The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-12-15

Why ihe Homeopaths Were Rejected
The following interesting documents explain
themselves:

The following interesting documents explain
themselves:
MAINE GENERAL HOSPITAL,
PORTLAND, Dec. Is, 1875. !
Mr.. Benjamin Kingsbury, Jr.:
My DEAR SIR:-I have the honor to inform
you that, at meeting of the corporation held
last Friday, report I a copy of which I enclose)
was made by the committee to which was re-
ferred the memorial presented by you in behalf
of the petitioners for homeopathic ward in
the hospital. After accepting the report it
was unanimously
Resolyed That the report of the committee on
the petition for homeopathic ward be adopt
ed as an expression Of the views of the corpor-
alton, and that the petitioners be respectfully
informed that regard for the best interests Of
the hospital prevents compliance with their
request. FREDERIC HENRY GERRIsH,
Secretary.
To the Corporation of the Maine General Hos
pital:
The committee to whom was referred nu-
merously signed petition "that ward or wards
in the Maine General Hospital should be des-
ignated for physicians and surgeons of the hon.
@opathlc school, have, after careful consid-
GRAFTON of the question, decided unanimously
to report that the petition ought not to be
granted.
The scheme of the Maine General Hospital
originated in the Maine Medical Association. a
body OF physicians of the so-called "allopathic"
school, it was farthered and fostered by that
association, aud through the personal influence
OF its members and their friends, large contri-
buttons OF money were promised to it from
persons generally in sympathy .with the views
and theories OF the association. Finally, after
more or less active opposition from adherents
to other schools of medicine, the hospital re-
ceived from the State an endowment in lands
and money, with the distinct and explicit un-
Outstanding, as it seems to your committee,
that its government should be in the hands of
persons in entire sympothy and agreement with
the body through whose exertions it had at last
become an actual, existing fact.
in accordance then with this understanding,
the executive of the hospital is now land always
has been) entirely with the "old'' school, which
has, consequently, the entire authority and
control of the institution, and the absolute re-
sponsibity for all that goes on within its
walls.
Without expressing any opinion as to the
comparative merits of any schools of medicine,
1t does not seem to your committee possible
that two systems so widely opposite as the So
called allopathic and the homeopathic can be
successfully represented, and work harmoni-
ously together in the same hospital, when the
whole responsibility must necessarily be with
one only Your committee are informed by
competent authority that no similar conjunc-
ton of opposing schools exists in any of the
great hospitals Of this or any other country
and being thoroughly convinced themselves
that such an arrangement would be of serious
if not rreparaoIe iu1dry to the usefulness of
the Maine General Hospital, they are unani-
mously of the opinion that the experiment
should not be first tried here.
(SignedD j. L CHAMBERLAIN,
H. H. HILL,
BIoN BRADBURY,
SAMUEL e. SPRING,
PHILIP HENRY BROWN.