wisdom, is perfect. The application of it, the work of man, ever imperfect, advances by slow and unequal steps towards that perfection which it never reaches. Hahnemann, possessed of the law of cure, was compelled to adopt some mode of administering it. He, unhappily, we think, selected the globule. Is the globule perfection?

Others, again, will adhere to the globule out of dread of the ridicule that might attend its abandonment. With these objectors we have no sympathy. Had we not been proof against the shafts of ridicule, we had remained an allopath to this day.

"Let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung."

It is not for ourselves, but for the sake of the noble science we practise, that we would remove all unnecessary cause of ridicule. Besides, we owe our opponents so little on the score of encouragement, whilst we have used the globule, that it should surely be a matter of supreme indifference to us, whether they laugh or cry at our relinquishment of it. They should be the deepest mourners at the death of the globule, seeing that such an event would disarm them of the keenest weapon wherewith they have opposed us.

It was a saying of the late Duke of Wellington, “ that those who were good at excuses were seldom good at anything else." Leaving excuses to those who like to take shelter under them, let us follow the Duke's example, and enquire only, what is our duty? Keeping our eye steadily fixed upon this, such minor considerations as what this, that, or the other person may think, do, or say, will shrink into their proper insignificance.

Believing it to be not only a duty we owe to the public, to remove every obstacle that obstructs the spread of homœopathy, but also a duty we owe to our own dignity as the professors of a heaven-born art, to do all in our power to elevate and advance it, we call upon our professional brethren, themselves to discontinue, and to discountenance in others, the employment of a form of medicine, which is at once the stumbling-block and laughing-stock of homoeopathy.

We are aware that the globule has for some time past been gradually falling into disuse, and that the pilule is by some medical men partially, and by others almost exclusively, employed. We know, also, that not an inconsiderable number of practitioners discard the globule in favour of the tincture. But, all this time, the globule is tacitly tolerated. Now, in a movement such as we have indicated, isolated effort is lost. To be effectual it must be active, general, simultaneous. The globule, short as has been its carcer, has taken such deep root, and its branches have spread so wide, that it will scarcely die of mere neglect. Like an ill weed, it will grow and flourish, though it be not cultivated. It is with this feeling that we have ventured to bring the subject more prominently under the notice of our colleagues: firmly convinced, that a calm consideration of it, backed by a careful testing of the practical advantages of the pilule, will not fail to bring those who differ from us round to the opinions we so strongly entertain, but, we fear, have but imperfectly expressed, in the foregoing remarks.

[We have for many years used pilules in the bulk of our practice, and seldom if ever prescribed globules except for infants. But for them they are decidedly preferable either to pilules or solutions. With this exception we should be glad to see globules finally abandoned to the other denizens of the nursery to share the tragical fate of Cock-Robin and be decently buried out of our sight like that eminent nursery hero.-EDs.]

REVIEWS.

Medical Despotism; or, Official Injustice. By the late PHYSICIAN TO THE CRIMEAN RAILWAY EXPEDITION. London, 1856.

THE incidents of the drama unfolded in the above pamphlet are briefly these:

The author, Dr. D. McConnell Reed, held the appointment of surgeon in one of the regiments of the Osmanli Irregular Cavalry, which in medical affairs, at least, seems to

have deserved its name. two foreign medical practitioners were appointed over the heads of the regimental surgeons, to the post of first-class surgeons. Dr. Reed and three of his fellow-surgeons, feeling aggrieved by these appointments, addressed a remonstrance in writing to the Major-general commanding the Irregular Cavalry. The only tangible ground of complaint they appear to have had against the appointments, seems to be founded on the notion that no medical officer can legally serve under the British crown unless possessed of a diploma from a British College of Surgeons, whereas the foreigners appointed possessed no British qualification. As for the other supposed grievance, that the agreement signed by the surgeons on entering the service limited the promotions to higher grades to the actual regimental surgeons, we cannot find anything in the paragraph * of the agreement referred to to justify the idea of any such limitation. We may therefore at once dismiss this ground of complaint as unreasonable. The major-general commanding refused to receive the remonstrance, on the ground that it was illegal.

