History of Homeopathy Its Origin and Its Conflicts

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The above is an old wisdom by a historian who understood the necessity of studying history from a utilitarian point of views.

There are thousands of publications on ‘History of Medicine’. Study of history is not only to study the account of period, circumstances, importance and implications of great discoveries but also of the biographical account of the great geniuses and great men involved. This book teaches the evolution of the Sciences and Art of Medicine and keeps us alert and watchful against follies. of the past and tendencies which were responsible for them. In addition it tells us about the logic, necessity and methods of discarding or avoiding those follies.

This is an old wisdom by an historian who understood the necessity of studying history from an utilitarian point of view.

This was also understood by a section of medical world and thousands and thousands of publications on the History of Medicine as a whole and its allied branches were written. There are immortal classics of Singer, Garrison, O.P. Jaggi, Kutumbia and many many others. There are accepted books of authority on almost all branches of science and very particularly of Medicine and its related subjects. Some of the universities have specialized on publication of the books on History of Medicine.

The study of History of Medicine is not only an account of the period, circumstances, importance and implications of the great discoveries but also of the biographical account of the great geniuses and great men involved. It teaches us the evolution of the Science and Art of Medicine and keeps us alert and watchful against the follies of the past and the tendencies which were responsible for such follies and tells us about the logic, necessity and method of discarding or avoiding those follies.

History of Homeopathy has two steps more to this study. First is the evaluation of the evolution of new developments, discoveries and researches in the light of the fixed fundamentals of Homeopathy. Second is the critical evaluation of the person, be he a stalwart or a beneficiary, and purpose of the discoverer. This study may, at times, be the consciousness about the brute responsibility of judging the reason and purposes of the discoverer and of judging the utility and implications of his work.

With this responsibility in mind a homeopathic historian has to judge and evaluate the writings of different thoughts or methods which surfaced in homeopathy and the so-called schools in homeopathy. We have to study the biography of great masters and famous authors like J. T. Kent, M. L. Tyler, Stuart Close, Herbert A. Roberts, Richard Hughes, Wm. Boericke, Blackwood and others to understand the grounds of their writings and the frame of their difference with each other and also to understand the different attitudes of the same person in this different works, for example J.T. Kent in his Lectures on Homeopathic Philosophy, his Repertory and his The Lesser Writings, Dr. J.T. Clarke in his The Dictionary of Materia Medicaand his The Prescriber.

It is painful that homeopathic litterateur, literati and laureates " have published same material in Materia Medica and therapeutics again and again, with slight change in style and content. The have not cared to write on History of Medicine or History of Homeopathy. The materials are scant and unavailable. The tradition of publishing = OBITUARIES in the Transactions was a rich source for Biographical History but it was followed in India by very few and the most respectable name amongst them is of Dr. Dewan Harish Chand who published the biographies of living and past stalwarts in most of the Transactions wherever he was involved or he had a say. There are few DIRECTORIES & WHO’s WHO, the best of which was published by M/s B. Jain publishers, New Delhi, in 1971, containing Biographies.

We have tried but have not succeeded in publishing the History of Indian Homeopathy. The work is on, the attempts are there, the outcome is awaited.

The following is an incomplete list of the publications in the form of books or pamphlets related to the History of Homeopathy. Since the development and spread of homeopathy, in its early years, were related to Hahnemann, the Biography of Hahnemann, his writings and of his associates and admirers, had to be included. The publications on Hahnemann’s Biographies are also important because most of them contain description or references to many persons and personalities who influenced the history of homeopathy. Many books on homeopathic philosophy or comments on Organon of Medicine contain the Biographies of the author or some of his related persons, but including them would have been superfluous and stupendous. This list does not include articles published in Journals or Souvenirs or Transactions and Publications other than English.