nd what more could they do? The boycott was evidently redoomed to failure.

At the Wagons-lits Hotel, such signs of change as one bserves are suggestive of Europe in the melting-pot rather an of China in transition. At the Saturday-night dances, here diplomacy unbends, one sees a sprinkling of Chinese, nd now and then some spirit bolder than the rest will efy his ancestral gods by "posturing with a female to e sound of horns"; but the crowd of jazzers (far more umerous than in pre-war days) seems to be chiefly composed Americans, most of them good, healthy-looking youngsters the clean-run breed that one finds now in many an Lutpost of the Standard Oil, the British-American Tobacco b. and the Y.M.C.A. It was, of course, to be expected hat American interests in China would rapidly expand uring the first four years of the war, and before the States Fame into the struggle; nevertheless, some of the manistations of this expansion are surprising, and one does ot get used to them very readily, because all one's memories Peking are somehow opposed to the idea that haste and ustle can ever be possible within these old grey walls. the same way one cannot get quite accustomed to the lent places that used to be humming hives of German ctivity in these parts; there is something almost ominous the solitudes that were the Legation and the DeutschAsiatische Bank.

The stretch of the city wall which lies between the Chienmên and the Hata Gate, ever memorable for the egations' grim struggle with the Boxers, remains, as of ld, the spot where the foreigner takes his constitutional dignified, seclusion, no Chinese being allowed to intrude hereon. Here, of an afternoon, you may see the pillars many States discussing the destinies of nations and the test gossip of the diplomatic world. Beneath, the distant spect of the city with its wide expanse of low buildings creened by trees, where the yellow roofs of the Palace nd the great towers of the main gates glisten and glow in he setting sun, is much the same scene as the European gazed upon

line

camped yonder on the Anting plain. Close under the wall, to the southward, the canal runs, as of yore, still flanked by garbage heaps, stinking to heaven; beyond the railway you may catch a glimpse of camel-trains, slowly wending their wonted way towards the western hills. the Chienmên quarter rises the vague murmur of innumerable buyers and sellers,

when first the armies of the Western b

From the marts and markets 4

HOMEOPATHY: A PLEA FOR INQUIRY

There is a principle, which is a bar to all information, which is proof Chainst all argument, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting chorance: this principle is contempt prior to investigation.-SPENCER.

ANY thousands of gallant men have been invalided on count of chronic disease caused by wounds, sickness or ervous troubles contracted in the various campaigns in hich they have been engaged. I write for the benefit of ese, some of whom may remember this article in days to me, after they have exhausted every effort in their tempts to get cured.

It is not likely that they will try Homœopathy before hen, because it is very difficult to shake off the preconeived ideas with which one was brought up, and also ecause it is hard to swim against the stream. In In many stances their efforts to get cured on the ordinary lines ill fail, and then some may avail themselves of this omparatively new school of medicine, and obtain from it. he same advantages which I and thousands of others have btained, I write especially for chronic invalids. Acute isease is generally simple to treat, and a very high perentage of cases recover, whereas in chronic disease a very igh percentage remain uncured.

Many people will wonder how it is possible to believe a doctrine like Homœopathy. I admit in my ignorance laughed it to scorn at one time, and was only convinced y slow degrees, the manner of which I now proceed to elate.

I had been under orthodox allopathic treatment for ome seven years, and had taken advice from several pecialists in London, but I was gradually getting worse, ad become an absolute wreck, and was told I was incurable. By chance I heard of a doctor who did wonderful cures, and ecided to try him. About the same time certain articles "X" appeared in Truth on Homœopathy and attracted good deal of attention. These articles were entitled Killing and Curing," and strongly influenced my giving trial to Homœopathy.

I went to "X" in a sceptical frame of mind, but I began seriously to think when I saw in the waiting-room patients all of whom were suffering from what are known as incurable diseases, and who had spent many years in searching for cure by the recognized methods. This made

me wonder whether the recognized methods were so in fallible as I had been brought up to believe.

