Irish Homeopaths Serving the Homeopathic Community in Ireland

Sir Andrew Clark 1st Baronet 1826  –1893, Scottish physician and pathologist, was born at Aberdeen.

Andrew Clark was the allopathic doctor of Thomas Henry Huxley, Charles Darwin, and Florence Nightingale’s sister,

The most explicit affirmation of Samuel Hahnemann’s teaching from orthodox sources was that made by Sir Andrew Clark in 1883, who admitted that orthodox medicine was in a ‘backward and unsatisfactory condition‘, that ‘there are no fixed principles for the treatment of disease‘, and that ‘(orthodox) medicine is the most unprincipled of sciences‘.

His predecessor Michel Granier had also admitted that orthodox medicine was in an anarchic state, but that homeopathy stood on an entirely different footing.

Andrew Clark was the assistant of John Hughes Bennett, who admitted that ‘the empirical method of treating disease has reached its utmost limits, and that little further improvement is to be anticipated from it‘, (John Hughes Bennett collected statistical evidence to show that orthodox treatment was worse than no treatment at all, publishing a series of cases of pneumonia treated without bleeding, antimony or mercury with unusually small mortality),

Andrew Clark found that the homeopathic remedy Nux Vomica was of great benefit in constipation, and it is possible this is the ‘strychnine‘ Charles Darwin complained about, during his treatment by Andrew Clark in 1874 (no doubt given without sufficient dilution!)

Clark believed that ‘faecal poisoning‘ and ‘auto intoxication by faecal products‘ was often at the base of illhealth, and in this he took the lead from homeopathic thinking of the time (and today) (especially Edward Harris Ruddock) that constipation was commonly found at the root of illhealth.

Andrew Clark also defended hypnotism,

After attending school in Aberdeen, Andrew Clark was sent by his guardians to Dundee, attending the High School of Dundee and was then apprenticed to a pharmacist; upon returning to Aberdeen he began his medical studies in the University there.

Soon, however, he went to Edinburgh, where in the extra-academical school he had a student’s career of the most brilliant description, ultimately becoming assistant to  John Hughes Bennett in the Pathology Department of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and assistant demonstrator of anatomy to Robert Knox.

But symptoms of tuberculosis brought his academic life to a close, and in the hope that the sea might benefit his health he joined the medical department of the Royal Navy in 1848.

Next year he became pathologist to the Haslar Hospital, where Thomas Henry Huxley was one of his colleagues, and in 1853 he was the successful candidate for the newly-instituted post of curator to the museum of the London Hospital.

There he intended to devote all his energies to pathology, but circumstances brought him into active medical practice.

In 1854, the year in which he took his doctor’s degree at Aberdeen, the post of assistant physician to the hospital became vacant and he was prevailed upon to apply for it. He was fond of telling how his tuberculosis tendencies gained him the appointment. “He is only a poor Scotch doctor,” it was said, “with but a few months to live; let him have it.” He had it, and two years before his death publicly declared that of those who were on the staff of the hospital at the time of his selection he was the only one remaining alive.

In 1854 he became a member of the Royal College of Physicians, and in 1858 a fellow, and then went in succession through all the offices of honour the College has to offer, ending in 1888 with the presidency, which he continued to hold till his death.

From the time of his selection as assistant physician to the London Hospital, his fame rapidly grew until he became a fashionable doctor with one of the largest practices in London, counting among his patients some of the most distinguished men of the day.

The great number of persons who passed through his consulting-room every morning rendered it inevitable that to a large extent his advice should become stereotyped and his prescriptions often reduced to mere stock formulae, but in really serious cases he was not to be surpassed in the skill and carefulness of his diagnosis and in his attention to detail.

He was created a baronet in 1883 in recognition of his services to medical science.

In spite of the claims of his practice he found time to produce a good many books, all written in the precise and polished style on which he used to pride himself. Doubtless owing largely to personal reasons, lung diseases and especially lung fibrosis formed his favourite theme, but he also discussed other subjects, such as kidney failure, anemia, constipation, etc.

He died in London, after a paralytic stroke.

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Christian Albert Theodor Billroth 1829 – 1894 was a German born Austrian orthodox physician and amateur musician, who converted to homeopathy in Vienna,

As a surgeon, he is generally regarded as the founding father of modern abdominal surgery.

