional exceptions to this remark; but the
general truth of it is rendered probable by the fact that these cases are
always, or almost always, written with the single object of showing the
efficacy of the medicine used, or the skill of the practitioner, and it
is recognized as a general rule that such cases deserve very little
confidence. Yet they may sound well enough, one at a time, to those who
are not fully aware of the fallacies of medical evidence. Let me state a
case in illustration. Nobody doubts that some patients recover under
every form of practice. Probably all are willing to allow that a large
majority, for instance, ninety in a hundred, of such cases as a physician
is called to in daily practice, would recover, sooner or later, with more
or less difficulty, provided nothing were done to interfere seriously
with the efforts of nature.

Suppose, then, a physician who has a hundred patients prescribes to each
of them pills made of some entirely inert substance, as starch, for
instance. Ninety of them get well, or if he chooses to use such
language, he cures ninety of them. It is evident, according to the
doctrine of chances, that there must be