Among the names of “Distinguished Homoeopathists,” however, displayed in imposing columns, in the index of the “Homoeopathic Examiner,” are those of Marjolin, Amussat, and Breschet, names well known to the world of science, and the last of them identified with some of the most valuable contributions which anatomical knowledge has received since the commencement of the present century.  One Dr. Chrysaora, who stands sponsor for many facts in that Journal, makes the following statement among the rest:  “Professors, who are esteemed among the most distinguished of the Faculty (Faculty de Medicine), both as to knowledge and reputation, have openly confessed the power of Homoeopathia in forms of disease where the ordinary method of practice proved totally insufficient.  It affords me the highest pleasure to select from among these gentlemen, Marjolin, Amussat, and Breschet.”

Here is a literal translation of an original letter, now in my possession, from one of these Homoeopathists to my correspondent:—­

“Dear sir, and respected professional brother: 

“You have had the kindness to inform me in your letter that a new American Journal, the ‘New World,’ has made use of my name in support of the pretended Homoeopathic doctrines, and that I am represented as one of the warmest partisans of Homoeopathy in France.

“I am vastly surprised at the reputation manufactured for me upon the new continent; but I am obliged, in deference to truth, to reject it with my whole energy.  I spurn far from me everything which relates to that charlatanism called Homoeopathy, for these pretended doctrines cannot endure the scrutiny of wise and enlightened persons, who are guided by honorable sentiments in the practice of the noblest of arts.

“Paris, 3d November, 1841

“I am, etc., etc.,
“G.  Breschet,

“Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Member of the Institute, Surgeon of Hotel Dieu, and Consulting Surgeon to the King, etc.” [I first saw M. Breschet’s name mentioned in that Journal]

Concerning Amussat, my correspondent writes, that he was informed by Madame Hahnemann, who converses in French more readily than her husband, and therefore often speaks for him, that “he was not a physician, neither Homoeopathist nor Allopathist, but that he was the surgeon of their own establishment; that is, performed as a surgeon all the operations they had occasion for in their practice.”

I regret not having made any inquiries as to Marjolin, who, I doubt not, would strike his ponderous snuff-box until it resounded like the Grecian horse, at hearing such a doctrine associated with his respectable name.  I was not aware, when writing to Paris, that this worthy Professor, whose lectures I long attended, was included in these audacious claims; but after the specimens I have given of the accuracy of the foreign correspondence of the “Homoeopathic Examiner,” any further information I might obtain would seem so superfluous as hardly to be worth the postage.