While living in Boston I visited the Talbot Building in the heart of the city (above). Dr. Israel Tisdale Talbot founded here the Massachusetts Homeopathic Hospital in 1876. In 1929 the hospital was renamed as Massachusetts Memorial Hospital and today it is used for the offices of the School of Public Health. When I walked into the building I saw a commemorative plaque for Dr. Talbot and a few words about the Homeopathic Hospital but today nothing else reminds of the old hospital. The people who work here were surprised to see  a 'real live homeopath' and when I asked if there were any rooms preserved in original form they proudly showed me a small fire place in one of the meeting rooms.

 The Talbot Building is a beautiful Victorian building, outstanding in its environment. I don’t think that many medical students who have their picnics on the lawn in front of the hospital know anything about homeopathy or its history.

The story of the Talbot Building embraces the most important ideas about the history of homeopathy in general: it flourished in the 1800’s and healed many. As Talbot himself, homeopathy was disliked by the conventional camp. Soon based on the results homeopaths had achieved finally homeopathy rose to become an established and recognized system of medicine. Later, in the early 1900’s along with political, financial and sociological changes homeopathy faded in the United States. Homeopaths died, their hospitals got renamed or forgotten after who they were named.

Overview of the History of Homeopathy

Homeopathy is based on natural laws. Throughout history many native cultures have used these natural principles based on thousands of years of experimenting, observation of nature.

Hippocrates, the grandfather of medicine (his sculpture stands across the lawn at the Talbot Building) stated that there were two ways to apply medicinal knowledge: the law of opposites and the law of similars. The law of similars is homeopathy. This path was forgotten for many years to come. There were some great thinkers in history who advocated the medicine of similars but the first one to establish it as a medical system was Samuel Hahnemann, German physician (1755-1843). He started establishing  a database of homeopathic remedies. In his life he ‘proved’ 106 remedies. Proving is a process similar to double blind clinical trials that study the effect of a remedy on a healthy individual. After 'proving' them the remedies are used on the sick based on the law of similars.

Dr. Samuel Hahnemann

The law of similars states that the remedy that brings on a certain disease condition in a healthy person can cure the same disease in the sick.

 Hahnemann’s thinking was revolutionary in his time not only because of his ‘new science’  but also because he emphasized the importance of good hygiene, good nutrition, healthy living conditions, physical exercise and fresh air in everyday life.

Conventional medicine and especially pharmacists did not like the ‘new method’, Hahnemann’s new school of medicine. Homeopathic remedies were used in minute doses and for a pharmacist it was much easier to make a living on large doses of medications. Homeopathy showed great success in big epidemics and slowly started gaining some popularity.

Homeopathy in America started as European homeopaths arrived and stayed for good. At the time – early 1800’s – there were different types of medical modalities in the American medical world beside conventional medicine. Among those only homeopathy had a coherent system supporting its principles and healing method. That is what made it different and desirable for open minded physicians.  

Constantine Hering (1800-1880) arrived in the United States in 1833. He was a charismatic man, who devoted his life to healing people and convert them to the 'true healing method'. He proved 104 remedies on himself. He wrote a 10 volume work essential to homeopaths: a collection of remedies with related symptoms. His conversion to homeopathy started when, as a medical student, he was asked to write a paper against homeopathy. He started experimenting with Cinchona, a homeopathic remedy that Hahnemann himself started his experiments with. Soon when Hering got a dissecting wound and was supposed to have his finger amputated he tried homeopathic treatment instead. As later he wrote: “The finger is still my own… To Hahnemann, who restored it was given the hand, even more the man, body and soul.”

James Tyler Kent (1849-1916) was a medical doctor.

When his wife became ill and asked for the help of a homeopath Kent saw the cure and became interested in homeopathy. Five years later he was already  a professor of Materia Medica at the homeopathic medical college in St. Louis. He was the first homeopath who prescribed based on ‘constitutional types’. This means that he took into account not only the immediate physical and emotional characteristics of the person but rather a more general picture of personality, general features and even body shape. Kent’s great work is his Repertory of homeopathic Materia Medica still used today.

The American Institute of Homeopathy was established in 1844. This was the first national medical organization in the US. The AMA (American Medical Association) was established three years later, in 1847.

Because of different unfortunate historic events homeopathy started diminishing in the 1900’s. The 23 homeopathic hospitals and all the homeopathic colleges closed or were taken over by allopathic medical thoughts, teachers and doctors. By the 1960’s there were only a handful of homeopaths practicing in the US.

In the 1980’s some American doctors learnt about homeopathy and driven by the desire to learn more they traveled to other countries to study with living masters of homeopathy. In Greece they learnt Greek in order to understand the patients, in England and India they could take advantage of the well-established homeopathic medical system with homeopathic hospitals, training programs and homeopathic medical doctors working together with surgeons and other specialists.

When these doctors returned to America they brought with them their new knowledge. They started schools, courses and clinics where ever since homeopaths are healing many.

Today

The National Center for Homeopathy was established in 1974 and NASH - the North American Society of Homeopaths was created in 1990. These organizations work to make homeopathy available throughout the United States. They work on developing and supporting a qualified homeopathic profession and supporting the public in its right to receive high quality homeopathic care.