As a musician, he was a close friend and confidante of Johannes Brahms, a leading patron of the Viennese musical scene, and one of the first to attempt a scientific analysis of musicality,

Billroth went to school in Greifswald, and afterwards enrolled himself at the University of Greifswald to study medicine. He then followed his professor, Wilhelm Baum, to the University of Göttingen, and completed his medical doctorate at the University of Berlin. Along with Rudolph Wagner and Georg Meissner, Billroth went to Trieste to study the torpedo fish.

Billroth worked as a doctor from 1853-1860 at the Charité in Berlin. In Berlin he was also apprenticed to Carl Langenbuch. From 1860-1867 he was Professor at the University of Zurich and director of the surgical hospital and clinic in Zurich.

While in Zurich, Billroth published his classic textbook Die allgemeine chirurgische Pathologie und Therapie (General Surgical Pathology and Therapy) (1863). At the same time he introduced the concept of audits, publishing all results, good and bad, which automatically resulted in honest discussion on morbidity, mortality, and techniques – with resultant improvement in patient selection.

He was appointed professor of surgery at the University of Vienna in 1867 and practiced surgery as chief of the Second Surgical Clinic at the Allgemeine Krankenhaus (Vienna General Hospital).

He was directly responsible for a number of landmarks in surgery, including the first esophagectomy (1871), the first laryngectomy (1873), and most famously, the first successful gastrectomy (1881) for gastric cancer, after many ill-fated attempts. Legend has it that Billroth was nearly stoned to death in the streets of Vienna when his first gastrectomy patient died after the procedure.

Billroth was also instrumental in establishing the first modern school of thought in surgery. Among his disciples were luminaries such as Alexander von Winiwarter, Jan Mikulicz-Radecki and John Benjamin Murphy. William Stewart Halsted’s pioneer surgical residency program was greatly influenced by Billroth’s own methods of surgical education.

Billroth was a talented amateur pianist and violinist. He met Johannes Brahms in the 1860s, when the composer was a rising star of the Viennese musical scene. They became close friends and shared musical insights. Johannes Brahms frequently sent Billroth his original manuscripts in order to get his opinion before publication, and Billroth participated as a musician in trial rehearsals of many of Johannes Brahms‘ chamber works before their first performances. Johannes Brahms dedicated his first two string quartets, Opus 51, to Billroth.

Billroth and Johannes Brahms, together with the acerbic and influential Viennese music critic Eduard Hanslick, formed the core of the musical conservatives who opposed the innovations of Wilhelm Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt.

In the conflict, known as the War of the Romantics, Billroth supported Johannes Brahms, but was always fair and measured in his comments. “Wilhelm Richard Wagner was indeed a very considerable talent in many directions,” he wrote in 1888.

Billroth started an essay called “Wer ist musikalisch?” (“Who is musical?”), which was published posthumously by Eduard Hanslick. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply scientific methods to musicality.

In the essay, Billroth identifies different types of amusicality: tone deafness, rhythm-deafness, harmony-deafness, that suggest the different cognitive skills involved in our perception of music.

Billroth died in Opatija, Austria-Hungary, before he could complete the research.

Excelling at both his vocation and his avocation, Billroth never saw science and music as being in conflict. On the contrary, he considered the two to complement each other. “It is one of the superficialities of our time to see in science and in art two opposites,” he wrote in a letter. “Imagination is the mother of both.”

Of interest:

Johannes Brahms was a friend of Robert Alexander Schumann, and Brahms traveled to Kennenberg to find a homeopath for him. Johannes Brahms wrote to Clara Schumann that ‘I implore you most solemnly, if I should ever fall ill and you are close at hand, to send me at once to a homeopath… ‘ Johannes Brahms was also a friend of Georg Friedrich Daumer, a homeopath and Rosicrucian who wrote many verses for Johannes Brahms Liebeslieder waltzes.

