ntelligence knows that it is a mere
form granted or denied according to the general principles of policy
adopted in different states, or the degree of influence which some few
persons who have adopted it may happen to have at court. What may be
the value of certain pompous titles with which many of the advocates of
Homoeopathy are honored, it might be disrespectful to question. But in
the mean time the judicious inquirer may ponder over an extract which
I translate from a paper relating to a personage well known to the
community as Williams the Oculist, with whom I had the honor of crossing
the Atlantic some years since, and who himself handed me two copies of
the paper in question.

"To say that he was oculist of Louis XVIII. and of Charles X., and
that he now enjoys the same title with respect to His Majesty, Louis
Philippe, and the King of the Belgians, is unquestionably to say a great
deal; and yet it is one of the least of his titles to public confidence.
His reputation rests upon a basis more substantial even than the
numerous diplomas with which he is provided, than the membership of the
different medical societies which have chosen him as their associate,"
etc., etc.

And as to one more point, it is time that the public should fully
understand that the common method of supporting barefaced imposture
at the present day, both in Europe and in this country, consists in
trumping up "Dispensaries," "Colleges of Health," and other advertising
charitable clap-traps, which use the poor as decoy-ducks for the rich,
and the proprietors of which have a strong predilection for the title
of "Professor." These names, therefore, have come to be of little or
no value as evidence of the good character, still less of the high
pretensions of those who invoke their authority. Nor does it
follow, even when a chair is founded in connection with a well-known
institution, that it has either a salary or an occupant; so that it may
be, and probably is, a mere harmless piece of toleration on the part of
the government if a Professorship of Homoeopathy is really in existence
at Jena or Heidelberg. And finally, in order to correct the error of any
who might suppose that the whole Medical Profession of Germany has long
since fallen into the delusions of Hahnemann, I will quote two lines
which a celebrated anatomist and surgeon (whose name will occur again in
this lecture in connection with a very pleasing letter) addressed to the
French Ac