375

LOGICA HOMŒOPATHICA.A SONNET.

" AUKE, but, Oh, HOW DIFFERENT !"WORDSWORTH.

Add like to like, and see the difference.Add pain to pangs, and torture turns to easeTo hate add horror, what can better please?Facts mix’d with facts, confirm our ignorance. iMistakes make sure. By adding brass to ipence We get our fortunes. Patients’ groans supply Discordant notes that melt in 11 harmony-Not underr;tood." And why ? Your shaken ’,

brainNeeds but another shake. And ’tis quite

plainNothing, with nonsense, brings the thing wewant-

(Finis-infinitesimalis) gain.Ergo, per contra cannot be endured !how what is like this homaopathic cant?There’s nothing like it, so it can’t be cured.

G. M., M.D.Hastings, Dec. 7, 1843.

NOTE FROM MR. ROBERTSON.

To the Editor.-Sir : When you attackedme in THE LANCET (with what good senseand decency it is for others to judge,) onaccount of my volunteering gratuitous at-tendance on the poor, I answered promptlyand openly, and is it fair that any stupidfellow should be, by you, encouraged tobelch forth his grumblings against me, underany humbugging pseudo name? When theunfortunate " RAW COUNTRY Boy" can

venture to publish his true name, attachedto his perpetrations, I shall not be wantingin courtesy towards him, in so far as he

may merit the same. But until his dis-interestedness be apparent, until it shallappear that he be no shopkeeping surgeon,etcetera, et cetera, et cetera, in the neigh-bourhood, whose choler has been stirred upby the probability of fewer 7s. 6d. " fees"than heretofore, I shall decline noticingfurther his effusions. But, as respectsyour own editorial remarks, the heading ofyour first notice of me seems to uphold the" no-pay-no-work" system ; your last para-graph commences, " It is all very well andhighly charitable to gine away advice andmedicines." How you reconcile thesestatements I know not. And, as you thinkwith me, " it is all very well," why haveyou troubled yourself to disparage me?You continue,-" but to advertise the fact,to invite people to come and carry them off!What must we call that?" You can call itwhat pleases you; I call it the very bestplan to get the fact known ; nor

" Idly sit, like stupid bloekheads,Our hands committed to our pockets."

Neither is it new, for you state (p. 304) i,we " are advertised in every newspaper, in i

every street, in thousands of professionall cards, " Medical advice gratis." You sayin your first note, " notice should be givento the beadle," &c. In reply to my query,why this did not occur to you before, youassert it has been published 11 nearly fiveyears." Then where is the wit of the priorobservation ? I shall be obliged if you in-sert the above, and I remain, Sir, &c.

J. ROBERTSON.Melcombe-place, Dorset-square,

December 11, 1843.

J. ROBERTSON.

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

MR. J. C. ATKINSON, referring to thecommunication of Mr. Walker in THELANCET of the 25th ult., recalls our attention,this week, to " the dangers to be appre-hended from the present offensive mode ofdisposing of the dead," and what he consi-ders to be " the mischief that must ulti-

mately result from the poisonous emanationsof the burying-grounds of the metropolis."Mr. Atkinson does so because he is " desirousto express his firm conviction that the pesti-ferous exhalations of the grave-yards not

only operate in their immediate vicinity, butextend their influences far and wide, andmaterially increase the activity of the circu-lation or powerfully depress the nervous

energy." At the same time he thinks it of

equal importance to direct due attention tothe " water nuisance," and the seemingdesire of the public companies to defeat thebenevolent intentions of the Apostle of Tem-! perance, Father Mathew, by their disregardof the quality and contents of their supply inLondon. This matter he considers is espe-cially worthy of attention from the profes-sion ; for he is disposed to think that thiscause alone will account for a very-much-prevailing recent epidemic diarrhoea, un-justly laid to the door of the " plum-season."The reputations of medical attendants are

often, he considers, placed at stake, owingto the sick employing water that is chargedwith putrefying refuse, success being oftenimpossible with the best medicines, if thetoast-water and other diluents of patients becharged with putrid matter. We make a

summary only of the allegations of Mr.Atkinson, because we do not at present see

that we can beneficially open a discussionon the subjects in our pages, and we arealways indisposed to begin battles without acertain prospect of fighting them successfully.A couple of millions of pounds sterlingwould barely suffice to effect a thoroughreform in our present modes of sepultureand watering in London alone. In the ab-sence of that, burial at cemeteries (they arenumerous and popular) and filtering at home,are the best expedients, though often beyondthe means of the poor. By the by, whathas become of the water-company of Mr.