Quackery Unmasked/Chapter XII
CHAPTER XII.
HOMŒOPATHY IN EUROPE.
Boasting is the never-failing accompaniment of Empiricism; and wherever it is seen, in or out of the profession, it is a positive indication of emptiness and quackery. The advocates of Homœopathy tell us that their system has already attained a high position in the old countries, and is everywhere rapidly gaining ground. We are told that it is well established in Great Britain, and that among its supporters are many dignitaries of both church and state. Now let us see how these wholesale statements compare with facts of their own showing. This mode of practice, which many people suppose is so very new, is nearly half a century old, having been introduced into Great Britain about forty years ago. There has therefore been ample time for its trial and adoption, if it were found of value. The most extraordinary and persevering efforts were made to introduce it among the clergy and titled nobility, and it was tried in hospitals. Homœopathic practitioners increased faster than their patients, and resort was had to free dispensaries as a means of increasing the number of patients, and giving publicity to that mode of practice. Unremitting exertions were made to introduce Homœopathy into every nook and corner where it might possibly gain vitality.
And what is the result of thirty or forty years' labor in that cause? Great Britain is supposed to contain about thirty millions of inhabitants, and the whole number of regular physicians cannot be less than thirty thousand. The number of homœopathic practitioners, all told, according to their own showing, is just two hundred and thirty, and it is believed that a considerable deduction might be made from that small number. But taking their own statement to be correct, there are at the present time, in Great Britain, about eight homœopathic practitioners to every thousand regular physicians. And with these statistics staring us in the face, we are told that Homœopathy is in a very prosperous condition in Great Britain. We are told that Homœopathy was first introduced among the nobility, that its principal support at the present time is from that class, and that all the middling classes generally adhere to the regular system. The paupers who receive their prescriptions at free dispensaries, neither know nor care anything about medical systems; it is all the same to them, so long as they can be served free of charge. The English nobility are generally above giving their attention to the examination of abstruse medical theories; they are willing to let medicine alone, so long as they enjoy their ordinary health. Some have but little confidence in any system of medical practice, and all prefer those means which subject them to the least inconvenience. The whole truth seems to be, that all the middle classes, who constitute three-fourths of the whole population—all the thinking, reasoning, strongminded, common-sense men of Great Britain, reject Homœopathy;—and that, besides the paupers, it has little or no support except from a few of the higher classes who think it beneath them to think at all about medical systems, and who consequently know little of the merits of any, and are likely to adopt that course which promises most with the least means.
But we are told that the English people are so fixed in their habits and opinions, that it is very hard to introduce any new improvement among them; that they adhere with such tenacity to their established customs that it is only by very slow degrees that they can be induced to accept of newly discovered truths. They have had forty years to examine Homœopathy;—a whole generation has come and gone since its introduction, and we should think that they had had sufficient time to discover its merits if it had any. But is it a fact that this people is so obstinate and determined in rejecting every new thing that is offered them? How was it with the telegraph? How was it with the discovery of sulphuric ether as an anesthetic? and how has it been with all genuine discoveries and improvements? That people have always caught and adopted them with the utmost avidity. Every improvement in science or mechanics, no matter where it originated, as soon as it has touched the soil of Great Britain has spread with the rapidity of lightning over all the kingdom; and inasmuch as Homœopathy, after a trial of forty years, is still sternly rejected, its advocates may well abandon all hope of success in that country.
Again, we are told that Homœopathy is increasing rapidly on the continent of Europe. It is said that Paris, which has a population of one million one hundred thousand, and one thousand five hundred regular practitioners, has ninety homœopathists; that Madrid, with a population of two hundred and sixty thousand, has fifty homœopathists; that Marseilles, with a population of two hundred thousand, has five; that Bordeaux, with a population of one hundred and twenty thousand, has three; and Lyons, with a population of two hundred and fifty thousand, has six. In Leipsic, the birthplace of Homœopathy, according to recent accounts there are one hundred and twenty-five regular physicians, and only two homœopathic practitioners. Hamburg has one hundred and eighty-three regular physicians, and only one homœopathic practitioner. In all the cities and medical schools along the Rhine, Homœopathy has become extinct; and like the smoke of the witch fires which two centuries ago darkened the atmosphere of those regions, the delusion of Homœopathy has wholly passed away. Vienna, with a population of five hundred thousand, and the largest hospital in the world, has more than five hundred educated physicians, and not more than thirty homœopathic practitioners, and this small number is constantly diminishing. The whole of Germany, Switzerland, and Northern Italy, with a population of forty-one millions, and having forty thousand educated physicians, claims to have four hundred and thirty-nine homœopathic practitioners. Yet among all that number there is not a single eminent man, and very few who are in any way respectable. The number of under-graduates that are annually matriculated at the regular medical schools in Germany, is on an average about twenty thousand.
We are told that the French Empress favors Homœopathy: but we happen to know that her attending physician is no other than Baron Paul Dubois, one of the most splendid and most eminent of regular physicians. We know, too, that a few years ago an editor at Naples published a puff upon Homœopathy, and stated that the King favored it, and that he was thereupon arrested for libel and thrust into prison among criminals, from which he barely escaped with his life. There is not a single government in Europe where Homœopathy is held to be anything else than quackery, and it is believed that there are several other kinds of quackery which can count more advocates.
In 1855, the English homœopathists petitioned Lord Panmure to be allowed to take charge of one of the hospitals in the Crimea. His Lordship, in reply, informed the applicants, that although medical service there was very much needed, he could never think of employing them, as their pretensions were so false.
Homœopathy has always strove to insinuate itself among the nobility, and to gain favor with crowned heads. One or more practitioners of that kind attended the late Emperor of Russia in his last sickness; and of this, Homœopathy did not forget to boast. But it was the opinion of regular physicians who were informed of the circumstances of the case, that the Emperor might have been saved by proper efficient treatment. His son, the present Emperor Alexander, soon after he came to the throne, published an imperial edict, banishing forever from all his dominions Homœopathy and all other kinds of quackery, so that now not a single irregular practitioner can be found in all the vast dominions of Russia. This is certainly no very flattering compliment to Homœopathy.
This, then, is the condition of that system of medicine which its advocates say is everywhere rapidly increasing. This is the proud condition to which Homœopathy has attained in the first half century of its history.
The last Homœopathic hospital in England died a natural death last spring. The following is from the London Lancet:—"The last hospital devoted to this delusion in London has closed its doors. It has dwindled down into a 'temporary office' and a 'dispensary for out patients.' We hear much of the success of Homœopathy, and yet the friends of the humbug cannot scribe sufficient funds to support a 'hospital' even at a private house. Like all quackeries it has been supported by the shallow, weak and credulous, on one side, and the charlatan and the rogue on the other. Such alliances are invariably broken when either the eyes of the one are opened, or the rapacity of the other is not gratified."