A Century of Homeopaths: Their Influence on Medicine and Health

Homöopathie für Skeptiker

It is virtually impossible to review a book of this magnitude in one page and if Julian Winston's opus, The Faces of Homoeopathy: an illustrated history of the first 200 years (1999), were to appear today I would have to say the same thing. Nevertheless, let an attempt be made!

This unwieldy beautifully produced hardback consists of 18 theme-grouped chapters, for example, ‘Women, Reform, and Medical Leadership’, ‘Congress, Parliament, Presidents, and Monarchs’, ‘Allergy and Allergic Disorders: Homeopathic Leaders’, ‘Homeopaths and the Dawning of Anesthesiology’, ‘The Homeopathic Scalpel: Contributions to Surgery from the World of Homeopathy’ and ‘Samuel Hahnemann: Rebarbative Genius’, etc. Unwieldy, because a book of these dimensions is not so portable and, beautifully produced, as the binding is excellent and glossy paper used in order to allow the hundreds of photos and illustrations to impress.

The author fulfills his stated purpose by relating multiple stories describing how homeopaths influenced the course of medicine in the United States. For instance, he relates how the father of American homeopathy, Constantine Hering, set the stage for the widespread medical use of nitroglycerine to treat heart attacks. He describes the efforts of Clemence Lozier who, nearly singlehandedly founded the New York Medical College for Women in 1863. She served as Dean for 25 years. He weaves the story of Susan Smith McKinney, the third black female doctor in the US. She worked so intensively in Brooklyn that a local newspaper ‘...hailed her as “the most successful practitioner of medicine of her sex and race in the United States” and listed her as one of New York's “famous doctors” in 1891’. -p. 16.

A bit further along, Davidson, a psychiatrist, non-homeopath who had his eyes opened to homeopathy while a young boy, discusses Selden Talcott in ‘Homeopathy and the Mind: from alienists to neuroscientists’. During his tenure as superintendent of the New York State Homoeopathic Asylum, Talcott put into action his belief of how beneficial physical activity can be to mental health by establishing a semi-professional baseball team called the ‘Asylum Nines’. Inmates and employees alike participated and had more than a modicum measure of success.

The arrival, in California, from Germany of Otto Guttentag is elucidated in Chapter 15. The author offers significant historical documentation of how Dr. Guttentag placed the fields of bioethics and medical humanities on a firm, academic footing.

Oscar Auerbach (1905-1997), a 1929 graduate of the New York Homoeopathic Medical College, opens up the ‘Oncology’ chapter. He conducted pioneering research on the relationship between tobacco smoking and cancer.

‘Dr. Auerbach's work was brought to national attention in 1964, when it was prominently cited in the first Surgeon General's report about the dangers of smoking ... After the Surgeon General's report, a major policy response required cigarette packages to carry a warning that cigarettes could be harmful to health’. —The New York Times, 16 January 1997. To amass pathological evidence, on some days he looked at 2,000 tissue slides, 10 times more than the typical researcher.

Auerbach did not graduate from high school nor have an undergraduate degree. He was admitted to medical school based solely on his college's entrance exam grades.

This chapter also discusses Charles Cameron, a 1935 Hahnemann graduate who became an expert in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. As an author, he wrote The Truth About Cancer (1956), a best seller and founded, in 1950, ‘A Cancer Journal for Clinicians’ that is still in publication.

Also discussed in this chapter are Howard W. Nowell, a 1911 graduate of Boston University, who developed a serum derived from human carcinoma and E.C. Love who attempted to develop a diagnostic test for cancer. Their work in these areas faded while the latter became somewhat famous for his work on influenza. That is described later.

Lastly, Ita Wegman is included probably because of her seminal work in the development of the anti-cancer agent, mistletoe, introduced by the Weleda Co. as Iscador. Though not exactly a homeopath, she developed and employed many anthroposophical remedies that are diluted and succussed in the homeopathic manner. She worked closely with Rudolf Steiner in several areas, that is, karma, but perhaps most importantly in the healthcare field. Together they authored Fundamentals of Therapy (1925) which was published shortly after Steiner's passing in 1925. It is the foundational text in what has become known as anthroposophically-extended medicine.

In all, 125 homeopaths are discussed with over 150 being mentioned. The chapters on women and surgery are the lengthiest but all are scholarly, detailed and, need I say, inspiring. For instance, read the seven pages devoted to Fuller whom the American Psychological Association deemed ‘...way ahead of his time’. Solomon Carter Fuller was this country's first African-American psychiatrist and the material Davidson researched is nothing short of fascinating and tributory.

There are a few faults, one being that no material is included describing some of the subjects' homeopathic clinical practices. To be sure, most doctors did not practice classical homeopathy, perhaps no homeopathy at all, but certainly some had homeopathic practices and it would have been nice to have enjoyed some of that information. The book lacks an alphabetical listing of the personnages and a bibliography. This latter omission is unfortunate as those unfamiliar with homeopathic history could be misled into believing that Davidson's tome is the only ‘star’ in the sky. For your edification, allow me to list a number of those essential historical references.

Aside from Winston's and Ullman's essential works, which are cited at the end of this review, are E. Cleave's Biographical Cyclopaedia of Homoeopathic Physicians and Surgeons (1873), Bradford's The Pioneers of Homoeopathy (1897), W. Ameke's History of Homoeopathy (1885), King's History of Homoeopathy and Its Institutions in America (1905), Kirschmann's A Vital Force: Women in American Homeopathy (2004), Tischner's Geschichte der Homoopathie (1939; reprinted edition 1998), F. D. Schroers' Lexikon deutschsprachiger Homoeopathen (2006), R. Juette's The Hidden Roots: A History of Homeopathy in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe (Vol. 2, 2006), D. H. Chand's History of Homoeopathy in India in the 19th Century (2007), M. Singh's Pioneers of Homeopathy (2003), O. Faure's Praticiens, patients et militants de l'homeopathie, 1800-1940 (1992), H. Eppenich's Geschichte der deutschen homoopathischen Krankenhauser (1995), Jutte, Risse, and Woodward's Culture, Knowledge, and Healing: Historical Perspectives of Homeopathic Medicine in Europe and North America (1998), Rabanes & Sarembaud's Dictionnaire des auteurs d'ouvrages d'homeopathie: en langue francaise 2003), J. S. Haller's Jr., The History of American Homeopathy: The Academic Years, 1820-1935 (2005) and The History of American Homeopathy: From Rational Medicine to Holistic Health Care (2009). Also of import are two internet sites, Sue Young's www.sueyounghistories.com and Sylvain Cazalet's www.homeoint.org.

I was rather surprised to find Winston's Faces ... referenced less than a half-dozen times. Surely one might have thought this opus to be cited more or at least a special mention made of it in the author's Preface. Lastly, my surprise turned to chagrin when Davidson's only mention of Julian was as a ‘homeopath’ (p. 186). To my way of thinking, ‘Jewels’, as some affectionately referred to him, deserved a meaty, explanatory footnote.

Well, despite those issues this work does deserve to have space on your bookshelf. Place it next to Winston's two books, Faces of Homoeopathy (1999) and The Heritage of Homœopathic Literature: An Abbreviated Bibliography and Commentary (2001), then for jam, add Dana Ullman's The Homeopathic Revolution: Why Famous People and Cultural Heroes Choose Homeopathy (2007), and you'll have enough reading for a lot of sandwiches!