PRATT, DAVID SHEPARD – Biographies – History of Homeopathy

RATT, DAVID SHEPARD, M. D., of Towanda, Pa., was born in Middletown Township, Susquehanna county, Pa.,
November 16th, 1826. He is the third son of Russell Pratt and younger brother of Professor Leonard Pratt, of Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago. His
boyhood was spent in agricultural pursuits, but his thirst for knowledge soon led him to aspire to a calling more congenial. In his leisure hours he
devoted himself assiduously to study, and after having obtained a substantial academic education he determined to become a disciple of Hahnemann. He had
seen the wonderful cures under the new system, and was led to believe that it had for its foundation something more than mere chance. Under the
instructions of his brother Leonard he completed his preliminary medical studies, graduated at the Homœopathic Medical College of Philadelphia, in
1851, and immediately settled in Towanda. His brother Leonard shortly after removed to Illinois, leaving the subject of our sketch to contend alone with
the bitter prejudice against homœopathy which at that time prevailed to such an extent that some of the pioneers of homœopathy were driven from their
profession, and those who believed in it or supported it were subjected to bitter and sometimes violent persecution. Dr. Pratt met this bigoted
opposition manfully. By close attention to his studies and the duties of his profession, in a few years he became a physician of acknowledged skill and
ability ; the gravest cases were entrusted to his care ; the feeling against the “little pills” was gradually removed, and now the
doctor reckons among his staunchest friends and warmest supporters of the new school of medicine those who were his and its most active enemies at the
outset of his career. Surgery is a branch of his profession to which he has given great attention. This may be called his specialty. His large and
successful experience as an operator entitles him to be reckoned among the first of the surgeons in the new school of medicine.

Source : Cleave’s Biographical Cyclopædia of Homœopathic Physicians and Surgeons By
Egbert Cleave