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The History of American Homeopathy: From Rational Medicine to Holistic Health Care PDF

210 Pages·2009·0.8 MB·English
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The History of American Homeopathy The History of American Homeopathy From Rational Medicine to Holistic Health Care John S. Haller Jr. Rutgers University Press New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Haller, John S. The history of American homeopathy : from rational medicine to holistic health care / John S. Haller Jr. p. ; cm. Continues: The history of American homeopathy : the academic years, 1820–1935 / John S. Haller Jr. c2005. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-8135-4583-7 (hard : alk. paper) 1. Homeopathy—United States—History—19th century. 2. Homeopathy—United States— History—20th century. I. Title. [DNLM: 1. Homeopathy—history—United States. 2. History, 19th Century—United States. 3. History, 20th Century—United States. 4. Homeopathy—trends—United States. WB 930 H185ha 2009] RX51.H33 2009 615.5’32—dc22 2007048025 A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the British Library. Copyright © 2009 by John S. Haller Jr. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized inanyform or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, 100 Joyce Kilmer Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854–8099. The only exception to this prohibition is “fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright law. Visit our Web site: http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu Manufactured in the United States of America For Peter and Jon Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself” CONTENTS Foreword ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 Chapter 1. The Decline of Academic Homeopathy 5 The “Holy Grail” 7 The High-Potency Conservatives 8 Educational Standards 11 The Flexner Report and its Aftermath 14 Merger 20 Looking for Scapegoats 25 Stuart M. Close 27 Thinking the Inevitable 30 On Reflection 32 Chapter 2. Esoteric Homeopathy 35 Vitalism 35 Emanuel Swedenborg 39 Homeopathy as a Belief System 42 High Potencies 46 X-Rays 49 Tissue Remedies 50 Bach Flowerism 51 Sixth Edition ofOrganon 52 Energy Medicines 54 Law or Principle 57 Chapter 3. The Laity Speaks Out 63 American Foundation for Homeopathy 64 Laymen’s Leagues 69 Concerns 73 The Layman Speaks 76 Luyties Pharmacal Company 81 Vulgarization 83 Chapter 4. Postwar Trends 87 Atomic Energy 88 Eastern Philosophy 93 George Vithoulkas 96 Psychosomatic Medicine 101 New Challenges 104 Controlled Studies 108 Chapter 5. Roads Taken and Not Taken 115 The Cultist Threat 116 Hour of Decision 118 Members Only 121 Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia 131 Questionable Legitimacy 134 College Training 136 Chapter 6. Whither the Future? 141 Notes 153 Bibliography 175 Index 181 Foreword Foreword In 1978 Dr. Ramunas Kondratas, then assistant curator at the NationalMuseumofAmericanHistory,DivisionofMedicalScience at the Smithsonian Institution, made a rather unique documentary film on homeopathy. Featuring Gustav “Gus” Tafel, who took the audienceona30-minutetourofthelargestmanufacturerofhomeo- pathicmedicinesintheUnitedStates,Boericke&Tafel,“Reunions: Memories of an American Experience” presented a distinguished looking gentleman in his late sixties, the grandson of co-founder Adolph J. Tafel, who waxed nostalgic over his time at the “B & T” firm.LocatedinPhiladelphiaat1011ArchStreet,thebuilding,appa- ratus, and manufacturing processes had changed littlesince moving tothatlocationin1880.*TheSkinnerpotencies†usedbyB&Tuntil 1991,forexample,hadbeenrecommendedbytheeminenthomeopath JamesTylerKentin1903,andevenGusTafeladmittedthatmanyof the bottles of assorted attenuated and diluted tinctures made by that process had been lining the storage shelves for years. Butwhatexactlyishomeopathy?Thefilm’snarratorexplainedthat homeopathywas“avitalisticandholisticmedicaldoctrineformulated by a German physician, Samuel Hahnemann” in the early nineteenth century.Afterreviewingthecompany’shistory,Tafeltouredthefacil- ity,introducedtheaudiencetothefirm’spresident(a“secondcousin bymarriage”),discussedthebusinessthroughtheyears,andconcluded withalmostfatalisticresignation,“it[homeopathy]lasteduntilabout 1900andthenitslowlystartedtodeteriorateandthentheallopathic schools took over.” Happy with his B & T career, Tafel gave a wry *In1987Boericke&TafelwaspurchasedbyVSMinHolland.B&Tmovedin 1992 to Santa Rosa, California. †Named after Scottish homeopath Thomas Skinner, the “Skinner Continuous Fluxion Apparatus” used by B & T was designed to produce highly dynamized products. ix

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Although scorned in the early 1900s and publicly condemned by Abraham Flexner and the American Medical Association, the practice of homeopathy did not disappear. Instead, it evolved with the emergence of holistic healing and Eastern philosophy in the United States and today is a form of alternative
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