Drexel University College of Medicine - Medic Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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Homeopathic Society, and from then on organizations have existed for the advance- ment of the new school and for protection from the attempts at ridicule, which, especially in the earlier years, emanated from sources characterized by ignorance, obstinate unbelief, or lack of energy to investigate. To admit the excellence of Homeopathy was to admit that the old school man had not been giving his patient the best treatment. Few physicians were ready to concede that they had been wrong in the past, therefore the necessary reaction was to cry down Homeopathy in self- defense. This explains why the new system, which, furthermore, would not pro- duce striking results without meticulous study of symptomatology, failed to take the world by storm, and had to content itself with gradual progress. Acceptance of Homeopathy has always been hy the intelligent minority, for despite the simplicitv of the law, there is nothing easy about its practice. It takes understanding to realize that there is power in the infinitesimal. Digression into polemics seems unavoidable when one writes concerning a sub- ject that has undergone so much controversy, but now let us turn to Allentown, where first existed an institution designed to teach the great law and its application. STONE MARKING SITE OF FIRST HOMEOPA'I'HIC MEDIC.'kL COLLEGE IN THE YKIORLD, .ALLEN'I'OVVN, PA. The North American Academy of the Homoeopthic Healing Art, afterwards referred to as the Allentown Academy, was chartered in 1836, and was not only the first homeopathic college in this country but in the world. Elaborate plans were made for future growth, and the first steps were taken. The school was opened with the famous Hering as president, and despite the brief career it enjoyed, the acquisition of an Allentown diploma became a medical distinction. Obstacles and mistakes prevented the Academy from having continued success. Perhaps the chief mistake was giving medical instruction in German, in an English-speaking country, and certainly the chief obstacle was lack of finances. Tfu-elfve

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lIflII4fDllMIIllE5fIDlIIf3QfMllIlIfilIfY HISTORICAL GLIMPSES 'li IS with no small degree of surprise and pleasure S. fr ii ,- that the newly appointed his- :L-E torian, turning back the pages of homeo athic historv, finds . e y I , -H J iiimg ii, a vast treaisury of dramatic bi- ographies, stirring events, and 1?- r.-jf, in EE colorful anecdotes. So plenti- s i E Q i ' ful and fascinating is the mate- IMA, I V' 'i rial which presents itself that il ' -1 +I - W, ixpl the wri te r must drop the ' ,wwI, ,Eg ,Q vl thought of producing even the -.-.-.--- briefest history of American il'1'i1Tfgif',' ' fi1iil::iE:. Ml ,aff I, , .,,. Homeopathy and confine him- self to glimpses and comments, Y ll lmill ' Illl- .l lliii l i- W fig-L which, he hopes, will stimulate '-Llfgig j gfif: the reader to an investigation It YJ i of that literature which is his - .'- . -,., -,, ---- ' .....g,'L4',..,--1, L, ...L rightful heritage. FIRST HoMFoPA'1'Hic HosPi'r.xL IN PiNNsvLvAN1.1. CHr1s'1'NU'1' ST., Pnira., PA. VVhen we consider that Hahnemann resigned his position as parish doctor in Gommen, a small town near lVlagdeburg, in U8-lf, in order, as he says, Uthat I might no longer incur the risk of doing in.iury,H we can realize how deplorably un- scientific the practice of medicine then was. iVe find adequate cause here for a break with tradition, with the result that the alert, logical mind of Hahnemann was stimulated to seek a straight path, free from the old superstitious absurdities: for there is obviously an element of superstition necessary to allow a physician to prescribe drugs, the nature and effect of which he does not comprehend. The man who at twenty-four was master of Greek, Latin, English, Hebrew, Italian, Arabic, Spanish and German, could not allow himself to practice the art of healing without definite knowledge of his subject. Hence, without using brilliant sophisms or seducing hypotheses,', he finally arrived at the acceptance of a great natural law lying near at hand, simple and clear, but practically untried and certainly unstudied. Une can read in the life of Hahnemann first of the years of struggle, poverty, long tedious experimentation, sickness in his