211 MEDICAL SCIENCE IN ONTARIO. 



nistic principles, to sit together in the same Council, and register their 

 names, without distinction, as members of the same College. Now, 

 to my mind, it is as wrong in principle, if not in degree, to coerce the 

 different ''schools" in medicine, into a distasteful union, as it would 

 be for the Legislature to attempt to compel religious bodies, differing 

 from one another, to meet together, in a common Synod, for united 

 ecclesiastical legislation for the spread or propagation of diverse religious 

 systems. The influence such legislation may be expected to exert, on 

 the future of the medical profession, in Ontario, if not repealed, is easily 

 foreseen. The twenty-fifth section of the Act provides that, students 

 who elect to be registered as Homoeopathic or Eclectic practitioners, 

 " shall not be required to pass an examination, in either Materia Medica, 

 or Therapeutics, or in the Theory or Practice of Physic, or in Surgery 

 or Midwifery, except the operative practical parts thereof, before any 

 examiners other than those approved of by the representatives in the 

 Council of the body to which he, (or they) shall signify his, (or their) wish 

 to belong." Thus, the old Homoeopathic and Eclectic boards are not 

 only perpetuated, but they are placed in a position to hold out a bribe 

 to incompetency. And the bait of a short curriculum and an easy 

 examination, — partly beyond the control of the central board — may be 

 safely calculated to catch numbers of student recruits, particularly as 

 their registration makes them members of the same College of Physi- 

 cians and Surgeons, as those passing the higher examination. I know 

 it is said by these bodies that they are persecuted by the " old school," 

 because they have, or claim to have, the support of influential members 

 of the community, and, indeed it may be true that they have such 

 support, for, however, strange it may appear, it sometimes happens 

 that a clergyman, for example, who has great doubt about the exact 

 nature and bounds of his own religious creed, has none whatever about 

 his medical one, and a lawyer, who, if asked for a legal opinion would 

 take a week's examination of musty authorities, before venturing to 

 give it, will sometimes undertake to decide the relative merits of differ- 

 ing "schools," in the difficult science of medicine, without a moment's 

 hesitatifln. The opinions of such men may indicate a perverse prefer- 

 ence for whatever is either eccentric or heterodox, but, however strongly 

 they may appeal to the prejzidices, they make no impression on the 

 judgment of mankind. And, besides, such support is, generally, of the 

 most fickle and unstable description. The first fiery ordeal to which 

 the " beautiful theory " is subjected, dissipates the clergyman's faith, 



