nerve anybody can prescribe a big dose of bromide, whic simply deadens that nerve and acts as a palliative. Th does not require much skill. How far more beautiful ant scientific is the action of the small dose of drug whis causes the Vital Force to soothe the irritated nerve! He Homœopathy is following the biological law: "To ann given stimulus, thermal, electrical, chemical, protoplas reacts differently according to the dosage of the stimul Small doses encourage life activity, large doses imped life activity, very large doses destroy life activity." course, the boundaries between large, medium and sma doses vary according to the nature and conditions of th living cell experimented on. As an example, arsenic presen in yeast in a strength of 100 stops life activity. If presen in 3000 or 6000 it impedes life activity, while if in streng of 10,000 or even 100,000,000,000,000,000 the life activity will stimulated.* I would like here to quote the followin passage from the recognized Materia Medica of Dr. Ha White, M.D. He writes: "Another law very well exem plified by drugs which act on the brain is that when a dru in moderate doses excites a function, in large doses it ofte paralyses it."

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Secondly. It is obviously illogical to quibble at the size of a dose. If it is found to be curative, that is sufficient The size of the dose will depend on the drug, the type of illness, the individuality of the patient and the degree homoeopathicity of the drug.

A homoeopath may administer (say nux vomica) in it mother tincture, or in medium doses, or in very minut doses, but since he is able to do this he will not, purely for the sake of perversity, choose a minute dose. He choose a minute dose generally because he finds its curative powe greater. To give homoeopaths the attribute of perversely selecting minute doses would be to stigmatize them no only as cranks but fools. All that Homoeopathy require is that the drug selected for a patient develops in health persons symptoms similar to those noticed in the diseas to be cured.

Thirdly. What right have we to say that the remedia action of a drug depends on its weight rather than on th surface over which it acts? We know that matter i indestructible, and therefore even in high potencies there is some of the drug present in molecular form. The numbe of molecules even in a minute dose of drug may be judged

Extract from a work by Dr. C. E. Wheeler, M.D., B.S., B.Sc.

om the following example: "If a glass globe four inches diameter were absolutely empty and air molecules. dmitted at the rate of one hundred millions a second, 0,000 years would elapse before the globe was full."* ccordingly, even in a small dose of a drug there are Tillions of molecules at work.

It is not disputed that molecular action is the basis of tal action. By minute subdivision the countless moleles of a drug have a larger sphere of activity, and thus accordance with a natural law acquire an increased hergy, as may be seen from the power of steam or high xplosives. The molecules appear also to obtain increased otency in the form of energy developed during trituration. The molecules of the drug in this free condition can diffuse hrough the body just as the molecules of oxygen diffuse hrough the blood and tissue cells.

This is the natural law of diffusion. Minute subivision does not entail destruction; on the other hand, it mparts to the molecules power to expand and diffuse through he body so as to reach the very smallest diseased tissue ells. If you will observe these simple and irrefutable aatters of fact, you will to a large extent have conquered ne of the chief difficulties to the proper understanding of ow minute doses are able to act at all.

Fourthly. Everything in nature acts through minute gents. The most solid structure, just like the lightest as, is composed of molecules. What is the size of a ibration of light? Think of the power of a vibration ransmitted by a wireless installation. It is the number f vibrations rather than the size of each which gives the ower, just as the number of liberated molecules gives power homœopathic high-potency attenuations.

Now let us notice the power of minute drugs that we know. The mere scent of asafoetida or of a rotten abbage is enough to cause a sensation of nausea, while he most delicate trace of some perfume may bring back r-away memories, or give other sensations with which we re all familiar. A ball of musk will emanate scent for a ear, and it is difficult then to trace any loss of weight. This tends to show that inconceivably minute particles of he drug from which the scent is produced, acting on the factory nerve, causes an intensely powerful action. Who yould be so rash as to say that the olfactory nerve in he body is the only one sensible to such minute if these effects can

nfluences, and who will den s

* Nineteenth Century, March 1916, "This World's Place in the Universe,"

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be produced in health, they will not be intensified in a diseased body?

A single puff of tobacco might upset a person unaccus tomed to its use; 5000th of a grain of atropine will cause an extraordinary effect on the human eye; a single drop of prussic acid will cause a person to fall dead. What is the weight of radium rays, the manifestations of which are so powerful? The power of these rays on the body is due to their capacity of diffusing right through, and is not due to their weight, which the most delicate scale would fail to record were it a million times more delicate.

The weight of poison introduced into the body by the legs of a centipede, the sting of a scorpion, the bite of a tarantula, or in the saliva of a mad dog is not great, but it will diffuse through the system and often set up fever in a healthy person, while it may kill a sickly one. Why? then should a greater weight of medicine be required to cure a disease that may be originated by such a minute dose ?

