The spread of Homoeopathic Medicine

During the nineteenth century, Dr. Hahnemann's ideas spread quickly from Germany across Europe and then to the Americas, and also eastwards to Asia. Today homoeopathy is well respected in some countries, notably in Britain, France, Germany, Netherlands, Greece, India (where it is recognized and supported by the state), Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Central and South America, but unfortunately, not as accepted in others.

Homoeopathy 'arrived' in Britain in 1832 when a Dr Hervey Quin began to minister to fashionable society from the premises of 19 King Street in London's West End. Quin had traveled to Germany to consult Hahnemann on his own account and learned homoeopathy from the Leipzig Homoeopaths. Later Quin became the first President of the British Homoeopathic Society, founded in 1844. Thereafter, despite opposition from orthodox physicians, homoeopathy steadily grew in popularity. Quin set up the first homoeopathic hospital in London in 1850. The first Royal patron of homoeopathy was Queen Adelaide, consort of William IV, who from 1835 until her death in 1849, was the patient of Dr Ernst Stapf, one of Samuel Hahnemann's closest colleagues. Three very distinguished Homoeopathic Physicians have served the present Queen in the past, Dr John Weir, Dr Margery Blackie, and Dr Charles Elliott. Currently, Dr Ronald Davey holds this position.

In the United States the fire of homoeopathy was lit by Dr Constantine Hering (b. 1800). As well as formulating the Laws of Cure (which states that 'Cure takes place from the top of the body downwards, from the inside outwards and from the most important organs to the least important. Cure takes place in reverse order to the onset of symptoms'.), he pioneered the use of nosodes, which are medicines made not from plants or minerals, but from diseased tissue or from bodily secretions. In 1838 he and his colleagues used a homoeopathic preparation of infected sheep's spleen to cure anthrax, which was at one time, an almost certainly fatal disease.

In Australia, Homoeopathic Medicine arrived in 1843 (the year of Dr Samuel Hahnemann's death), with Dr Stephen Simpson, a British Army Surgeon, who was previously working in India but then transferred to the fledgling colony. He was born in England around 1800, became the personal physician to a member of the European nobility, and was responsible for the publication of a book on homoeopathy in London, in 1836. On arrival, he was made responsible for the welfare of female convicts who were housed in the barracks at Hamilton. He was then appointed to the Royal Brisbane Hospital Board of Trustees. During his life in Brisbane, Dr Simpson also built historic Wolston House and to this day, his homoeopathic medical kit is still on display.

In 1852, Dr Johan Gunst set up a Homoeopathic Medical practice in Melbourne, Victoria. Homoeopathy then spread to Western Australia in 1857 with a group of Benedictine Monks, (most notably Rosendo Salvado) who treated the local Aboriginals in a colony named 'New Norcia' which was 130 kilometers north of Perth. It then flowed over to New South Wales in 1858 with the opening of the first Homoeopathic Dispensary, in Bell and Hundley's Pharmacy in George Street, Sydney. In 1885, the first Homoeopathic Hospital opened in Melbourne, Victoria, which had facilities for 14 in-patients, and a successful out-patient department, which apparently treated 10,000 patients a year. The Sydney Homoeopathic Hospital opened in 1902 in Redfern, and moved to Glebe in 1915. Unfortunately it closed in 1988 after there was a court case over the disputed money accumulated from the benefactor's Will, who had previously directed his intentions that the Hospital be used for homoeopathic treatment.

Today, Homoeopathy is accepted by the World Health Organization, by the Australian government under the Therapeutic Goods Act, and is accepted by all Private Health Funds (except for Medibank Private). It is regulated by the Australian Register Of Homoeopaths, and there are Homoeopathic Colleges in every state except for the Northern Territory. Homoeopathic Medicine is alive and well in the land-down-under, and is being practiced by approximately 700 registered Homoeopathic Practitioners throughout the country.