Being interested, I conversed with some of them on different occasions, and I did not meet one who had no obtained real benefit from the homoeopath. I have ha the same fortunate experience, and although I do not ye claim a complete cure, I do claim that my health absolutely different to when I started homoeopathic treat ment, and I attribute the retarded cure to the following facts:

1

(a) My trouble had been pronounced incurable by all the specialists I had visited, and was of very old standing (b) had to leave England, and could only continu treatment by correspondence for a short time.

(c) I have lived in unhealthy climates since.

There are certain points about this doctor to which would like to draw attention. Firstly, he never adver tised, but secured all his patients by recommendation from those he had cured. Secondly, there was no sign on hi door to show that he was a doctor, and he lived in a neigh bourhood not used by doctors. Thirdly, he only took up chronic cases, i.e. cases which are most intractable t treatment.

Each drug he gave was given singly and not in a mixture so one could say exactly what it was and what its effec should be. He was just utilizing two simple but inflexibl laws of Nature. These laws are "Action and reaction an equal and opposite" and its corollary, "Likes are cured by likes."

If you ask people what Homœopathy is they will reply "It is just nothing," or "It is the method of giving in finitesimal drugs," or It is a hair of the dog that bit you. This last reply, although intended as a joke, contains mor truth than its propounder is generally aware of. It has similar idea to Homœopathy, and has the same idea a that underlying the curative treatment by inoculation fo rabies or tubercle and the prophylactic treatment b vaccines for plague, cholera, enteric, etc. In fact, it i impossible to resist the conclusion that all vaccine and inoculation treatments owe their power and efficacy to the fact that they are based on the homoeopathic Law o Similars. At least, it will not be denied that they are on the principle of Homoeoprophylaxis.

Everything in Nature has two opposite effects. If person takes too much alcohol, the next day he is likely to feel rather a wreck. The reason is that alcohol is pri

༣

66

arily a stimulant, and its secondary effect must be in the posite direction. Again, if you take a large dose of ecacuanha you will get violently sick, but a small dose ops sickness. This does not mean that ipecacuanha will hop op every form of sickness, but it will stop those forms to hich it is similar. And every doctor will admit this. is unnecessary to multiply examples, because in Nature rule is always general and does not act by exceptions. Now, Homoeopathy is based on a simple natural law of etion and Reaction, and this law, being fundamental, is changeable. It is quite useless for people who have ver tested the truth of this law to say: It cannot be because I do not understand it." me The point may be easier to follow if you remember that mœopathic treatment does not cure by the direct action ta the drug, but by the stimulation of the vital force by le drug to act in the direction necessary for cure. A drug given, and the Vital Force says to it: "What business ve you here poisoning my body? There is nothing atural about inserting poisons into my system, so out ou go." And in expelling the drug and the symptoms duced thereby, the Vital Force acts towards the expulsion the disease which has the same symptoms.

.

Exactly the same action is noticed in vaccine treatment. he dead bacilli injected do not cure the disease by their pecific virtue. Their function is to stimulate the Vital Force act in a direction adverse to the poisons set up by the

isease.

The main objections I have heard to Homoeopathy are: (a) Smallness of dose.

(b) That if there were anything in the system it would y now have made greater progress in civilized countries. (c) That orthodox allopathic doctors have examined and roved the system and found it wanting.

(d) That only the weak-minded believe in it, and such res as are achieved are purely faith cures.

I now proceed to discuss these matters separately.
First objection: Smallness of dose.

Firstly. It is a mistake to say that the dose has anyhing to do with the principle of Homœopathy. The dose hay be big or small, provided that the drug is selected on he Law of Similars. Generally speaking, small doses are ven, because we do not wish to break down the Vital force by a poisonous drug. We wish to stimulate this force by the natural reaction, and therefore a small dose 8 found preferable. For instance, to soothe an irritated