Letter to the physicians of France on homoeopathy / by Count Des Guidi ; translated from the French, by William Channing.

  • Sébastien Des Guidi
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letter to the physicians of France on homoeopathy / by Count Des Guidi ; translated from the French, by William Channing. 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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    few of our best books in which you will not find bitter complaints in this respect, in the body of the work, in the preface, or at least in the notes. If then, at the period when they appeared upon the stage—Harvey, Bordeu, Bichat, Desault, Baume, Barthez, Dumas and so many others, have drawn upon themselves, de- monstrations of spleen, of unrelenting opposition, of open hostili- ty, or of cruel persecution, notwithstanding their relative superi- ority, or rather because of it; if their names were uttered so late- ly, or never were uttered by their classmates, who thought them- selves their equals, nor by their elders who deemed themselves their superiors, what reason have you to imagine that the Ho- mceopathist will be better treated in the circle great or small, which he shall have chosen] Physiological physicians—for so they style themselves—may sound all their trumpets in the midst of Paris; the hospitals, the presses and the amphitheatres at their disposal, give them ample means of demonstrating to the world, whatever they consider salutary ; and yet have they not just proclaimed through their chief, that their doctrine is far from being dominant around them'? And who is this chief? A man of a superior order, a con- summate practitioner, an able writer, a commanding and con- scientious orator, the favorite of large audiences which have surrounded him for sixteen years. Physiological physicians! Whe- ther your pretensions be well or ill founded—you, at least—you are convinced that the best system of medicine, that which is the most efficient in the cure of disease, is not very promptly es- tablished among physicians, even when sustained by every thing which can assure its triumph. It is not you then who will say to Homoeopathy— Thou hast not made the circuit of the Globe, therefore thou art nothing / Nor will you use this language, physicians of other schools and other opinions, whether in town or country; for have not each of you unavailingly exhibited to your competitors, your neighbors, or your friends, a theory, a process, an idea, or at least a formula, which, whether good or bad, you have con- ceived to be of great importance, and yet have had the mortifica- tion to see it wholly disregarded. Who then will remain to cast this stone at Homoeopathy'? He alone, who having never propo- sed any thing useful, has the honesty thus to avow it. It is not to him that we owe a reply. But why undertake to justify the tardy arrival of Homoeopa- thy among us, when it bears on its front the proudest explanation of the delays of its voyage? The more grand, extraordinary, unexpected is a discovery, the more it must expect to find the minds of men disposed to revolt at it. Copernicus was obliged to conceal his magnificent labors for more than forty years. He dared not, even to the last, hazard the publication of them with- 4
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