by Peter Morrell
PART 4: LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY BRITISH HOMEOPATHY
Towards the end of the 19th century several important and contrasting threads co-existed within British homeopathy. These include: the use of nosodes; the use of very low potencies and mother tinctures; the use of the higher potencies developed mainly in America; the metaphysics of Swedenborg and Paracelsus; the physiological homeopathy of Hughes and Dudgeon; Rademacher's Organ Remedies; and the 'Biochemic Tissue Salts' of Schuessler. It is a very interesting period in the development of homeopathy and we can see how these contrasting ideologies and techniques jockeyed with each other for dominance within a rich ideological tapestry i.e. within the minds of homeopaths.
This period was important in allopathy too, during which the cell concept, the Germ Theory of disease and the basis of genetics were all systematically unravelled. This period also laid out the ideological foundations for the discovery and development of Bach's Bowel Nosodes, and Flower Essences, which were to figure largely for the rest of the century and for homeopathy in general. But above all it was a time dominated by the four highly creative and experimental members of the 'Cooper Club': Burnett, Skinner, Cooper and Clarke.
At the turn of the century there were four distinct though entangled threads emerging in UK homeopathy. They were the Cooper Club, the increased use of nosodes, the influence of Kent and the general decline of medically qualified practice, which coincided with the rise of the lay practitioner. Here we shall examine the first two.
The second main phase of British homeopathy was undoubtedly the main figures of the Cooper Club. These were late nineteenth and early 20th century homeopaths. Towards the end of the 19th century at a time when British homeopathy had gone past its great peak and was in relative but gradual decline, four distinguished homeopathic doctors used to meet regularly and were to have a major influence on its future. These were Drs Skinner, Cooper, Compton Burnett and Clarke.
In London the 'Cooper Club', was an informal gathering of several leading homeopathic doctors. They met and dined weekly and shared their notes and experiences over a period roughly from 1880 to 1900. It chiefly consisted of Drs Thomas Skinner [1825-1906], James Compton Burnett [1840-1901] and Robert Thomas Cooper [1844-1903]. Later they were joined by the much younger Dr. John Henry Clarke [1853-1931]. This group also continued to meet after the deaths of Cooper and Burnett. And, after the death of Skinner in 1906, Clarke continued the tradition by maintaining vigorous links with other major British homeopath and by having regular meetings for the discussion of new ideas and of cases.
These meetings continuing after 1906 were with a select band of people who were in effect tutored by Dr. Clarke in all aspects of homeopathy. This also took place outside the BHS, with which Clarke more or less severed all contact after 1908. It also included several people who were medically unqualified amateur practitioners.
This group included Puddephatt, Upcher and Ellis Barker, who, as protégés of Dr. Clarke, soon became important torch-bearers for the movement well into the twentieth century. I have not yet seen any material evidence that the other members of the Cooper Club taught non-doctors, but they may well have done so in secret. It would not be surprising considering that Clarke despised the rest of his profession as traitors of homeopathy in general and of British working-people in particular. Drs Weir and Wheeler were also members. One suspects that Bach, Kenyon, Quinton and several others were also members, and taught lay persons, though there is no direct evidence and an air of secrecy shrouds the group. The Club continued to meet into the 1930s under Clarke and Wheeler.
Several key features of these doctors need emphasising. They were fiercely opposed to orthodox medical practice and made a point of castigating that system at every opportunity. Not only did they castigate it, but for the usual reasons of using suppressive, dangerous Drugs which did not treat the whole person and which were unsafe and productive of only illusory change in shifting symptom patterns rather than true cure. These are the same reasons that all homeopaths have used to criticise allopathy, even from Hahnemann's day.
These blistering attacks upon orthodoxy were mainly delivered by Drs Burnett and Clarke and usually poured forth from the pages of The Homeopathic World, which they edited between them at various times between 1870 and 1931. It is as if they took their cue from Hahnemann himself and so felt duty-bound to 'show their mettle' by continuing a sabre-rattling tradition of such attacks. As it was, the two 'camps' became utterly battle-hardened and staunchly opposed, as they have remained throughout most of this century.
Copyright © Peter Morrell 2000