OBITUARY.

DR. RICHARD HUGHES, L.R.C.P. (Edin.), M.R.C.S. (Eng.), died in Dublin, Ireland, April 3, 1902. His decease received the following notice in the London Times.

"Dr Hughes was born in London in 1836. He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1857, and was the possessor of many honorary degrees. He was a voluminous writer on medical subjects, his Pharmacodynamics, which appeared first in 1867, having been a text-book on homœopathic materia medica with the homoeopathic school since its first appearance It has passed through six English editions and has been translated into most European languages, a Russian translation having appeared only a year or two ago. Among his other works is A Manual on Therapeutics, and the Hahnemannian oration of the year 1881, entitled Hahnemann as a Medical Philosopher. The Cyclopedia of Drug Pathogenesy, a compilation of the effects of drugs on healthy persons, in four large volumes, is perhaps the chief of his works. He was editor of the Repertory. Dr. Hughes was at one time on the staff of the London Homœopathic Hospital, and he was lecturer on materia medica at the London School of Homœopathy for a number of years. He was past president of the British Homœopathic Society, and at the time of his death was editor of the journal of that society. He has been for many years one of the editors of the quarterly British Journal of Homœopathy. Another important position held by Dr. Hughes, was that of permanent honorary secretary of the series of international homeopathic congresses held every five years. In 1881 he was chosen president of the congress when it assembled in London. He was a member of the Catholic Apostolic Church, in which he had for many years held a high official position."

In 1884, Dr. Hughes delivered a course of lectures at Boston University School of Medicine, which were afterwards published under the title of The Knowledge of the Physician. He leaves a widow, two sons and four daughters.

get the reduced rate home. All tickets, however, should be presented to the Chairman for endorsement upon arrival in Cleveland.

TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES TO AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF HOMEOPATHY at Cleveland, via train officially reported by Committee on Transportation. Through train from New York and Boston to Cleveland, via N. Y. C. & H. R. R., B. & A. R. R., L. S. & M. S. Ry.— Train No. 29 (Southwestern Limited) N. Y. C. & H. R. R., Leave New York, 9.20 P. M.; Poughkeeepsie, 11.15 P. M.; Albany, 1.00 A. M. — B. & A. R.R., Leave Boston, 6.00 P. M.; Worcester, 7.08 P. M.; Springfield, 8.33 P. M.; Westfield, 8.50 P. M.; Chester, 9.20 P. M.; Pittsfield, 10.13 P. M.; Arrive Albany, 11.30 P. M.N. Y. C. & H. R.R., Leave Albany, 11.40 P. M. (Boston train); Buffalo, 7.55 A. M. (Both trains) — L S. & M. S. Ry, Arrive Cleveland, 12.25 NOON.

Through sleeping cars from New York and from Boston, Reservations from New England points by applying to Mr. A. S. Hanson, General Passenger Agent, B. & A. R.R., Boston, Mass. Sections (one way), $7.00; Single berths, $3.50; Round trip ticket from Boston, $20.00.

It is hoped that as many as possible will leave by the Monday evening train so as to be on hand at the opening of the Institute on Tuesday, June 17. Any member desiring to arrive at Cleveland in the morning may leave Boston at 2.00 P. M., arriving at Cleveland at 7.35 A. M. There will be a change of time table on June 15, though the officials do not think either of the above trains will be affected, it will be safer to consult new time-table at that date. Both trains run daily, including Sundays. It is best to secure train accommodations early on these popular fast trains. J. HERBERT MOORE, M. D., New England Member of Committee on Transportation.

Papers or addresses on professional or other subjects will be written wholly or in part; books prepared for publication, and expert editing and proof-reading done for members of the profession. Address, Dr. A. T. Lovering, 10A Park Square, Boston, Mass.

[Given before the Maine Homeopathic Medical Society, June 10, 1902.]