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William Morgan ?1826 – ?1894 was a British orthodox physician, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, Accouncher to the West End Maternity Institute, who converted to homeopathy to become a Member of the British Homeopathic Society, Member of the British Institute of Homeopathy, Physician to the Brighton Homeopathic Dispensary, Physician to the North London Homeopathic Dispensary, Medical Officer at the Cambridge Homeopathic Dispensary, Member of the Homeopathic Publishing Company, Medical Officer at the London Homeopathic Hospital,

William Morgan practiced in Plymouth, and in Camdridge, and at 14 Tyndale Place, Islington,

William Morgan wrote The homeopathic treatment of indigestion, constipation, and haemorrhoids, The philosophy of homeopathy, The Text Book for Domestic Practice, The Liver and Its Diseases, Both Functional and Organic, Diabetes Mellitus, Syphilis and Syphiloidal Diseases, Cholera, Diphtheria, The signs and concomitant derangements of pregnancy, Contagious diseases; their history, anatomy, pathology, and treatment, Diseases of the Liver, and their homeopathic treatment, The liver and its diseases, both functional and organic, The Liver: Historically, Anatomically, Physiologically and Clinically Considered,

Of interest:

A Dr. Morgan was the homeopath in Edward Bulwer Lytton’s Rienzi: the last of the tribunes,

Rev E O Morgan was on the Management Committee of the Clapham Homeopathic Dispensary,

S Morgan was a Physician at the Bath Homeopathic Dispensary,

T Morgan was a Physician for the Caledonian Fire and Life Insurance Company, alongside William Bayes (in Bath),

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George Blair Cochran 1810 – 1872, MRCS England 1833, MD Edinburgh 1834, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh, Member of the Royal Physical Society, Member of the Societe Medicale Etran, Paris, Member of the Dialectic Society, was a British orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy, Physician at the Weston Super Mare Homeopathic Dispensary, Member of The Hahnemann Publishing Society,

Cochran practiced at 6 Victoria Place, Weston Super Mare, Somerset,

Cochran attended the British Homeopathic Congress in 1872,

Cochran’s Obituary is in the Monthly Homeopathic Review in 1872,

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William Theophilus Ord 1864 – ?1928, MRCS England, LRCP London, was a British orthodox physician, Member of the Geological Society London, Member of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, who converted to homeopathy to become Visiting Surgeon and Physician to the Hahnemann Convalescent Home and Homeopathic Dispensary Bournemouth, Fellow and President of the British Homeopathic Society, Editor of the British Journal of Homeopathy,

Ord was a friend of John McLachlin, Thomas George Stonham, Dudley d’Auvergne Wright,

Ord lived at Greenstead, Madeira Road, Bournemouth,

William Theophilus Ord, son of Alexander Craven Ord and Anne Clementina Mure, sibling of Laura Clementine Ord and Julia Mary Ord, born 1863/64; married 1889, Catherine Aldridge King, and had ?2 daughters Laura Clementine Ord, born 1864/65; Julia Mary Ord, born 1868/69.

Ord submitted cases and articles to various homeopathic publications, including Asthma: a vasomotor neurosis, The Dearth of Homeopathic Practitioners, The Early Recognition of Gout and Allied Disorders, Treatment of Pulmonary Phthisis, The Rarer Uses of Some Common Drugs, Urinary Deposits in Gout, Collinsonia Canadensis, Magnesium Phosphoricum as an Anodyne, Treatment During an Attack of Cerebral Gout, The Curability of Phthisis in the light of modern research,

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Newton John Lane 1800 – 1869 was a British gentleman and Sheriff of Staffordshire, who was on the Management Committee of the Hahnemann Convalescent Home Bournemouth,

Newton John Lane lived at Aston Hall, Warwickshire, at King’s Bromley Manor, Staffordshire, and at Elmhurst Hall, Staffordshire, and at The Firs, Bournemouth,

John Newton Lane  was born on 4 December 1800 at Aston Hall, Warwickshire, England. He was the son of John  Lane and Sarah  Lloyd. He married Hon.  Agnes Bagot, daughter of William Bagot 2nd Baron Bagot of Bagot’s Bromley and Lady  Louisa Legge, on 8 January 1828.

He died on 13 October 1869 at age 68.

