having
drawn the portrait of defunct Perkinism, with its five thousand printed
cures, and its million and a half computed ones, its miracles blazoned
about through America, Denmark, and England; after relating that forty
years ago women carried the Tractors about in their pockets, and workmen
could not make them fast enough for the public demand; and then showing
you, as a curiosity, a single one of these instruments, an odd one of a
pair, which I obtained only by a lucky accident, so utterly lost is the
memory of all their wonderful achievements; I believe, after all this, I
need not waste time in showing that medical accuracy is not to be looked
for in the florid reports of benevolent associations, the assertions
of illustrious patrons, the lax effusions of daily journals, or the
effervescent gossip of the tea-table.

Dr. Hering, whose name is somewhat familiar to the champions of
Homoeopathy, has said that "the new healing art is not to be judged
by its success in isolated cases only, but according to its success in
general, its innate truth, and the incontrovertible nature of its innate
principles."

We have seen something of "the incontrovertible nature of its innate
principles," and it seems probable, on the whole, that its success in
general must be made up of its success in isolated cases. Some attempts
have been made, however, to finish the whole matter by sweeping
statistical documents, which are intended to prove its triumphant
success over the common practice.

It is well known to those who have had the good fortune to see the
"Homoeopathic Examiner," that this journal led off, in its first number,
with a grand display of everything the newly imported doctrine had to
show for itself. It is well remarked, on the twenty-third page of this
article, that "the comparison of bills of mortality among an equal
number of sick, treated by divers methods, is a most poor and lame
way to get at conclusions touching principles of the healing art." In
confirmation of which, the author proceeds upon the twenty-fifth page
to prove the superiority of the Homoeopathic treatment of cholera,
by precisely these very bills of mortality. Now, every intelligent
physician is aware that the poison of cholera differed so much in its
activity at different times and, places, that it was next to impossible
to form any opinion as to the results of treatment, unless every
precaution was taken to secure the most perfectly corresponding
c