Cleave’s
Biographical Cyclopædia of
Homœopathic Physicians and Surgeons
By Egbert Cleave
Presented by Sylvain Cazalet
OLCOMBE,
WILLIAM HENRY, M. D., now resident of New Orleans, La., was born in
Lynchburg, Va., on May 29th, 1825. His father, from whom he inherits his
proclivities for medicinal studies, was a popular and successful
physician, a private pupil, and personal friend of the venerable Dr.
Chapman of Philadelphia. Young Holcombe entered Washington College,
Lexington, Va., now known as Washington and Lee University, where he
graduated in the regular course. On leaving there he entered his
father’s office as a student of medicine, and prepared, himself for the
University of Pennsylvania, from the medical department of which, be
graduated in April, 1847. His medical training had been, thus far,
wholly allopathic, and his traditional sympathies were exclusively with
that school. During a residence in Cincinnati he had an opportunity of
witnessing the marvelous superiority of the homœopathic treatment of
Asiatic cholera, as shown in the results which followed ; and he
unhesitatingly yielded to the force of the evidence. While in Cincinnati
he married Miss Rebecca Palmer of that city. In 1852, he removed ;
on account of ill health, to Natchez, Miss. In 1864, he removed to New
Orleans. With great earnestness he has devoted himself exclusively to
the duties of his profession, and although his practice is very large
and laborious, he preserves his habits of study, and is able in the
intervals of labor to write and publish numerous valuable papers and
books. His first book was issued in 1852, on “The Scientific Basis
of Homœopathy.” In this work of 304 pages, Dr. Holcombe has
advanced an undulatory theory of cure, based upon the correspondence
between the animal and the cosmic forces. The work is as remarkable for
the ability which is every where apparent on its pages, as for the
originality and beauty of the theory which it advocates. He was
co-editor for many years of the North
American Journal of Homœopathy,
and contributed numerous elaborate and able articles, and several
interesting and instructive papers translated from the French.
Conspicuous among these were sundry valuable papers, containing his
reports of various epidemics of yellow fever, in which the measureless
superiority of homœopathic treatment was incontestably established. In
1853, Drs. Davis and Holcombe were elected physicians and surgeons to
the Mississippi State Hospital. When the trustees were summoned by the
legislature to explain their reasons for changing the practice in the
hospital, they replied that homœopathy had proved, by its successful
treatment of the great scourge of the South, its claim to universal
acceptance.Dr. Holcombe’s
pamphlets, entitled, “How I became a Homœopath,” and
“What is Homœopathy,” have had a very wide circulation, and
have proved exceedingly popular and effective in leading to correct
views.In 1860, he published a
volume of beautiful poems, which were extensively read ; and in
1872, another, entitled, “Southern Voices.” These works have
received in England and America a high meed of praise. A Swedenborgian
in his religious sentiments, he has published four volumes explanatory
of the Swedenborgian Theory of Spirit and Matter, in which he presents
in lucid style the philosophy of that creed. These works, published by
Lippincott & Co. of Philadelphia, are entitled, “Our Children
in Heaven,” published in 1867 ; “The Sexes Here and
Hereafter,” in 1868 ; “In Both Worlds,” 1869 ;
and “The other Life,” in 1870. They have passed through
several editions in this country, have been reprinted in England, and
two of them have been translated into German.Dr. Holcombe is a man
of tireless energy. He has now nearly ready for the press, another
volume of poems, entitled “Song-Novels” (octavo), and a large
work now in course of preparation, on “Homœopathic
Therapeutics.”Of enlarged views, and
with a heart that beats responsively to the sufferings of his fellows,
his influence is powerful, though not aggressive, and, being in deep
sympathy with the progressive and humanitarian movements of the age, he
is an uncompromising and brilliant advocate of the causes he espouses.Source
: Cleave’s Biographical Cyclopædia of Homœopathic Physicians and
Surgeons By Egbert Cleave