John Newton Lane lived at King’s Bromley Manor, Staffordshire, England. Child of John Newton Lane: Very Rev. Ernald Lane. Children of John Newton Lane and Hon. Agnes Bagot: Isabel Emma Beatrice Lane d. 1 May 1876; Edith Emeline Mary Lane d. 12 Mar 1929; Lt.-Col. John Henry Bagot Lane 1829 – 1886; Sidney Leveson Lane b. 13 Apr 1831; Cecil Newton Lane 1833 – 1897; Maj.-Gen. Sir Ronald Bertram Lane 1847 – 1937,

John Smith, sheriff of Staffordshire in 1816, built a new hall at Elmhurst, and died there in 1840. (fn. 66) Later the same year his widow Elizabeth and their son Charles let the hall for five years to Isabella, widow of John Campbell, Baron Cawdor. (fn. 67) Charles Smith was living at Elmhurst in 1848. (fn. 68) In 1856 he sold the estate to Newton John Lane, then living at the hall. (fn. 69) Lane died in 1869, and in 1874 his trustees sold Elmhurst to George Fox, a retired Manchester businessman (d. 1894).

Of interest:

In 1854, John Lane Newton of Elmhurst Hall, ?relative, married Maryanne Emily, only daughter of Henry Martin Blair, and they had 3 children, Arthur Lister Newton Lane born 1858 – who died in 1867 aged 8 years, Minnie Florence Newton, and Menina Mary Newton,

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The Hahnemann Convalescent Home Bournemouth ((photo used courtesy  of Sylvain Cazalet Homéopathe International) was founded in 1879 with 32 beds, enlarged in 1883, and in 1913, a chapel was added.

The Home accepted patients with Tuberculosis, and convalescents from hospitals requiring medical supervision.

Originally founded as a Dispensary for the sick poor not eligible for Parochial relief, the Home did not accept males under the age of 17, females under the age of 15, patients with infectious fevers, bronchitis or bronchial asthma, and the length of stay was restricted to 12 weeks for those who were admitted.

Hahnemann House is now part of Dorset HealthCare NHS Trust at Hahnemann Road, Bournemouth, Dorset, BH2 5JW, and it is role in the Mental Health Services is devoted to supporting individuals in their own homes rather than in hospital by providing a comprehensive and flexible service to enable them to live in the community, and its Assertive Outreach Team is still offering complementary therapies,

1868 – Bournemouth was considered favourable for the recovery of consumptive patients, and was already home to a Sanatorium, but the Homeopathic Medical Directory of Great Britain and Ireland records no homeopathic practitioners in Bournemouth at this time,

1869 – the Bournemouth Homeopathic Dispensary in Commercial Road, Bournemouth, was founded, Management Committee: Rev H B Clissold, Newton J Lane, M William, Physician: Bertram Wright Nankivell, Chemist: Henry Turner,

1870 – the Bournemouth Homeopathic Dispensary was located at Branksome Lodge, Avenue Road, Bournemouth,

1879 – the Hahnemann Convalescent Home and Homeopathic Dispensary was founded,

The Hahnemann Convalescent Home and Homeopathic Dispensary was established for such consumptive patients as may be recommended to Bournemouth with a fair hope of restoration or considerable improvement; for such convalescent cases of a non infectious character from the different Homeopathic Hospitals and Dispensaries as may seem to be suitable for admission into such an institution; and for any acute non infectious cases as may occur in the practice of the Dispensary, and which the medical officers may recommend as suitable.

Situated on the West Cliff, on a site granted for 999 years at a nominal ground rent by Mr. W Clapcott, Dean, the Home was founded on the 4th January, 1878, the foundation stone being laid by the Right Hon. Earl Cairns, and the building opened by the same nobleman on the 3rd June, 1879.

1883 – Dr. Dobell erected a Hydrotherapy Establishment in Bournemouth,

1884 – the Hahnemann Convalescent Home and Homeopathic Dispensary was a regular venue for homeopathic meetings,

1890 – the Annual Homeopathic Congress of England was held at the Dispensary on September
18,

1895 – William Theophilus Ord MRCS England, LRCP London was Visiting Surgeon to the Dispensary,

1904 – a bazaar was held in aid of the dispensary,

The Hahnemann Convalescent Home and Dispensary in Bournemouth closed in 1941, and was incorporated into the NHS in 1948, and the Annual Reports for the years 1920 – 1940 are in the National Archives Dorset History Centre,

John Weir wrote The Hahnemann Convalescent Home, Bournemouth, British Homeopathic Journal 20, 1931, 200-201,

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The first Glasgow Homeopathic Dispensary opened in 1849, and the second Glasgow Homeopathic Dispensary opened 10.3.1909.

