The Rise of Homeopathy III
The series of The History of Homeopathy continues with the third installment of The Rise of Homeopathy and the most important reason why it gained such popularity, which was the success of homeopathy in treating varying epidemic diseases that rampaged through American and Europe in the 1800s.
From statistics of these times, we can gather that death rates in homeopathic hospitals from these epidemics were often one-half to as little as one-eighth those in orthodox medical hospitals. (1) The success of homeopaths in Cincinnati prompted them to publish a daily list of patients in the newspaper with names and addresses of the people who were cured and the unfortunate ones who didn’t make it. Only 3 percent of the 1,116 homeopathic patients died, while between 48 and 60 percent of those under orthodox medical treatment died. (2)
This success was duplicated during the yellow fever epidemic of 1878 in the south and people were so impressed that they finally took notice of homeopathy in that region. Death rates of patients under homeopathic care were about one third compared to the patients of orthodox medicine. (3)
Even life insurance companies noticed that patients under homeopathic care lived longer than others an offered a 10 percent discount to homeopathic patients. (4)
The training of 19th century homeopaths, according to historians, was right on par with that of their orthodox physician colleagues. (6) This is due the fact, as mentioned earlier, that many homeopaths attended orthodox medical schools. Eventually they developed their own schools or maintained departments of homeopathy within other medical schools. Boston University, the University of Michigan, the University of Iowa, the University of Minnesota, and Hahnemann Medical College are just a small sampling of the schools teaching homeopathy.
It is splendid to note that a higher percentage of homeopathic medical students passed medical board examinations than did their orthodox medical student colleagues. (7) Homeopaths displayed impressive scholarship, booth in books and journals. Based on records of a Commission on Education in 1898, three of the four medical schools with the largest libraries were homeopathic colleges. (8) And at the beginning of the 20th century, there were as many as 29 different homeopathic journals.
Homeopathy was very popular and deep seated in the United States this is very obvious. However, when reading most books on the history of American medicine, there is little if no mention at all of homeopathy. Even if there is reference to homeopathy, it is generally derogatory, dismissing homeopathy as an anomaly in medicine, a cult that ultimately disappeared. A science of placebos rather than “real drugs”, or a medical heresy. We all know that history is written by the victors, not by the defeated. The history of American medicine poses yet another sad example of this fact.
Next: What actually was the demise of homeopathy, in The Fall of Homeopathy I.
Beste Gesundheit,
Werner
1. Bradford T. (1984) Logic of Figures Homeopathic Education: p59
2. Ibid. pp. 68, 113-146.
2. Coulter H. (1982) Divided Legacy vol. 3. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books. p. 268
3. Ibid. pp. 299-302
4. New England Medical Gazette 1866 p.69
5. Kaufman M. (1971) Homeopathy in America : The Rise and Fall of a Medical Heresy Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p.58
6. Transactions of the American Institute of Homeopathy (1893)
7. Journal of the American Medical Association 52 (May 22, 1909): 1691 ff.
8. Phials, University of Michigan. 1901