by Peter Morrell
DR. PAUL CURIE
[1799-1853] born in
Grand Charmont, France 1799, in Alsace, he first came across homeopathy
in 1832; from 1833-35 he was in Paris, from whence a rich English
merchant, William Leaf, called him to London; here he was active in the
cause of homeopathy for 18 years. He died of Typhus 5 Oct. 1853 [see
Haehl, 1922, vol. 2, p.505; and Cooter, 1988, p.48].Curie published: The
Principles of Homeopathy, [1837], The Domestic Practice of
Homeopathy, London [1838], Bailliere, [see Coulter, vol. 3, p.81]
and The Case of the Late Mr Cordwell, [1845], London, [see Miracles
of Healing, Ellis Barker, p.397]. The latter book was about a
patient who died under homeopathic treatment and the trial and
controversy which ensued [see Pickstone, 1982, pp.176-7].
‘Homeopathy leaves far behind the old medical
practice. Wherever the common practice succeeds, homeopathy is always
more effective, without danger; and in a vast number of cases, where
the common practice is powerless, homeopathy is crowned with success.
The medicaments, indeed, which it prescribes, if skilfully
administered, cure the greater proportion of the ills to which mankind
is exposed; and the basis on which it rests is a law of nature, a law,
immutable and infallible.’ [Curie quoted in Ellis Barker, Miracles of
Healing, 1931, p.135]‘Dr. Pierre Curie was himself the grandson of the
illustrious Dr. August Paul Curie, who was induced by William Leaf,
the well-known London merchant and his friend Arles Dufrau, to leave
his native Paris and settle in London at a time when there was great
need of more pioneers to follow in the footsteps of the great Quin.
Such a one was the elder Curie, who not only established himself in an
extensive private practice, but maintained a small hospital and later
a dispensary for the poor.’ [Health Through Homeopathy, April 1944,
Benjamin C Woodbury, p.62]
However, Curie and Leaf soon became ‘loose cannons’
of the British homeopathic movement and a source of increasing
embarrassment to Dr. Quin. They became deeply involved with lay
practitioners, founded their own separate homeopathic hospital, the
Hahnemann Hospital in London, formed a breakaway Association of
English Homeopaths [see Rankin, p.48; Nicholls, 1988; also Treuherz,
1995, p.32]. Quin maintained therefore, an increasing distance from them
for this reason. Yet he could ill afford to sever the link with them
completely. There is a link here with the Botanic movement, Mesmerism
and Spiritualism all of which tended to be rather evangelical and used
mass gatherings to put their message across [see also Cooter, 1988,
pp.89-90]. It was this which Quin found so distasteful. The problem was
especially acute for Quin because it came at a time [1850s] when a still
largely unregulated medical profession was slowly heading towards
increasing legislative controls.