The Homeopathic Houldsworth Hospital opened in 1914, and incorporated with the Glasgow Children’s Homeopathic Hospital in 1944, and both hospitals were renamed together as the Glasgow Homeopathic hospital in 1948,

The Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital operates today at 1053 Great Western Road, Glasgow,  G12 OXQ

1849 – the Glasgow Homeopathic Institution and Dispensary opened at 16 Bath Street, Physician John Thomson, Dispenser Matthew Thomson, John Thomson ?1801 – ?1870, MD Glasgow 1828, LRCS Edinburgh 1846, was a British orthodox physician, Surgeon to the 1st Royal Lanarkshire Militia, who converted to homeopathy, Physician at the Glasgow Homeopathic Dispensary. John Thomson practiced at 300 Bath Crescent, Glasgow, (Matthew Thomson was his Dispenser).

1866 – the Glasgow Homeopathic Dispensary moved to 280 George Street, Glasgow, (John Thomson and Matthew Thomson were still working at this establishment – this Dispensary may well have closed due to the death of John Thomson?),

1909 – the second Glasgow Homeopathic Dispensary opened 10.3.1909, financed by the Houldsworth family, Physicians: Robert Gibson Miller, Patrick, Thomas Thornton Macklin Dishington, Fairlea, Adam Lees, Chemist:  W H Huggins (Huggins and Co were the chemists for the Glasgow Homeopathic Dispensary, R B Huggins practiced in Edinburgh, and W H Huggins practiced in Glasgow),

John Houldsworth 1807 – 1859 was the son of a Nottingham cotton spinner who moved to Cranstonhill and worked in Kelvinbridge. John Houldsworth was educated in Glasgow, Geneva and Heidelberg. He entered the family business, and rose to become the head of spinning. The company expanded into iron, establishing the Anderston Foundry and Machine Works, later known as the Anderston Foundry Company.

The Houldsworth family were sponsors of homeopathy over an extended period, and listed as sponsors of homeopathy in the Homeopathic Medical Directory of the Great Britain and Ireland in 1871, in 1872, in 1873, so it is quite likely they were patients of John Thomson,

1914 – the Houldsworth Hospital was started at 5 Lynedoch Crescent, Glasgow,

1920 – the house known as Oakpark, Mount Vernon, was gifted by Mr. and Mrs. William Fyfe, to a group of prominent Glasgow citizens to be utilised as a hospital for the treatment of non infectious diseases of children, with the stipulation that such treatment should be purely homeopathic. Lady Blythswood, in the unavoidable absence of HRH Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, formally opened the Glasgow Children’s Homeopathic hospital on October 5, 1921.

1929 – an out patient block was built adjacent to the main building of the Glasgow Children’s Homeopathic Hospital,

1931 – the hospital moved to 1000 Great Western Road, Glasgow, and the premises at Lynedoch Crescent became the Out patient Dispensary,

1934 – the British Homeopathic Congress was held at the hospital,

1936 – Thomas Thornton Macklin Dishington Physician at the hospital died,

1936 – an extension to the back wing of the Glasgow Children’s Homeopathic Hospital was built,

1944 – the Board of Management of the hospital amalgamated the Glasgow Children’s Homeopathic Hospital,

1946 – Howard Henderson Patrick retired from the hospital after 37 years,

1948 – the hospital complex becomes incorporated into the NHS, and is now known as the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital,

1950 – John and Elizabeth Paterson worked at the hospital,

1955 – William Ernest Boyd Radiologist and assistant physician at the hospital died,

1972 – T Fergus Stewart (who was on the Board of Management of the hospital) and his wife Elizabeth Somerville Stewart both died in the Staines plane crash,

1972 – an outpatient branch of the Glasgow Children’s Homeopathic Hospital is still operating at 221 Hamilton Road, Glasgow,

1977 – the Glasgow Children’s Homeopathic Hospital was closed,

1987 – the out patients dispensary at Lynedoch Crescent was moved to within the hospital at 1000 Great Western Road,

1990 – Hamish William Boyd Consulting Physician at the hospital retired,

1992 – Robin Gordon Gibson, Consulting Physician at the Hospital died, his wife Sheila Marjorie Lillian Gibson is now in private practice,

1999 – the hospital moved to new purpose built premises in the grounds of nearby Gartnavel General Hospital,

2005 – Erich Kurt Ledermann House Physician at the hospital died,

Current staff at the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital include, Robert Leckridge, David Reilly, Thomas E Whitmarsh,

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