Evening star., 1896-03-09
Hearing on the Proposed Homeo-
pathio College.
BEFORE TIE COMMISSIONERS
Replying to the Report Of Health
Officer Woodward.
OTHER DISTRICT AIRS

The postponed hearing on the bill to
grant a charter to the Washington Ho-
meopathic Medical College Of the District
of Columbia took place before the Com
sionefs this morning. Contrary to ex-
pectations the hearing was quite orderly,
in marked contrast to the previous one.
President z. Richards of the proposed col
lege was the first speaker Drs. Frank
H. Williams of the medical faculty and
Chas. T. Lindsay Of the dental faculty
presented statement in reply to the re-
port Of the health officer advising against
the bill.
1--WE do not ask for this charter" this
statement said, "as a condemnation of
what we have done, a condemnation
of what was done by our predecessor, but
as a measure of protection to and an aid
in our future usefulness and as guar
antee that we and our successors Will COM
ply with its requirements. There is no
homeopathic college in the District, while
there are at least four old school colleges.
While. they said, 1t was possible that the
objections of the health officer, offered to
this bill, might have applied to their pred
ecessor, the National, they could not admit
that they applied even in part. to the
Washington Homeopathic Medical College
LAS for the reason for changing the
name" the statement went on, 1.-The per
sonlel Of the board Of trustees and of the
faculty Of the National Homeopathic Med
ical College has been completely changed
with the exception Of three men, and as
there was some antipatny toward the col
lese on the part of a number of physicians,
members of the Washington Homeopathic
Medical Society, justly, they supposed. and
because there Is in this city national
University, having medical and dental de-
partments, with which We were frequently
confounded, we deemed 1t best, in order to
be distinctive and to avoid the odium
which had been put upon our predecessor,
to eh fhn iralN y'a
char Eed the personnel and thereby make
new corporation and obtain a congress
sional charter. which act members of the
medical and dental societies advised us
would be the first and greatest step toward
securing recognition. We believe that
every educational institution in the District
should have congressional charter.
.:We do not fear the provisions of the
pending bill for the supervision of medical
colleges by your honorable body and would
be pleased to have you visit us now or at
any time. You will not find thoroughly
equipped medical college, it takes time to
do that No college of any kind was fully
equipped IN the beginning. There are only
two such in the United States the Univer-
sity OF Pennsylvania and Columbian Col
lege of New York, but you will find us as
well equipped as any medical college in
the country as old or even much older
We have dissecting rooms. chemical, histo-
logical and pathological laboratories, Stere-
oscopes, for exhibitions, charts and mod
els. microscopes, etc, sufficient for teach
ing all the branches of medicine, surgery
and dentistry. Our college is being
Quoted in an honest and honorable man
ner, not In the least under the control of
those who in former years governed the
National. When such men as constitute our
board of trustees lend their names to any
Institution that alone Should be sufficient
guarantee and convincing proof that that
institution would be honestly and honor
ably conducted. Our object is to teacn
medicine. surgery and dentistry in all their
t,rnn .hcd III
our students to graduate unless he or she
Is thoroughly qualified to practice medi-
cine or dentistry"
We have not yet established reputation.
Tor that also takes time, but would be
very materially aided in establishing our
reputation and in our work by having a
congressional charter, fer We have assur-
ances from members of the Washington
Homeopathic Medical Society and from
members of the Dental Society of heir
support when such a charter is obtained.
The first objection to the bill. that there
is not a representative homeopathic phy-
slclan among the incorporatorS," we cam
not admit, for all those men who teach
branches where medicine is used are ho-
meopath1sts as representative as any III the
city, we care not what definition is applied
to the word representative. We do not as
sert they are all graduates of homeopat thic
colleges, for Hahnemann himself, the
founder of the faith, and his illustrious fol-
lowers. Herring and Lippe with a host Of
other representative homeopathsts were
not graduates of homeopathic colleges, hut
We all use homeopathic medicines in our
practice and nothing else, and use them
homeopathically.
DR.. J. B. G. Custis replied, although
he said, according to DIR. Williams, he was
not eligible. He did not believe the trus-
tees of the proposed college were able to
carry out the provisions of the charter if it
were granted. 1t would require an endow-
ment of 100000 He called attention to the
list of incorporators, and declared that not
one of them was prominent homeopath in
the city. Unless the incorporators proved
their ability to teach medicine it would, he
claimed. be a most dangerous thing to
grant a charter. Students would be grad
uated without the necessary qualifica tions,
and the greatest harm would result. DIR.
Gusts claimed that the proposed college
was not represen tative in any respect of
the homeopathic school, local or national.
The Commissioners promised to consider
the hill