STARKEY, GEORGES. R. – Biographies – History of Homeopathy

TARKEY, GEORGES R., M.
D., of Philadelphia, was born in Vassalboro, Kennebec county, Me., June
2d, 1823. His parents belonged to the Society of Friends. His father
died in 1825, a victim, if not to what is called the “regular”
practice, yet to one of those mistakes incidental to the allopathic
system, and of not infrequent occurrence. For some slight illness a dose
of magnesiæ sulp. (Epsom salts) was prescribed, and potas. nitr.
(saltpetre) was received and taken instead. His mother, after a second
marriage, died when he was twelve years old.

     Like the early years of
most New England boys, those of Dr. Starkey were years of rough and hard
work. From the time he was able to lift a hoe until he was fourteen
years old, he was obliged to labor regularly upon a farm with “the
field hands,” and often considerably beyond his strength-for he
inherited a delicate physique. But he also inherited a deep thirst for
knowledge ; and at the age of fourteen, a benevolent Quaker lady,
who knew of his eagerness to obtain an education, succeeded in
interesting in his behalf Anna B. Jenkins, daughter of Moses Brown, a
very wealthy citizen of Providence, R. I. This was at the Friends’
“Yearly Meeting,” at Newport, in 1837. Mrs. Jenkins, with a
disinterestedness as beautiful as it is rare, made him her ward and
protégé at the famous “Friends’ Boarding School” in
Providence, providing while there for all his wants. Here he remained
two years, passing creditably through the entire curriculum of the
school -the classics only excepted.

     He then returned to his
native State with an increased desire for a more extended education. And
by teaching school in the winter and working at farming -often sixteen
hours a day- in summer, and occupying his leisure hours in study, he
fitted himself for college, and entered at Waterville, Me., at the age
of twenty-one. He managed, by teaching school a portion of each year, to
work his way through college and keep up with his class, graduating in
the first grade in 1848 ; and this, notwithstanding an absence of
six months in his senior year, during which he was employed by his first
Alma Mater, in Providence, as teacher of
the classics and higher mathematics.

     Leaving college with
health somewhat impaired by the combined weight of study and work, he
passed two years in the family of his cousin ; E. A. Brackett, the
sculptor, recruiting his health and assisting Mr. Brackett in his art.

     Soon after this, he
commenced the study of medicine, and graduated at the Homœopathic
Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1855. He then commenced practice in
Reading, Pa., where he remained nearly two years, having, at the time he
left, one hundred and fifty families on his visiting list. In January,
1857, he removed to Philadelphia, and the following year succeeded to
the practice of Dr. S. R. Dubs, who thereupon retired.

     In June, 1860, Dr.
Starkey was elected to the Chair of Anatomy in the Homœopathic Medical
College of Pennsylvania ; and the year following was called to the
Chair of Surgery in the same institution. This chair he filled to the
satisfaction of the several classes for four successive years.

     Early in 1869, Dr.
Starkey found that his professional labors were steadily impairing the
vigor of his constitution, never very robust. About this time, too, his
attention was called to the compound oxygen gas treatment, by some
remarkable cases of cure which accidentally came under his notice. He
was led to investigate this new agent, and the result of the
investigation was, that in October of the same year he adopted this
treatment (the compound oxygen) as a specialty for the cure of chronic
diseases ; relinquishing his general practice, which, at that time,
was larger than at any previous period. During the last four years he
has been actively and successfully engaged in administering this new
agent ; in developing its remarkable resources ; in writing
and publishing expositions of its action, and in clinical records and
testimonials of cures performed by it ; and through his extensive
correspondence, this practice has now become known in nearly every part
of our country.

     Although Dr. Starkey
regards the compound oxygen as a

desideratum in every system of medical practice for the
treatment of a large class of chronic cases, his faith in homœopathy as the one system of medication is
yet unimpaired, as is proved by his daily administration of its
remedies. He regards the new agent -from whose administration he has
witnessed such astonishing results- as only a system of wonderful
hygiene ; and while he thinks it worthy to stand at the right hand
of every practitioner, it does not and can not come in conflict with any
system of therapeutics.

     In 1852, Dr. Starkey
was married to Miss Caira Skelton, of Lexington, Mass., and is now the
father of six children -two sons and four daughters. Though staunchly
republican and patriotic, he has never taken an active interest in
politics. Like many other distinguished homœopaths, he accepts Emanuel
Swedenborg as the most advanced and luminous writer on theology that has
yet appeared, and is a member of the New (or Swedenborgian) Church. He
is a gentleman of refined tastes and feelings, of sterling integrity,
fine social qualities, and highly esteemed both as a man and physician
by all who know him.

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