So far as medical practice was concerned the American revolution has been a pitiful failure. Republican liberty has been and is now trodden under foot, where the power exists, by the average Old-School physician.

The Thomsonian State Medical Society, as early as 1839, concerted measures to procure the repeal of the infamous enactments. The Legislature was besieged in 1840, 1841, 1842 and 1843. But the enemies of civil and medical freedom were dominant. In time the policy was adopted of placing the matter in the hands of men having an influence with members of the Legislature. Petitions were circulated all over the State and then collected into one document of about one hundred and fifty feet long. Over forty thousand names were appended. The reformed physicians who were not Thomsonians had helped. The New York Tribune, then becoming a power in American politics, sustained the prayer. Till Mr. Greeley died that journal was the representative of freedom of medical practice.

Dr. John Thomson wheeled the petition up State street in Albany into the Capitol, where it was presented to the Assembly by Job Haskell, of New York City. He made a stirring speech on the subject, bold, defiant and elegant. Holding Beach's Family Physician in one hand and Elisha Smith's work in the other, he denounced the medical laws. The hall shook again and again with plaudits. Mr. William A. Carpenter, of Columbia piloted a repeal bill through the House; and in the Senate Judge John B. Scott and General Orville Clark were its successful champions. One man, since well known in State politics, Thomas G. Alvord, made his first public record in that Assembly. From that time ever on, in the Legislature and Constitutional Convention, he has uniformly and successfully resisted every endeavor to shackle the Reformed Practice.

As early as 1828 there were three medical societies formed, the members of which generally merged into Eclectic organizations after that name was adopted. There were the Reformed Medical Society of the State of New York, organized at Rochester, with Daniel J. Cobb for President, of which the Genesee Valley District E. M. Society was an offshoot; the New York Association of Reformed Physicians, of which Dr. Elisha Smith was President, and the Reformed Medical Society of the United

States, of which Dr. Wooster Beach was President. Doctors Smith and Beach were rivals for pre-eminence. Both had learned their art in New Jersey, and were, perhaps, equal in merit and ambition. Howbeit, Dr. Smith died in 1831 and Dr. Beach had the field. Dr. Isaac S. Smith organized a society and a college in 1835 which continued about ten years.

Contests of this character weakened the interest of the friends of Reformed Medicine. Two societies known by the name of Reformed Medical Association of Western New York existed for some time. In 1847 they united to establish a medical class at Fredonia in the Autumn, preparatory to entering the Eclectic Medical Institute at Cincinnati, Ohio. The next year a school denominated the Eclectic Medical Institute was opened at Rochester, with Zoheth Freeman, Lorenzo E. Jones, Orin Davis and Benjamin L. Hill for professors. It was incorporated under the law of April 12th, 1848, and had twenty students. Another class of about the same size was also held at Randolph in Cattaraugus County. The next year Dr. S. H. Potter became identified with the enterprise, and the schools united to constitute the Central Medical College at Syracuse.. This was incorporated under the statute of 1848.

The next year the college was transferred to Rochester, and a new one started at Syracuse. Each was sanctioned by a State society. A few years later they united once more, it being understood that the Worcester Medical Institute, of which Calvin Newton was the head, should also co-operate. A year or two later ended the union, and the several institutions, State society and all, ceased to exist. Professors Eaton, Davis and Potter are all that remain of the old-time instructors. The former is delving away as a chemist in Brooklyn; the others belong to the National E. M. Association.

The intinerant body then bearing the name of the National Eclectic Medical Association held meetings in New York City in 1855 and 1856. The principal attendance was from the city and vicinity, and, indeed, many who were present were not very clear as to the character of the meeting, or whether it had any specific relation to a previous body.

About the same time the Thomsonian State Society changed its designation to "Botanic," and the principal Eclectics of

Brooklyn and New York joined it. The "era of good feeling' which was then established included the Metropolitan Medical College, which had existed for a few years under " Physopathic" auspices. So many Eclectics now united that the name was changed again to "The New York State Association of Reformed Physicians." But the truce and armistice led not to lasting peace. Bitter was the dissension which arose betwene the new-made friends. The Legislature repealed the charter of the college, the diplomas of which, however, continued to circulate long after. The society became virtually Eclectic, and in 1863 merged into an association then organized at Albany under that name. One year later the new State society was refused a charter by the Legislature; but in 1865 this was obtained. The Act of Incorporation was prepared by Alexander Wilder, and "engineered" by him through the Legislature. It places the society on the same legal footing as the other societies, and enabled it to achieve organization and promulgate a literature greatly in advance of sister organizations.

