Homoeopathy, as practised in Manchester : contrasted with its alleged principles / by William Roberts.

  • Roberts, Sir William, 1830-1899.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Homoeopathy, as practised in Manchester : contrasted with its alleged principles / by William Roberts. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    66/96 (page 54)
    What do we see in operation around us ? A widely ramified system of proselytism; in which not only medical practitioners, but clergymen, laymen, and even ladies are taking an active part. We see newspaper editors rushing hastily into the discussion ; apparently so innocent as not to be aware, how jealously medical statistics got up for controversial purposes, ought to be received; and so ignorant, that they do not know how completely the conclusions from the statistics of komoeo- pathists have been confuted— [see note]. Note on Homoeopathic Statistics. I have incidentally pointed out at the end of the preceding chapter how irrelevant to the question of homoeopathic treatment, are the statistics published by homoeopathists on cholera: the treatment having been, in fact, in no wise homoeopathic. To those who desire more detailed information on homoeopathic statistics generally, I would recommend an admirable paper by Dr. Gairdner of Edinburgh, in the Med. Times and Gaz., Apr. 3, 1852. He there compares the statistics of Fleischmann’s Homoeo- pathic Hospital, near Vienna, with those of the Edinburgh and other Infirmaries. The following particulars are from that paper:— Nearly the same number of patients were admitted into Fleisch- mann’s Homoeopathic Hospital in the eight years 1835—43, as into the Edinburgh Infirmary in the two years 1842—3. The mortality in the former was 6‘26 per cent., and in the latter ll-9 per cent.; so that at first sight there appears a very great difference in favour of the former; but when the nature of the diseases is examined, it turns out that a very large proportion of the cases admitted into Fleischmann’s Hospital were of a trivial nature; while a corres- ponding proportion of those admitted into the Edinburgh Infirmary were of a very fatal nature; so that the comparison is altogether