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

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days when cholera scourged the land, and Homeopathic treatment proved its efficacy again and again in that dread malady. VVe shall not stop to tell of the foundation of Homeopathic institutions nor of the distinguished men who built up the Homeopathic tradition in the West. Let us conclude by recording that whatever else was brilliant in the Homeo-pathic his- tory of California, it becomes dim beside the gift of Dr. Garth VV. Boericke to Phila- delphia and especially to the Hahnemann Nfedical College and Hospital. There is not a man in the Class of 1930 or in the entire school who does not think well of California on this account. Coming East with Dr. Boericke we now have to wait a while ere we see rising in supreme stateliness and strength out of the roaring maelstrom of the citv a new symbol of the healing art. Here we find the latest lines and the most glorious so far penned in Homeopathy's historical pages. The ink is scarcely dry that tells of this most recent venture, and can anyone question its established success? A final plunge into the past and we are finished. Thirteen years after the establishment of the Allentown Academy, again there was no institution in the world where Homeopathy was taught, but in 1848, a meeting at which Drs. Con- stantine Hering, Walter VVilliamson, and Jacob Jeanes were present, resulted in the foundation of the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania. So bitter was the antagonism of the old school that no effort was spared to thwart the advancement of the new system. Those men who were interested in Hahnemannis teachings were either forced to remain silent or expect to be refused admission to an allopathic col- lege or hospital. Accordingly the need of an Homeopathic medical college was direg and the meeting in 1848 proved to be the moment of exciting force which started the dramatic climb of Homeopathy to a position of preeminence in Philadelphia. Here we have presented the alpha and omega of Homeopathy in this country, and what lies between is yours to read and mine to recommend. This omega, how- ever, is only the ending to date. The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on , and thus the historian's task is never ended. Let me borrow from an unfailing source in concluding that Homeopathy is destined to perform an act whereof what,s past is prologue. Fourteen

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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

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