MEMBERS OF THE MAINE HOM. MED. SOCIETY:

It is a fitting, as well as a long established, custom that makes it incumbent upon the retiring president of this society. to say some words of special import to its members, and to express to them his sense of indebtedness for cordial support and personal courtesies received. It is with pleasure, therefore, that I address you to-day, not only to thank you for your efforts to second my endeavors to advance the interests of this society and the cause of homoeopathy, but also to share with you some thoughts bearing upon our present opportunities in the field of medicine, opportunities which, like our responsibilities, have never been more numerous than they are now at the beginning of the twentieth century. The rapid increase in therapeutic resources in the treatment of disease, the constant improvement in surgical methods, and their greater adequacy, and the wider acceptance of sound homœopathic principles, should fill us with confidence in the future of scientific medicine, and should spur us on to familiarize ourselves with all the advances that are being made,

and to render such assistance to this onward movement as our capabilities permit.

Especially should we give the best that is in us to increasing the growing belief and confidence in that law upon which the whole superstructure of our work as homoeopathists rests

the law of similars. It is not enough that we should endorse and apply it. It is not enough that we should benefit by the results of other men's labors from the days of the great revolutionist in therapeutics, Samuel Hahnemann, until now. It is our duty to add our own mițe to the sum of human knowledge, to take some active and unselfish part in the work of perfecting a system which, though governed by sound principles, is still imperfect and unfinished in its details.

The remedies upon which we rely we profess to select on the basis of their action upon the healthy human body, but how many remedies can we name whose symptomatology, as a whole even, we can rely upon as representing careful and reliable provings, or judicial and discriminating collating of the results of the provings made use of? How many symp

toms depend for the weight they carry with us, upon merely clinical observations? How many symptoms, not sufficiently well authenticated when first committed to print, are still incorporated without further verification, in successive editions of various standard works upon the homoeopathic materia medica? How much verbiage and seemingly endless repetition there is in the multiplied pages dealing with our favorite remedies. How long shall we allow such a state of affairs to continue? Does it not concern us as a society, yes, even as individual members of this society, that such errors and inaccuracies should exist, and is it not our duty individually to aid in correcting them?

The retiring president of the American Institute of Homœopathy, Dr."A. B. Norton of New York, at Richfield Springs last June, said in the course of his address: "It is our pressing duty to place our law upon such an exact basis

that it shall defy any method of investigation to demonstrate one single fallacy in its truth. The work has already been commenced by one of our associated societies, the American Homœopathic Opthalmological, Otological and Laryngological Society, which, at their last meeting in Washington, D. C., endorsed the recommendation of their president, Dr. Howard P. Bellows, that a reproving of our materia medica be undertaken. . . . This reproving is not for the benefit of the specialist alone, but for the entire profession."

The American Institute of Homoeopathy evidenced its approval of Dr. Norton's words by voting to apply three hundred dollars to furthering this work, and to defraying necessary expenses incurred in taking part in it. We, as a society, may not be able to appropriate any such sum of money as that just mentioned, but what we can do and should do is to give our personal services in the making of reprovings. If each physician would prove one drug, and carefully observe and tabulate results, he would be really doing something of tangible and practical value for the school of medicine he represents. In order to do this systematically and to secure uniformity, it would be well for all would-be provers to first put themselves in communication with Dr. Bellows of Boston. I earnestly commend this matter to your attention, and trust that some favorable action upon it may be taken in view of its great importance.

I cannot leave the subject of that which pertains exclusively to our own school, without referring to the gratifying advance which homoeopathy is making throughout the United States. The report to the Institute shows that there are now one hundred and thirty-nine homoeopathic medical societies, forty-two medical clubs, fifty-eight general hospitals, besides twenty-six general hospitals in which homoeopaths as well as allopaths attend patients, fifty-nine sanatariums, sixty-five institutions whose inmates are under homoeopathic treatment, fifty-eight dispensaries, twenty colleges and twenty-nine medical journals.