A Century Of Homeopaths

As the values of integrative medicine continues to grow, alternative points of view and treatments are increasing in acceptance and prevalence. Homeopathic medicine is considered an important root to this approach. However, contributions of homeopathically qualified doctors have long been overlooked. A Century of Homeopaths is a detailed account of the many homeopaths who have contributed to medical progress since 1840. The accomplishments of over 100 homeopaths form the organizing structure of the book - many of whom have been lost to history. The text describes the ways in which homeopaths have influenced medical practice, research and public health, as well as the seminal effect of homeopaths in the emergence of today's medical specialties and in social reform, thus providing insights to healthcare professionals, researchers, students and medical historians.

Discover how homeopathic practice developed alongside regular medicine Explore the history of American homeopathy from its roots in the early nineteenth century, through its burgeoning acceptance, to its subsequent fall from favor. The History of American Homeopathy: The Academic Years, 1820-1935 discusses the development of homeopathy’s unorthodox therapies, the reasons behind its widespread growth and popularity, and its development during medicine’s introspective age of doubt and the emergence of scientific reductionism. Not only does the book explain homeopathy within the same social, scientific, and philosophic traditions that affected other schools of the healing art, but it also promotes a more integrative connection between homeopathy’s unconventional therapeutics and the rigors of scientific medicine. The History of American Homeopathy examines the work of Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy—the development of his and other practitioners’ theories, and the factors in the growth and later withering of acceptance. You’ll learn the reasons behind homeopathy’s wave of popularity in nineteenth-century America and the impact of regular medicine’s shift to rationalistic system-theories and laboratory science on homeopathy. Discover how homeopathy emerged from the system-theories of the late eighteenth century; the mounting ideological differences within this unorthodox health art; its destructive internal feuds; and the factors that led to the eventual turning over of homeopathies to regular medicine. The History of American Homeopathy answers questions such as: how did the state of medicine in the early nineteenth century facilitate the public acceptance of Hahnemann’s theories? what were the relationships between regualr medicine and homeopathy? what tensions surfaced between academic and domestic homeopathy? how did homeopathic medical schools emerge, and what were their regional and philosophical distinctions? what was the impact of scientific medicine on homeopathy? what were the reasons for the growing division between the liberal wing of homeopathy and the more conservative Hahnemannians, and what effect did it have on the movement? The History of American Homeopathy: The Academic Years, 1820-1935 is an informative, insightful exploration of homeopathy’s roots that is valuable for medical historians, history students, homeopaths, alternative medical organizations, holistic healing societies, homeopathic study groups, homeopathic seminars and courses, and anyone interested in homeopathy.

This book traces the genesis, principles and practice of homeopathy, and discusses the reasons for its enduring popularity. Two hundred years ago, medicine had little to offer except blood letting and the administration of violent purgatives – practices which shortened the course of illness by hastening the death of the patient. Largely in reaction to what he correctly saw as the brutality and ineffectiveness of the medicine of his day, the eighteenth century German physician Samuel Hahnemann developed a system of therapeutics that he termed homeopathy. Ironically, while modern medicine has changed beyond recognition, homeopathy, with its roots in alchemy and metaphysics, continues to be practiced precisely as it was in Hahnemann’s day. Readers of this book will enjoy the story of homeopathy and its almost magical attraction, whilst learning much from the authors' rational and scientific discussion of the biological, chemical and psychological questions that this treatment raises.

This thought-provoking work offers a critical analysis of 19th-century medicine, specifically the practice of homeopathy. The authors explore the history and and rise of homeopathic treatments while offering insights into their efficacy. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

• Examines the success of homeopathic psychiatric asylums in the United States from the 1870s until 1920 • Focuses on New York’s Middletown State Homeopathic Hospital for the Insane, which had a treatment regime with thousands of successful outcomes • Details a homeopathic blueprint for treating mental disorders based on Talcott’s methods, including nutrition and side-effect-free homeopathic prescriptions In the late 1800s and early 1900s, homeopathy was popular across all classes of society. In the United States, there were more than 100 homeopathic hospitals, more than 1,000 homeopathic pharmacies, and 22 homeopathic medical schools. In particular, homeopathic psychiatry flourished from the 1870s to the 1930s, with thousands of documented successful outcomes in treating mental illness. Revealing the astonishing but suppressed history of homeopathic psychiatry, Jerry M. Kantor examines the success of homeopathic psychiatric asylums in America from the post–Civil War era until 1920, including how the madness of Mary Todd Lincoln was effectively treated with homeopathy at a “sane” asylum in Illinois. He focuses in particular on New York’s Middletown State Homeopathic Hospital, where superintendent Selden Talcott oversaw a compassionate and holistic treatment regime that married Thomas Kirkbride’s moral treatment principles to homeopathy. Kantor reveals how homeopathy was pushed aside by pharmaceuticals, which often caused more harm than good, as well as how the current critical attitude toward homeopathy has distorted the historical record. Offering a vision of mental health care for the future predicated on a model that flourished for half a century, Kantor shows how we can improve the care and treatment of the mentally ill and stop the exponential growth of terminal mental disorder diagnoses that are rampant today.

Homeopathy, as a medical system, presented a significant institutional and economic challenge to conventional medicine in the nineteenth century. Although contemporary critics portrayed homeopathic physicians as part of a sect whose treatment of disease was beyond the pale of acceptable medical practice, homeopathy was in many ways similar to established medicine. In this book, the author offers a new interpretation of women{19}s roles in both mainstream and alternative modern medicine. She strengthens and clarifies the history of homeopathic women physicians, and creates a framework of comparison to "regular," or orthodox, physicians. Linked to social reform movements in the nineteenth century, antimodernism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and countercultural ideals of the 1960s and 1970s, women's advocacy of homeopathy has been intertwined with broad social and cultural issues in American society.