Whilst serving in this capacity,

Dr. Reed soon had an opportunity of giving practical effect to his notion of the illegality of the appointments complained of. He refused to receive orders from one of the new staff-surgeons, Dr. Kalazdy, and as a natural consequence was placed under military arrest.

General Smith advised Dr. Reed to apologize for his breach of military obedience, and to promise in future to obey all the lawful orders of his superior officers, on pain of being reported for insubordinate conduct. Dr. Reed acted on this advice in a very original manner. He wrote a long letter to General Smith, in which he apologizes for his offence, and promises amendment for the future in the following comical style: "I have the honor to say that I have now come to the deliberate conclusion, after mature

* "Promotions from surgeon to staff-surgeon, or from assistant-surgeon to surgeon, will be made on the recommendation of the inspector-general, merit and good conduct guiding the selection."

consideration, that it is prudent, under existing circumstances, to make a sacrifice of my personal feelings on this occasion, for the good of Her Majesty's service in this part of the world, and to say, what I do not feel, viz.: That I regret having refused to obey the order of Dr. Kalazdy, the staff-surgeon for the time being; and that I hope to be enabled, in future, to obey all the lawful orders on the part of my superior officers, whoever they may be, if legally qualified and duly appointed to their offices by the proper authority."

The misfortune of this apology is, that the passages we have italicized completely neutralize the apology contained in the other words of this extract, and show that Dr. Reed was fully prepared to offer the same resistance to the orders of Dr. Kalazdy as before. Of course such an apology could not be accepted, and Dr. Reed was accordingly dismissed the service for displaying "an insubordinate and litigious spirit."

The next episode in this history is Dr. Reed's application to the War Office for pay as surgeon for three months subsequent to his dismissal from the service, and for reappointment to Her Majesty's service.

To this application he received a reply from Mr. F. Peel, stating that no pay could be allowed subsequently to the date of his dismissal, but that there would be no objection to his reappointment on a vacancy occurring, should General Smith apply for his restoration.

This General Smith refused to do; and thus it happened that Dr. Reed found himself irremediably shut out from Her Majesty's service.

Smarting under the mortification of hopeless dismissal, and the expenses incurred by his brief career as a military surgeon, Dr. Reed rushes into print. Like the soldier, poor and old, of Anna's wars, his loss of place and money

"put the man in such a desperate mind, Between revenge, and grief, and hunger, joined Against the foe, himself, and all mankind,"

that he rails in good set terms against the War Department and the army generally, and Lord Panmure, Mr. Peel, General Smith, and others particularly. Besides the documents relating to the above affair, he gives us many others of an irrelevant character, to some of which we shall by-and-bye allude, all tending to the one object of making out that he is a most ill-used man. He finally appeals to public opinion and christian sympathy to give him funds to compensate him for the losses he has sustained.

Now, from the account we have given, the reader will not be able to discover anything in Dr. Reed's case to command much sympathy, christian or heathen. A regimental surgeon objects to obey the orders of his superior staff-surgeon, on the ground that the latter has been appointed illegally, in consequence of not being in possession of a British diploma, and when called upon to apologize, this regimental surgeon writes what we cannot but regard as a most insolent letter to the general in command of his brigade. He is justly and necessarily dismissed the service, but is promised a reappointment if his general will recommend him. This the general in question refuses to do, and our hero accordingly permanently loses his post and his pay from the date of his dismissal.

It is nowhere stated, nor does it appear, that any objection was made to the foreign gentlemen who were appointed to the post of staff-surgeons on the score of incompetence or want of education, therefore, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, we presume they had proper foreign qualifications and were competent medical officers. We have no sympathy for the narrow spirit that would object to the appointment of competent men, merely because they did not happen to possess British diplomas, while probably the diplomas they actually possessed were indicative of at least as good an education as that of their objectors. More especially does this pipe-clay exclusiveness ill become one like Dr. Reed, who elsewhere claims to be considered a civilian practitioner, and therefore not to be restrained within the narrow limits of military routine. It displayed, we think, singular bad taste to squabble