CRITICAL NOTICES OP NEW PUBLICATIONS. 143 



A Practical View of Homceopalhy ; being an Address to British 

 Practitioners on the general Applicability and superior Efficacy 

 of the Homoeopathic Method in the Treatment of Disease. By 

 Stephen Simpson, 3I.D., late Resident Practitioner at Rome. 

 London : Bailliere, Regent-street. 8vo., pp. 350. 1836. 



In a subject so deeply interesting as Medicine must ever be to 

 the human race, and where so much depends on the fitness or unfit- 

 ness of the physician or the system he adopts for the eradication of 

 disease, the public ought, undoubtedly, to be aware of the general 

 plan on which they should be treated, and ought to be possessed of 

 knowledge sufficient to detect the quack from the enlightened phy- 

 sician. Thus, however much it may be the interest of the profes- 

 sion to repel any sudden and apparently violent dispersion of their 

 acknowledged theories, it will, in equal ratio, behove the non-pro- 

 fessiojial public to investigate with care any new system — however 

 " improbable and grotesque" it may at first sight appear — that may 

 be propounded. Montaigne very justly observes " levrai n'est pas 

 toujours vraisemhlable" This seems to apply admirably to Homoeo- 

 pathy. The small doses administered by the new school have so 

 startled the routine doctors, that they consider it needless further to 

 examine the method. Indeed, it would appear that the original 

 discoverer. Dr. Hahnemann, has, by his exaggerations and over zeal 

 in the cause, given much occasion for just reprehension. To these 

 extravagancies many of his more devoted followers still adhere ; but 

 others — amongst whom we must class Dr. Simpson — rejecting 

 many of Hahnemann's speculations, and carefully gathering toge- 

 ther facts, have arrived at far more reasonable conclusions. We 

 must ourselves confess, that a perusal of the learned discoverer's 

 books on the subject, made but a small impression in favour of the 

 doctrine ; but a careful survey of the work before us, containing 

 the opinions of many of the most eminent German physicians, has 

 left no doubt in our minds, that the advantages of Homoeopathy 

 over Allopathy are immense: 1st., because the disease under the 

 new method is eradicated in less than half the time that it could be 

 by the ordinary plan ; 2nd., because the copious evacuations and 

 excessive debility — too often the effijcts of allopathic treatment — 

 are avoided ; 3rd., because the action of the medicine is less violent, 

 and consequently allows the patient considerably more ease ; 4th., 

 because the medicines are without taste, and this is especially valu- 

 able as regards children ; and, 5th., because the reduction of the 

 druggist's bill will be considerable. 



These five considerations, if just, are surely sufficient to point out 

 to any one the immense practical utility of Homoeopathy : whether 

 or not they are just, it is the duty of every one to determine for 

 himself. We are of course well aware that the introduction of it 

 will be retarded as long as possible, and that the negative verdict 

 of the family doctor will for a time successfully prevent its gaining 

 ground ; but the opposition will only be temporary, for who can, in 



