MEDICAL SCIENCE IN ONTARIO. 213 



the secular press, the following passage is apropos : " The Allopaths 

 (of course, I use this designation as a convenience, not to express or 

 define a " confession of faith,") have all along professed to despise 

 the other 'sects' as ignorant and dishonest; they are now com- 

 pelled, by the levelling-up process, to admit them to terms of perfect 

 equality. They appear on the same register; they are members of the 

 same College; they are legally entitled to be met by Allopaths in consulta- 

 tion. Should Allopaths refuse, the public would sympathize with the 

 tJieories of the new school against the prejudices of the old. They are 

 entitled to admission to the same societies and associations as the Allo- 

 paths. Should they be excluded, public sympathy would be promptly 

 at their side, as the weak and persecuted. Should they be admitted, 

 they will, doubtless, endeavour to hold up and hold forth the beauties 

 of ' Similia Shnilibus Curantur' and, refusal to discuss their dogmas, 

 by the Allopaths, would be construed as an indication of fear for the 

 result; while, to accept the challenge, on every occasion, would make 

 medical societies bear-gardens, alike demoralizing to the profession and 

 Tinedifying to the public. If the Allopathic body, numbering, as they 

 do, the vast majority of the medicail men of the Province, and possess- 

 ing the only educational institutions, would work harmoniously with 

 one another, and strive honestly for the elevation of their own status, 

 trusting to the march of intelligence and learning, for the extinction of , 

 ignorance and quackery, rather than to Parliamentary enactment and 

 intrigue, public sympathy and approval would far more certainly be 

 accorded to them, and the end they profess to have in view would far 

 more certainly be realized." 



The legal status accorded to the '' systems " of Homoeopathy and 

 Eclecticism, by the Legislature, is without precedent, in any other 

 part of the world. Liberality, Tiowever, frequently degenerates into 

 license. In this case, license to practise physic. The powers entrusted 

 to these bodies to form examining boards, for the purpose of licensing 

 students to practice medicine, was found by the Legislature to be used 

 in a manner dangerous to the public interests ; — the country w|s being 

 flooded, rapidly, with incompetent men, — something had to be done to 

 check, and, if possible, put a stop to this wholesale system of licensing, 

 and, instead of securing this end, by independent means, or wiping out 

 the Homoeopathic and Eclectic charters, the Legislature committed the 

 grave mistake, of " consolidating " the Acts relating to Medicine and 

 Surgery, and of thus coercing men, avowedly holding the most antago- 



