While Thompson was an illiterate man, Hahneman was an educated man; and, if the making of many books is a proof of learning, then he was a learned man. Thompson’s Materia Medica is but a single little book; but Hahneman’s Materia Medica fills six large octavo volumes. Thompson’s theory is rude, and has no air of learning. Its philosophy knows nothing of the modern chemical nomenclature, but reckons earth, air, water, and fire, as elements. Hahneman’s theory, on the other hand, has a long name of classic Greek derivation, is more finely spun, and is learned in its guise. Hahneman has obtained special favor with the refined and learned and wealthy; while Thompson has been for the most part the favorite with those of common minds and limited information. There is one particular in which the two systems differ very widely. Though it cannot be said of Thompsonism, that it has never cured anybody, for it may _chance_ to cure like anything else; yet, in its general influence upon the medical practice of the community, it has been an unmitigated evil. Its influence has been to give currency to the over-dosing, which has been so popular, and so destructive to health and life. But Homœopathy, on the contrary, is doing a good work in helping to destroy the undue reliance upon positive medication, of which I have spoken in the chapter on Popular Errors, as being quite prevalent in the medical profession, and exceedingly so in the community at large. And when Homœopathy shall have passed by, as pass it will, like other delusions before it, I believe it will be seen, that Hahneman had a vocation to fill, of which he never dreamed, and that he has unwittingly done more good than harm to the permanent interests of medical science. FOOTNOTES: [14] It may be proper to state at the outset, that the author has himself suffered no encroachments from Homœopathy, and so has no personal feelings to gratify in attacking it. It has not seemed to find, for some reason, a congenial soil among the hills and rocks of Norwich. Two Homœopathic physicians, (one of them a man of good education, and with favorable adventitious circumstances) have tried to get a foothold among us, but have failed. The author has many friends and acquaintances who are inclined to Homœopathy, some of whom have their little boxes of medicines, and swallow globules, and administer them to others. He is, however, on the best possible terms with them; and Homœopathy is, in his intercourse with them, more a subject for agreeable pleasantry, than for warm or even grave discussion. [15] Dynamic is a word of Greek derivation, meaning simply powerful. Hahneman’s ‘_dynamic_ power’ then, learned as it sounds to vulgar ears, in plain English, is powerful power. It reminds me of a patient, who in her fondness for expletives always spoke of her weakness as a _debilitated_ weakness.