Mongrelism.

Selected writings of John M. Scudder.

Dr. Scudder sometimes played with his adversary before dispatching him. Abused and ridiculed by the dominant party he frequently made playful capital out of the epithets maliciously bestowed upon him and his school. This editorial shows how pleasantly he could deal with an antagonist who would belittle himself in the attempt to besmirch honest rivalry in the field of medicine.—Ed. Gleaner.

MONGRELISM.—"We are all poor miserable sinners" at best, and we are always ready to exclaim mea culpa! mea culpa!! And thus, as those who had ought to know, say we are "mongrels," we confess the sin, if sin it is; surely they must know and we would not set our face against authority; for of our few virtues, meekness has always been prominent.

But as we confess our sin, we want the readers of the Journal to know the full extent of our transgression, and accordingly we will get a definition of the word from Worcester: "MONGREL, of a mixed breed; hybrid." That is just what's the matter with us—we are of a mixed breed, hybrids—neither Allopaths, Botanics, or Homeopaths.

Have you ever read any of the recent works on "Natural Selection," or the "hybridization of plants?" If you have, you have learned that this is nature's method of development or evolution, and the highest effort of man, in the development of plant or animal, is in the same direction.

Our best varieties of animals are hybrids—a union of two species, though the associate term, "mongrel," is applicable to those which are not so well bred. Our finest vegetable productions are hybrids, our finest flowers are hybrids. "That's just what's the matter with us."

But we profess to be Eclectic. Can we be Eclectic and still mongrel? let us see: Worcester defines Eclecticism thus—"The habit or the principle of selecting from different sources." The saints be praised, the two things, mongrel and Eclectic, are so nearly alike that we may be either or both. Very surely we are in the right rut, for our enemies say we are "mongrels," and our friends Eclectics. Let us sacrifice a cock, and give thanks—"that it is as well with us as it is."—SCUDDER, Eclectic Medical Journal, 1873.

The Biographies of King, Howe, and Scudder, 1912, was written by Harvey Wickes Felter, M. D.