A REPLY 
TO 
PROF. WILLIAM PEPPER'S 
INSULT TO 
THE HOMOEOPATHIC SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, 
IN HIS 
OPENING ADDRESS, 
Delivered at the University of Penna., October 1, 1B77. 
By ADOLPH LIPPE, M.D. 
(Reprinted from The Hahnemannian Monthly, November, 1877.) 
SHERMAN & CO., PRINTERS. 
1 8 7 7. THE HEALING ART. 
A HIGHER MEDICAL EDUCATION. 
A REPLY TO PROF. WILLIAM PEPPER, M.D. 
BY ADOLPH LIPPE, M.D. 
Dr. William Pepper opened the medical course at the 
University of Pennsylvania on the 1st of October, 1877, with 
a paper on “Higher Medical Education the True Interest of 
the Public and the Profession.” Dr. Pepper laments over 
the troubles which afflict the medical profession, and which 
have been steadily progressing and increasing for at least fifty 
years. He advances his opinion as an individual in regard to 
the cause of this troubled state of affairs in the following 
manner: “Its ranks are overstocked to an unparalleled ex- 
tent; there is, I believe, no other business in which so small 
a proportion of those engaged earn a living; it finds success- 
ful rivals among the practitioners of such exclusive schools as 
homoeopathy, eclecticism and the like, which, by the concur- 
rent voices of all intelligent communities, no less than by the 
verdict of scientific investigation, have been declared to be 
unworthy of confidence and incapable of endurance.” 
Comments. First of all we say to Dr. Pepper, “ Gralias /” 
He really acknowledges that the homoeopathic school of medi- 
cine is a successful rival of the school to which he belongs and 
for which he speaks. We, nevertheless, protest against the 
liberty he takes in placing the homoeopathic school in the 
same classification with the eclectic. These two schools (if 
eclecticism is a school, which of course we shall not attempt 
to argue here) have nothing in common. Homoeopathy, as 
the healing art, was introduced by Samuel Hahnemann, a man 
of high attainments, who was respected by all medical men as 
a ripe scholar, and was only discarded because it did not suit 4 
a preferred class to become students again. Eclecticism is an 
outgrowth of the allopathic school, and is, what its name fully 
indicates, a school of expediency, without a single principle to 
guide its practice. 
Dr. Pepper develops a strange logic. He first acknowledges 
that homoeopathy is a successful rival (of his school), and in 
the same breath says that they (homoeopathy and eclecticism), 
“by the concurrent voices of all intelligent communities, no 
less than by the verdict of scientific investigation, have been 
declared to be unworthy of confidence and incapable of en- 
durance.” 
If the intelligent communities have declared them to be 
unworthy of confidence, how can they possibly continue to be 
“successful rivals?” As to his reference to the same verdict 
resulting from “scientific investigation,” the doctor seems to be 
entirely off the logical track. What does he mean by scien- 
tific investigation ? As he puts it, it is an empty phrase. A 
scientific investigation of homoeopathy is a twofold process. 
It implies, first, a full knowledge of the principles governing 
the homoeopathic healing art, i. e., the science of homoeopathy, 
and second, the art of applying these principles for the cure 
of the sick. Supplied with this knowledge the investigation 
can be fairly made; and it so happens that just such investi- 
gations, made honestly, have supplied the homoeopathic school 
with many of its best men. It is not possible to judge of a 
system of medicine without a previous knowledge of it. 
Honestly and earnestly inquiring medical men, as well as in- 
telligent communities, are governed in their verdict by the 
actual results as they find them. If, as Dr. Pepper says, the 
homoeopathists are successful rivals, then the verdict of intel- 
ligent communities and also of scientific investigation must, 
logically, be in their favor. Or does Dr. Pepper take it upon 
himself to say that communities and investigators finding a 
verdict in favor of homoeopathy, are neither intelligent nor 
scientific? Dr. Pepper evidently has created this dilemma 
for his own personal benefit. If he is a consistent man, why 
does he not, in the name of the University of Pennsylvania, 
petition the legislatures of all the States of the Union to pass 
an act by which the practice of homoeopathy shall be forbid- 
den and made a criminal offence, giving as a reason for his 
action, his desire to get rid of a successful rival. That would 
be just the thing. The intelligent communities, however, 
have given quite a different verdict. Even as early as 1836, 
a charter was granted by the legislature of Pennsylvania, 5 
establishing a homoeopathic college at Allentown; and an in- 
telligent people have, from time to time, granted other 
charters for homoeopathic colleges and hospitals. A generous 
and intelligent people have granted to educated physicians of 
all schools the same rights, privileges and immunities. They 
all enjoy the same legal status; and the same generous, intel- 
ligent people, by these very acts, have declared all schools 
equally worthy of confidence. And why was it that homoe- 
opath ists had to seek special charters? It was on account of 
the intolerable illiberality of the existing old medical schools, 
intolerable because these schools refused to acknowledge the 
will of the people. While the people through their legisla- 
tive bodies had bestowed “equal rights” on all, the older 
schools defied the will of the people, and refused these equal 
rights to the homoeopathists. 
