The story of
Boericke & Tafel.
By Boericke & Tafel
Presented by Sylvain Cazalet
In 1835, Andrew Jackson
was President of the United States. We lit our homes with whale oil
lamps traveled from city to city by stage coach, and cooked our meals in
Open fire places Life expectancy was approximately 40 years for women
and 38 years for men. In 1835, Constantine Hering, the Father of
American Homeopathy, was in practice in Philadelphia and Hans Burch Gram
in New York.
Boericke &
Tafel Homoeopathic Pharmaceutists and PublishersDr. Hering was one of
the founders of America s first homeopathic medical college where
lessons were taught in German. That same year, William Radde, Senior in
Philadelphia and Junior in NY were managers of stores which later became
a part of Boericke & Tafel. Their advertisement in Herring’s The
Domestic Physician offered readers: “All works on Homeopathy, as
well as pocket cases of homeopathic medicines, prepared by approved
hands and very neatly arranged.” In 1848, Hering established the
Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania, which later became the
Hahnemann Medical College, the nation’s leading homeopathic medical
school.
Drs. Boericke &
TafelIn 1849, a cholera
epidemic swept the nation. Because of the superior results achieved by
homeopathic physicians, many orthodox doctors took up the practice of
homeopathy. At the same time, many of the intelligentsia were attracted
to homeopathy because of its scientific basis in experimental
pharmacology. In 1853, Dr. Hering persuaded Francis E. Boericke and
Adolph J. Tafel to enter into the manufacture and sale of homeopathic
medicines. Ten years later, Dr Boericke acquired the Radde pharmacies in
Philadelphia and N. Y.By this time there were
over 2400 homeopathic physicians in the United States with over 700 in
New York and over 325 in Pennsylvania. Keeping pace with the continuing
growth in the practice of homeopathy, Boericke & Tafel established
pharmacies in New Orleans, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C.,
Minneapolis, Chicago and Cincinnati in addition to the two in New York
City and Philadelphia.
As pharmacists,
Boericke & Tafel has been privileged to serve the founders and
pioneers of homeopathy, including Christian Hering and James Tyler Kent.
In a letter dated July 30, 1903 recommending B &T’s Skinner
potencies to another physician, Kent wrote: “I am the one who urged
the firm of Boericke & Tafel to put in a Skinner potentizer…I have
a full set of Skinner potencies- they work well – I know how they are
made.”
Boericke & Tafel
has an equally distinguished record as publishers. They were responsible
for issuing over a hundred titles, approximately eighty-five percent of
all homeopathic books published in the United States, including the
American Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia, the sixth edition of Hahnemann’s
Organon of Medicine (translated by William Boericke), and Boericke’s
Materia Medica with Repertory, which is today the standard U.S. materia
medica and an integral part of most homeopathic computer repertorization
programs.Starting in 1915, a
concerted effort on the part of the American Medical Association
resulted in a steady decline in the number of homeopathic medical
schools, homeopathic physicians, and homeopathic pharmacies. During this
bleak homeopathy almost ceased to exist in the United States.
Fortunately, the worldwide reputation that Boericke & Tafel
medicines had earned for purity, quality, and efficacy generated
sufficient export business to enable the firm to survive in spite of
greatly diminished U.S. sales.
Kit Boericke
& TafelIn 1980’s and 1990’s,
the growing interest in the environment, natural products, and the
individual’s assuming responsibility for his or her own health initiated
a renaissance in homeopathy. The number of practitioners increased,
study groups were formed, naturopathic medical colleges developed
courses in homeopathy, homeopathic medicines became available nationwide
in health food stores and a small number of pharmacies, the Food and
Drug Administration issued a Compliance Policy Guide regulating the
manufacture and marketing of homeopathic medicines, and several European
homeopathic pharmaceutical firms entered the U.S. market.
BonbonsIn 1987, Boericke &
Tafel became a part of Hom Int (Homeopathy International), a federation
of homeopathic firms doing business throughout the world, sponsoring
basic and clinical research and professional and lay education and
development programs. With its new state-of-art headquarters and the
nation’s most advanced full-line homeopathic production facilities,
Boericke & Tafel, America’s oldest pharmaceutical firm, has combined
the best of both worlds…Copyright © Sylvain
Cazalet 2001