It has been a hard contest. The odds were against us. The Old School had the ear of every department of Government, the Church, and what is denominated Society. The Reformer was proscribed, taunted with lack of scientific knowledge, and absolutely shut out from acquiring such knowledge, except on the condition of forswearing his convictions.

What was worse was the difficulty to unite against the oppressor. In the Revolution, Virginia was jealous of New England, and Georgia of both; Hancock and Ward had to give way to Washington, and even John and Samuel Adams were hardly friends. A like bickering and jealousy distracted the dissentients. Samuel Thomson could tolerate no innovation on his own doctrines. Beach and Smith were rivals for pre-eminence when the methods of practice had not been yet fairly defined. Morrow was, in turn, the avowed adversary of Thomson and the Physopathists. The energy of Reformers in New York was frittered away in conflicts between men and factions. The beginnings of Eclectic Medicine were here, but there was no nucleus to hold them. Important as it is-vital, indeed, to our beloved practice-yet the Eclectics of New York virtually threw away their birthright. So little advance had they made that

when the civil war broke out they were without status before the medical and political authorities of the State, and could enter the army only as soldiers, often with their inferiors for their regimental surgeons.

We have been endeavoring to recover the ground. So far, it has been impossible to start anew the old game of proscription. Only in the city of New York is there an exception. There the Medical Colleges hold the key of the situation. A Ring at Bellevue Hospital gives law. Professors, who bought their chairs as brokers purchase seats at the Stock Board in Wall street, exercise a part of the authority of the City Government. But as we know our foes, their arts, their sources of gain, their evasions and violations of law, we have hopes that they will be routed out of their citadel. The pest-place on Twenty-sixth street will not dominate forever.

When we can unite and make common cause, certain of not being betrayed or attacked by professed friends and brethren, we shall be able to clear the obstructions. As goes New York so the Union will go.

OHIO.

BY J. V. LEWIS, M. D., ALLIANCE.

I trust that any exuberance of feeling manifested in the report herewith submitted on the Status of Eclecticism in Ohio may not be interpreted as an underestimation of the achievements of our School in the other States here represented. It is certainly right and proper that we should remark with pride the progress of Eclecticism in this State; for it may be truthfully affirmed that this is the birth-place of Eclecticism as a distinct practice of medicine. Those noble reformers, who rebelled against the tyranny of Allopathy that binds its devotees to the irrational dogmas of the past, like those who declared for liberty in the Declaration of Independence, did not fully comprehend the magnitude of the movement they inaugurated. Acting in consonance with the best light they had on the subject, they endeavored to overcome great evils by the substitution of lesser ones, and thus mitigated the sufferings of the sick and saved life. They called the attention of the people to the murderous power of "calomel and the lancet," and demonstrated that as sanative agents fresh water, pure air

and sunlight are three of the best gifts of God to man, and so far as they went did a good work. But the earnestness of their efforts made them proscriptive, and carried them to extremes. In the fervor of their enthusiasm to strike down poisonous agents they failed to perceive the fact that the toxical effect of a drug is one thing and the curative effect another, determined as the case may be by the size of the dose and the condition of the system at the time of the administration of the remedy. Therefore, it remained for others to direct the spirit of reform to the development of a national and scientific practice, bound to no "dogma," hampered by no "ism," and limited by no "pathy." For this purpose the Eclectical Medical Institute of Cincinnati' was chartered. It is, therefore, the parent school of Eclecticism, and under the management of the present corps of professors, it is unsurpassed by any medical college in the world. The text-books. written by members of the Faculty are acknowledged standard authority on the subjects which they treat. If it were meet it would be a pleasing task to dwell longer on the ability of the distinguished men who compose the Faculty of this institution. But Eclectics everywhere are familiar with their deeds, worth, and honorable achievements. There are many others who have done noble service in the cause of Eclecticism in Ohio, whose names we would delight to mention, but we must be content with the declaration that Ohio is pre-eminently favored with able representatives of the Eclectic School. The Eclectic Medical societies of Ohio are very efficient and creditable organizations; and are yearly increasing in membership. It would be no undeserved encomium to say that they are composed of men eminently qualified for the practice of their profession. All of them are engaged in lucrative business as far as we have been informed. It may be emphatically said that in Ohio there are no Eclectic physicians "lying around loose." Pleasant medicine and rational treatment are telling for the success of Eclecticism everywhere, and in no State is this more evident than in Ohio. It is true that the Eclectics of Ohio are still laboring under some disadvantages. Unjust legislation still props the tottering cause of Allopathy. For this reason. there are many endeavoring to crawl to place and power through the avenues of "Old-School" colleges. But the brave, chivalrous and talented scorn such mean resorts, and patronize Eclectic