In the first place, homoeopathy offers to the independent mind an opportunity continually to seek new verifications of the natural laws upon which this system of medicine is based. It opens up vast fields to the pioneer, and we cannot gauge the distance that eager minds may travel, nor how greatly the interpretations of these laws may influence the civilization of the future.
Homoeopathy offers a life of service to humanity, and it is the only method of healing that surely sets the sick man and sick woman on the permanent road to recovery. We must remember that though we may fail, the failure is ours; it is not the failure of homoeopathy. The better knowledge we have of the " tools of our trade " the better use we should make of them.
Homoeopathy treats the sick individual; it is therefore a speciality. In spite of the trend toward group practice, group thinking and even group mode of life as seen all about us to-day, we have yet to be convinced that the man is not greater than the mass and that as long as intelligent thinking people realize and prize their individuality, the individual approach will hold an appeal to them. Therefore, homoeopathy offers a special inducement to the man who can teach people to think and act as individuals, and to demand medical treatment as individuals.
Homoeopathy considers the man as a whole, not just his individual parts. Therefore, primarily homoeopathy has less appeal for the man of mechanical bent, for it is this man who makes the best surgeon. Instead, homoeopathy offers a gentler way toward health of the entire individual.
One thing the student must consider is the differentiation between medicine and public health service. Public health service, ideally has to do with the prevention of disease in the community, in guarding food and water supplies, in providing facilities and restrictions for adequate healthy housing conditions and in attending to the proper disposal of waste matter, so that the health of the community will be guarded against epidemics borne by impure water, milk or other food supplies, or born in insanitary or unhygienic conditions.
Medicine ideally has to do with the cure of disease, the building up of the individual, not overlooking the proper hygiene and sanitation, but with a deeper view of the needs of the individual himself, rather than the needs of the community.
