Cleave’s
Biographical Cyclopædia of
Homœopathic Physicians and Surgeons
By Egbert Cleave
Presented by Sylvain Cazalet
ICOLAY,
WILLIAM J., M. D., of Minier, Ills., was born in Somerset county,
Pa., May 31st, 1835. His early education was received in the common and
normal schools of his native county, with such profitable results, that,
at the age of eighteen, he was qualified to assume the position of a
teacher, which he occupied for several years. About the year 1859, his
mind being forcibly attracted to the study of medicine, he procured some
text-books of the different schools, which he studied during his leisure
hours, with a view to satisfy his mind as to the merits of the rival
theories, examining them all with unbiased impartiality. His studies and
investigations resulted in his entering the Eclectic Medical College of
Philadelphia, in the winter of 1861, remaining there until the close of
the spring session, when he resumed his occupation as school teacher,
continuing, however, his medical studies during his leisure hours, as
before.Three years
subsequently he entered the office of Dr. Enos Holmes, a prominent
allopathic physician of Hillsboro, O., which gave him the advantage of
comparing that system with the eclectic, and, in July of the following
year, established himself in local practice in Russell, O., still guided
by the advice of his former preceptor ; in the meantime having
married Miss Mary Ethel Shannon, of Bloomington, Ills.Two years passed away
in this manner, when he determined to pursue a second course of
lectures, entering the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, O.,
from which institution he received his diploma May 28th, 1866.Whilst at Cincinnati a
circumstance occurred which changed the current of his after life. It
was his good fortune to have for a room companion a student of homœopathy.
Although having already regarded that system favorably, he was not
sufficiently acquainted with it to decide upon its merits ; but his
frequent conversations with his new friend, and the study of his hooks,
opened his eyes to the light, convinced him that homœopathy is the only
true system extant.He became a sincere
convert, commencing on his return home to administer the remedies
prescribed by the new science. Finding that this method of treatment
produced far more satisfactory results than the old one, he could no
longer conscientiously practice allopathy ; abandoning it entirely
for the new system, to which he gave his whole attention.In the fall of 1867 he
removed from Russell, and, in the beginning of 1868, we find him
established in Minier, Tazewell county ; Ills. He has always
enjoyed a good practice, but during the last five years it has
astonishingly increased.Dr. Nicolay has
impartially investigated the theories of the three schools of medicine
-the allopathic, the eclectic, and the homœopathic- and it is but just
to assume that, in his judgment at least, the claims of the last are
paramount to those of the other two.Source
: Cleave’s Biographical Cyclopædia of Homœopathic Physicians and
Surgeons By Egbert Cleave