I have now in my possession documentary evidence to this 
effect. It is officially stated by an officer of the University 
of Pennsylvania, under date of 26th of October, 1859, that 
the first rule among the requirements for graduation in the 
University is as follows: “The candidate must have attained 
the age of twenty-one years, have applied himself to the study 
of medicine for three years, and been, during that time, the 
private pupil, for two years at least, of a respectable practi- 
tioner of medicine,” “and that the interpretation given by the 
faculty to the latter portion of this rule is, that those persons 
only can be recognized as ‘preceptors’ who are practitioners 
of medicine in the regular way as taught in the established 
schools of the country, and excludes those who are engaged in 
practicing homoeopathy.” 
A homoeopathist is, by the University of Pennsylvania, 
declared not to be a respectable practitioner of medicine. The 
people say otherwise; and we evidently find the University 
of Pennsylvania in open revolt, unhesitatingly treating with 
contempt the will of the people, and in violation of all law 
and order. Who is a respectable practitioner of medicine? 
This is the question, and, as far as the first part of the answer 
goes, viz., “those persons can only be recognized as ‘preceptors' 
who are practitioners of medicine in the regular way as taught 
in the established schools of the country,” we are quite agreed 
to accept it; but when we are informed that therefore, “this 
excludes those who are engaged in the practice of homoeopathy,” 
we hereby protest against such revolutionary logic. 
We come now to ask the ultimate question, “What are the 
established schools of the country ?” Of course cdl and every 6 
school chartered by the people to teach medicine and confer 
the degree of doctor of medicine on all such candidates as 
have complied with the conditions laid down in the charter; 
and all these charters, from that of the time-honored Univer- 
sity down to that of the eclectic school in Pine Street, con- 
tain the same conditions under which the degree as doctor of 
medicine may be conferred on an individual. The person in 
possession of such a document becomes, to all intents and 
purposes* of the law, a practitioner of medicine in the regular 
way, and must surely be considered a respectable practitioner 
of medicine. The University of Pennsylvania had come to 
a different conclusion, applying a logic which is not easily 
understood. 
Submitting to this conclusion at which the University of 
Pennsylvania arrived, it became a necessity to apply to the 
legislatures for charters of medical colleges and hospitals, so 
that such persons as were anxious to obtain a knowledge of 
the progressive homoeopathic healing art, which they could 
not obtain in the old-established medical schools, could do so; 
and after having acquired that knowledge, they could also 
obtain a degree as doctor of medicine, which, under the pecu- 
liar ruling of the old-established medical schools, was refused 
to such persons as had for a preceptor a hone copat hist. A 
peculiar ruling indeed. 
There is really in existence, in even this free country, a set 
of men calling themselves “regulars,” who refuse to acknowl- 
edge any medical man to be a respectable practitioner who 
not only knows everything appertaining to the knowledge of 
medicine, even if he holds a diploma as a doctor of medicine 
from their old-established schools, if this person has a knowl- 
edge of the progressive homoeopathic healing art, and if this 
knowledge and a subsequent scientific investigation have con- 
vinced him of its superiority over all known systems in medi- 
cine, and if so convinced he cures people and thereby—by 
the better curing of them—becomes a successful rival. Which, 
then, is an exclusive school? Why, the school represented by 
Dr. Pepper, who has, by his address, not only grossly insulted 
and misrepresented successful.rivals, but has also grossly in- 
sulted the multitude of highly intelligent people who have be- 
come disgusted with the pernicious common practice of physic, 
and have adopted the benign system of the healing art founded 
by Samuel Hahnemann.