A couple of years ago, while visiting Philadelphia, I was happy to find a hospital named after the founder of Homeopathy - namely the Hahnemann university hospital.
In the winter of 1848, Constantine Hering, Jacob Jeanes, and Walter Williamson met to establish a homeopathic medical scool in Philadelphia. On April 8, 1848, the state legislature in Hariisburg granted the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania an act of incorporation, and over the sumer the organizers found a building on Arch Street which had been used previously as a schoolroom and also as a Swedenborgian church and now housed a homeopathic pharmacy n its front rooms. The first lectures began in October 1848 and were attended by fifteen students, six of whom received a doctor of homeopathic medicine degree the following March. The college was financed and managed by a goup made up of faculty, other eminent homeopaths, and some business and philanthropic supporters. This goup, whose powers were formalized in 1849, was initially known as the board of managers, but he name was later changed to the board of trustees.
The first chapter is called "proudly homeopathic" - and I feel that here is the essence of our future plans for homeopathic medicine and new homeopathic hospitals. We have to BE proudly homeopathic, in all our actions.
And as we are just that, I'm looking forward to getting the chance of reading the whole story about the history of the Hahnemann university hospital - and remembering wise words from a supporter of homeopathic medicine, Thomas Jefferson:
We certainly are not to deny whatever we cannot account for. A thousand phenomena present themselves daily which we cannot explain, but where facts are suggested, bearing no analogy with the laws of nature as yet known to us, their verity needs proofs proportioned to their difficulty. A cautious mind will weigh well the opposition of the phenomenon to everything hitherto observed, the strength of the testimony by which it is supported, and the errors and misconceptions to which even our senses are liable..
