Cleave’s
Biographical Cyclopædia of
Homœopathic Physicians and Surgeons
By Egbert Cleave
Presented by Sylvain Cazalet
OUNGHUSBAND,
LANCELOT, M. D., LL. D., of Detroit, Mich., was born in Richmond,
Yorkshire, England, on January 11th, 1828. He is the elder of two sons
of John Younghusband, and comes from one of the oldest families in the
north of England. When he was thirteen years of age his father emigrated
with his family to Canada ; remained there nearly ten years, and
then removed to Michigan. Our subject, who stayed behind, had during his
early years been brought up to the milling business, his father having
built and run several flouring mills. This occupation he found very
uncongenial, and as he manifested a great love of study, and especially
of the languages, his father encouraged him with a view to his entering
the ministry. His progress was rapid, and by assiduous application he
completed his preparatory course so as to enter Victoria College at
eighteen years of age. Here he studied for three years, and as his
father had in the meantime gone to Michigan, he was left mainly to his
own resources. A portion of the time he engaged in teaching, keeping up
his college course, and having transferred his standing to Acadia
College, he received the degree of B. A. at twenty-three ; four
years later that of M. A., and, according to the rules of the
institution, at forty that of LL. D. At an early age he manifested a
passion for the medical profession, and began studying therefor in his
twenty-fifth year with Drs. Gilchrist and Cameron, two eminent
allopathic physicians of Port Hope, Canada. Since then, with the
exception of six years, during which he had charge of a government high
school in the province, he has constantly devoted himself to the study
and practice of medicine. His conversion to homœopathy occurred about
twelve years ago, through witnessing some very extraordinary cures
effected by Dr. Pyburn, a homœopathic physician of considerable
celebrity, then residing in Port Hope. In 1864, he received the degree
of the Homœopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania, the oldest
homœopathic college in the world. During the course of the same year he
removed to Mt. Clemens, in Michigan, not far from where his father and
brother had settled some years before. Here five or six homœopathic
practitioners had preceded him, all of whom had met with so little
encouragement as to cause them, after a time, to abandon the field.
Nothing daunted he persevered, and in the face of the most violent
opposition from several old and experienced allopathic physicians, he
won his way and achieved greater success than before realized in that
section by any physician. Few who have not been thus situated, with
jealous adversaries watching on all sides, can appreciate the
difficulties of such a situation. Alone, with no consulting physician
within twenty-five miles, he conducted a large practice extending for
many miles in all directions, with not unfrequently most difficult
surgical and obstetrical cases to contend with. Yet his competitors were
never known to get an advantage of him.In the midst of an
increasing popularity, and after long and urgent solicitation, he left
this field of labor to engage in another no less honorable and
arduous-tire Homœopathic College in Detroit, of which he was appointed
President and Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine. For this
work Professor Younghusband has proved himself to be peculiarly suited,
his early experience in teaching conducing very materially to his
present success. As an instructor be has more than fulfilled the
expectation of his friends. For moral, conservative and generally
wholesome influence over students no educational institution in the land
has in its President one who excels him. The attachment to him of
students is found to be immediate and permanent, no amount of calumny
-much of which he has suffered from jealous rivals- being sufficient to
estrange them from him.Not only as a
physician, but as a scholar, he bears a high reputation. While he had
charge of the Government High School, in Canada, he received the
honorary degree of M. A. from Allegheny College, Meadville, Pa., and
also from Antioch College, in Ohio. The latter was signed by the
distinguished Horace Mann, and both are supposed to have been in
compliment for the proficiency exhibited by pupils prepared by him for
their college course, and who afterwards attended the institutions in
question. His love for study, especially of medicine and literature, is
remarkable. In spite of his numerous engagements, he permits scarcely a
day to pass during which he does not devote considerable time to reading
works of the best authors, principally the Latin and Greek, for which he
has a great fondness.Professor Younghusband
is a man of very strong religious convictions, and before he completed
his collegiate course he disappointed his father, who desired him to
enter the office of the ministry, by becoming an earnest Baptist. Years
afterwards, when practicing in Mt. Clemens, he was ordained to the
ministry. This was for the purpose of gathering together again those who
from long absence of a pastor had become nearly dispersed. For two years
he ministered to them without compensation and without neglecting his
medical duties. He has been heard to say that he considers his clerical
ordination the highest honor ever conferred upon him, and that were it
not for the restraints and exactions put upon a minister, requiring a
surrender of independence, he would prefer that calling.He has been twice
married, and has two sons and a daughter, besides three stepchildren,
nearly all of whom have now reached maturity. His ancestors for over
three hundred years were natives of England, but originally came from
Italy. Evidences of this extraction are found in the strength of his
friendships, his remarkably active social nature, and the difficulty he
experiences in forgiving an enemy.Source
: Cleave’s Biographical Cyclopædia of Homœopathic Physicians and
Surgeons By Egbert Cleave