family, and interminable efforts to earn a livelihood by means of his translations. Later come his successes, culminating in the establishment of the law, Simifia sinzifflmi curmzr11r. Never was a life more crowded with difficulty and achievement, disappointment and triumph. YVe have now offered the invocation: a tribute to the great founder of Homeop- athy. Let us proceed to the text for the day: Homeopathy in the United States. About 1825, Hans Burch Gram came to America, bringing with him news of the great principle of healing. Financial difficulties compelled him into the active practice of medicine, and thus he gave the new teachings a forceful and convincing introduction in New York City. iVithin a decade was formed the New York Els-een

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However, there are some facts about the history of Homeopathy in Allentown that deserve mention. An entire square in the centre of the town was bought, and on llflay 27, 1835, the cornerstone of the Academy, containing Hahnemann's Gr- ganon and picture, was laid. Among the subjects to be taught were clinical instruc- tion, examination of the sick, pharmacodynamics, materia medica, dietetics, thera- peutics, surgery, obstetrics, medical jurisprudence, symptomatology, pathology, physiology, anatomy, Zoology, phytology, mineralogy,' chemistry, physics, geology, astronomy, and mathematics. These were not all, but such a list should have been enough to forestall sarcastic comments of the unthinking, who from the earliest times accused homeopaths of being mere pill dispensers. The succeeding years put upon Homeopathy the test of time, and in December, 1929, we again look at Allentown. A winter fog bathes the landscape, but fails to damage the spirits of the Class of l93fl assembled there to study mental disorders. Instead of the Allentown Academy, the Mecca of the journey is a vast group of buildings upon a hill, bearing the name Pennsylvania Homeopathic State Hospital for the Insane. This splendid institution offers to the sons of Hahnemann an un- limited supply of clinical material and expert instruction for the study of psychiatry. VVhat fulfillment is this of the great Constantine Heringls words, 'flt fHome-opathyl will succeed here sooner than in Europe, for, among a free people, who with prac- ticed eyes soon discover the truly useful, a treasure like this new art must quickly be estimated in a degree commensurate with its real valuef' Perhaps there are differences between the students representing the 1929 finished product of Homeopathy and those who studied in the Allentown Academy some ninety odd years ago. The former are doubtless more practically equipped to face medical problems, anid the latter, I believe, were more scholarly. The diseases of today, however, are as amenable to treatment by the law of similars as they were in Hering's time, and we are certain that he would be proud of the modern ad- vances of the homeopathic aft were he here to see them. There is scarcely a state in the Union that does not share actively in the drama of Homeopathic history in America. If we glance at the Middle VVest we find a veritable battlefield Where Homeopathy held strong positions, especially in Detroit and Ann Arborg and spread by leaps and bounds throughout the state of lVlichigan. A careful consideration of population proves that the growth from eight home- opathic physicians in l'8-47 to five hundred and one by 190-1-, is a record of con- siderable significance. It shows that acceptance of the new system was widespread, and especially that over a period of years it constantly gained in favor. The growth of Homeopathy has always been characterized by an air of permanence, as opposed to the numerous fads that vanish, like snow upon the desert's dusty face. Before travelling eastward to Philadelphia to complete this brief survey, let us jump to western limits of the country and see how Homeopathy, which Bradford calls a Forty-Ninerf, flourished in California. Dr. Benjamin Ober was the first Homeopath to administer medical aid to the gold-seekers. He arrived in San Fran- cisco in the summer of '49, and from his experiences in that golden land we hear echoes of encounters with grim death,', ugrizzly bears, disease and goldl Stories of converts to Homeopathy due to cures of the incurable are abundant in the pages of Homeopathic history in California, as they are elsewhere. Those were the Tfzirfeerz