Cleave’s
Biographical Cyclopædia of
Homœopathic Physicians and Surgeons
By Egbert Cleave
Presented by Sylvain Cazalet
HOMAS,
NATHAN HOWLAND, M. D., of Stowe, Vt., was born at Woodstock, Vt.,
March 13th, 1802. His father, Nathan Thomas, came from Middleboro’,
Mass., and his mother’s maiden name was Rebecca Mayo. His early
education was received at Woodstock, and limited to such as could be
obtained at the district and select schools of the place ; though
he acquired a knowledge of Latin from Walter Chapen, a Congregational
minister.He commenced his
medical studies under Dr. Joshua Gallup, Professor in the Woodstock
Medical School, where he attended three courses. He also attended a
course of lectures at Hanover, N. H., and finally graduated at Woodstock
in 1830. On leaving school, he went to Stowe, becoming teacher in the
district school, and, in 1831, opened an office for the practice of
medicine. The town at that time being pretty well supplied with
physicians, and there being but little sickness, he was compelled to
wait for better days. In the meantime he was obliged to eke out his
income by keeping a school in the winter of 1831-’32. At this time a
disease appeared in the town which was supposed to be the small-pox. He
went to see the first case, and found it to be a severe attack of
measles, and so reported. The disease spread and raged through the town,
so that Dr. Thomas obtained the nickname of the “measles
doctor.” His reputation was thereby increased, as another
practitioner had immediately pronounced the first case to be one of
small-pox, and he soon found himself enjoying a fair practice. He
continued for over twenty years practicing according to the theory of
the old school.In 1853, he chanced to
meet a traveler at the hotel, who told him that he had been where the
Asiatic cholera was raging as an epidemic, and assured him that more
cases had been cured by homœopathy, than by the opposite system.
Incredulous at first, Dr. Thomas, however, resolved to investigate for
himself. He procured Hahnemann’s “Organon,” and some
medicines, and, after some study and various experiments, was forced to
admit, though against his will, that the new system was the true one.
From the year 1854 to the present time, he has invariably treated his
patients according to the principles of homœopathy. At the
commencement, he met with violent opposition from his allopathic
brethren, who contemptuously styled him the “little pill
pedlar.”Dr. Thomas has held the
office of Overseer of the Poor, in Stowe, for many consecutive years. He
was elected Assistant Judge of Lamville County Court, in 1841-’42, and
was also elected County Commissioner, in the year 1846. His practice now
is large and lucrative.Source
: Cleave’s Biographical Cyclopædia of Homœopathic Physicians and
Surgeons By Egbert Cleave