Women in nineteenth century homeopathic medicine

Abstract

Just as the history of women in aUopathic medicine had been largely ignored in writings about the history of medicine until quite recently, so has the history of homeopathic women physicians been neglected in the history of homeopathy, despite the knowledge that many, if not the majority, of women physicians in the nineteenth century belonged to medical sects, x Although homeopathy was the main rival of aUopathic medicine in the mid to late nineteenth century, the literature about homeopathy is sparse compared to that of regular medicine. Only one-tenth of all nineteenth century physicians were sectarian. And since homeopathy ceased to be a serious rival to allopathy in the early twentieth century, and has left few obvious marks on current medical practice, it has slipped from the attention of medical historians. 2 Even though 17% of homeopathic physicians in 1900 were women, compared with 5-6% of regular physicians, histories of homeopathy typically fail to discuss women physicians in any substantive way. 3Because of the paucity of information about women homeopaths, two nineteenth century novels which depict main characters who are women homeopathic physicians will be used as a touchstone of discussion. While novels portray fictional characters and events, and thus may be unreliable as sources of factual historical information, these books do provide the twentieth century reader with suggestive glimpses of what life may have been like for women homeopaths of the 1880's. In addition, these novels raise many questions for the medical historian about homeopathy in general, and homeopathic women physicians in particular. 1Address corre~ndence to Harriet A. Squier, M.D., M.A.,