But when we are called on to decide whether small doses are capable of producing a beneficial effect, and if we are not prepared to investigate for ourselves, then at all events the evidence of those who have personally tested. the matter is deserving of more confidence than the asser tions of those who have not so tested them. This is fundamental principle of evidence accepted in all our court of justice. Negative assertions are of equal value to those of unbelievers a few years ago who said that wireles telegraphy and telephony or telephotography were possible freaks of the imagination.

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Second objection: That if there were anything in th system it would by now have made greater progress civilized countries.

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As a matter of fact, Homœopathy has spread consider ably, and in America there are over 10,000 qualified pra titioners. The medical authorities there, with approval the State, permit and encourage joint Homoeopathic an Allopathic Medical Colleges, which work side by side unde the same Senate and continue research along two differen lines. Can we in England afford to treat with scorn theory which has been officially entertained and given a honourable position in the United States, Holland and elsewhere?*

* Recently I had the pleasure of listening to some lectures on Homoeopath given by a professor at the University of Geneva. He was not fiercel denounced as heretic.

In England Homoeopathy has certainly spread less, and probably some of the reasons are:

(a) That we are a conservative race and in many things slow to start.

(b) There has been the greatest opposition to Homœopathy, just as there has been to every new scientific discovery since the world began. For instance, there was great opposition to the theory that the world moved round. the sun. When Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood, he and his followers were called by the opprobrious term of "Circulators" by their brother doctors. There are other instances without number. Hahnemann, the founder of Homoeopathy, was persecuted and driven as an exile from Saxony, yet now the city of Leipzig, from which he was banished, contains a bronze statue in his memory. (c) The prestige of the Old School and the livelihood of druggists and chemists is seriously threatened by the introduction of Homoeopathy and the use of small doses. It is always difficult to make progress against vested interests. (d) If an allopath becomes converted to Homœopathy, he is discredited by the Medical Council, although he acts from conscientious motives, after due trial of both systems, and often at pecuniary loss, since at present the majority of people go to allopaths. Such a doctor's articles, although they may have been willingly accepted before, will no longer find any place in a medical journal. It is curious logic that makes the articles of a person who is conversant with both systems less meritorious than the articles of the same person when he was only acquainted with one system. The allopathic medical journals naturally act as they please, but my point is that such secret methods and repression of truth restrain temporarily the spread of Homœopathy.

(e) It is difficult to get any newspaper to print an article on Homœopathy, because it is not yet popular. It would be like a Liberal paper extolling a Unionist, or vice versa. The ostensible reason for not printing homeopathic articles is that it would be teaching the people wrong and vicious principles. The value of publicity in other matters is not contested, but Homœopathy is an exception. It is too dangerous altogether, and yet they say it is nothing.

Third objection: That orthodox allopathic doctors have proved the system and found it wanting.

With regard to this point there are several matters to

notice,

(a) Many allopathic doctors have told me that in lectures

at medical colleges Homœopathy is held up to ridiculeist and they therefore know it is nonsense. The result is that they are prejudiced against it from the start. More experi enced doctors, who have learnt that there are many extra ordinary and at present inexplicable facts in this world how are generally far less sweeping in their statements, but few entirely lose this prejudice imbibed in their youth. A do

To ask allopaths to examine the merits of Homoeopathy is comparable to sending a Protestant missionary to investi gate the merits of Buddhism, or asking a Cabinet Minister to confess that his Government ever made an error judgment. But Homœopathy, by virtue of its truth, not afraid of investigation even by a committee of allopaths provided that there was one absolutely disinterested civilian as president and one homœopathic doctor was on the commission.

(b) It is true that certain capable, conscientious allopaths have tried homoeopathic methods of treatment and have recorded their failures, but is that any more wonderful than a blacksmith who is accustomed to wield a heavy hammer failing in his endeavours to put a hair-spring in a small gold watch? As the Persian poet Sadi said: "For some purposes a long spear is advisable, but for others a fine needle," and because an allopath dabbles in Homoeopathy without fully understanding the subject, and fails to obtain successful results, there is no adverse conclusion to be drawn. On the other hand, I have never heard of 8 conscientious allopath who has studied the methods and results of a homoeopathic hospital for a year and taken ful notes and then given an adverse opinion.

Most allopaths who really study Homœopathy adopt themselves and become discredited.. Their articles to medica journals are not printed because they are no longer orthodox so they cannot expound the truth. There is practically nobody left who can write, because if a homoeopath write he is accused of having an axe to grind, self-advertise

ment, etc.

Fourth objection: That only the weak-minded believ in it, and such cures as are achieved are purely faith cure With regard to this objection, perhaps the two best known believers were Lord Beaconsfield and Whately thi logician. The latter was logical except in becoming homœopath, but he did not give up his original belief withou a struggle.

First, his daughter was Whately said it was a