Who, which, what and wherefore, or, A few facts for the homoeopathic profession.
- Date:
- 1860
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Who, which, what and wherefore, or, A few facts for the homoeopathic profession. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![In the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin and the Evening Journal of March 1st, and in the Public Ledger of March 2d, appeared a notice of the Twelfth Annual Commence- ment of the Homoeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania, and also the following : CAKD To the Homeopathic Profession. Gentlemen:—The undersigned, candidates for the Degree of Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Homoeopathic Medicine, have been black-balled. Actuated by the holiest attributes of our common nature, honor and filial duty, we ask a suspension of opinion until the cir- cumstances are presented to the profession. (Signed) Samuel A. Jones, Jacob Reed, Jb. Philada., March 1st, 1860. The purpose of this paper is the presenta- tion of those circumstances. Between the dates February 19 and 25, S. A. Jones, J. Reed, Jr., and F. H. Ehrmann, submitted themselves to the regular examin- ations for the degree of the above-mentioned College. The method of balloting in this institution is, that each professor shall cast five balls ; that twenty-five white balls is the smallest number entitling the candidate to a degree, and that less than twenty of the same color, shall prevent the recipient from entering that realm of felicity yclept The Omnibus Class, i. e. being again examined, but in the presence of and by all the chairs. The candidates, S. A. Jones, J. Reed and F. H. Ehrmann received each eighteen white balls, and as the chairs are seven, and the votes of each five, we received seventeen black balls. These votes were cast as follows: Jacob Beakley, M.D., Prof, of Surgery, five black; John Redman Coxe, Jr., M.D., Prof, of Homoeopathic Institutes, Pathology and the Practice of Medicine, five black; Isaac M. Ward, M.D., Prof, of Obstetrics, Diseases of Women and Children, and Medi- cal Jurisprudence, five black; M. Semple, M.D., Prof, of Chemistry and Toxicology, two black and three white. [We do not say we are exactly struck by the somewhat significant correspondence between our respective votes from Professrs Beakley, Ward and Coxe; still we may be pardoned if we happen to consider it rather peculiar. ] Thus after six days of that agreeable suspense common to examination week, during which period the vis circumstancice quarrelled with the vis vitce, and played sundry scurvy tricks upon those portions of our individual anatomies known as Nervous System and Digestive Apparatus, producing the consequent depression of spirits; after this time we found ourselves black-balled. I more than half suspect we were bad boys, for, upon hearing the result of the ballot, observing the coincidence in the number of our votes, and finding out beyond doubt who had favored us with blackies, we endorsed Hamlet's remark : There's some- thing rotten in Denmark, exception being only taken with regard to the geography. On the morning of February 27th, S. A. Jones, J. Reed, Jr.,and F. H. Ehrmann waited upon the Hon. A. V. Parsons, President of Board of Managers of the Homoeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania, and pre- sented the following protest, which the Honorable President submitted to the gentlemen of the Board on the evening of the same date. To the Honorable the President and the Gentle- men of the Board of Managers of the Homoeopathic Medical College of Pennsyl- vania. Gentlemen :—We, the undersigned, Ma- triculants of the Homoeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania, request the Degree of Doctor of Medicine from the Honorable President and Board of ^Managers, and for the following reasons: We have complied with the requisitions demanded of the candidates for the Degree of Doctor of Medicine according to the Regulations of the College. We have broken no law, violated no regulation, infringed upon no privileges. Our course of study has been of the required length of time, our tickets are of the required number, and in this respect we are entitled to the Degree of Doctor of Medicine. Our examinations before each Professor were of such a character as to entitle us to a number of votes sufiicient to secure the Degree; and we were assured that our examinations were satisfactory by the very ones who we believe black-balled us. We believe, know, and are prepared to shoiv, that we have been foully dealt with, and that threats have been uttered which will prove that we were rejected from personal motives. We are prepared to show that the cause of our rejection is in the following : In the early part of the present course a feeling of dissatisfaction was entertained with regard to the manner in which Profes- sors Beakley and Coxe performed the duties devolving upon them as the incumbents of the chairs of Surgery and the Practice of Medicine. This dissatisfaction was not confined to second course students, but was ex- pressed by the majority of those attending their first session. A number of candidates for graduation, not fearing the powers that be, not bound by the chains of policy, nor intent only upon getting a degree, did](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2116387x_0004.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
