by Peter Morrell
Numerical Data
Using data collected from the 1863 Medical
Directory it is possible to give a quite picture of the rise and peaking of the Public
Dispensaries. By adding to that, further data collected from a range of later Medical
Directories, we can extend this picture to show their gradual decline. While there are minor
differences between the different regions of the UK in terms of growth, peaking and decline,
we can discern a similar overall pattern, that they reached a peak of formation in the
1830-60 period and thereafter few more were established. The data plotted is the cumulative
total in any one year [This data derives from various medical directories, 1863-1948].
PUBLIC DISPENSARIES
[ALLOPATHIC]
YEAR
NUMBER
YEAR
NUMBER
1730
2
1840
148
1740
2
1850
153
1750
4
1860
165
1760
7
1870
170
1770
10
1880
175
1780
25
1890
176
1790
35
1941
102
1800
48
1948
80
1810
71
1820
94
1830
125
From the data it is also apparent that the
transition from dispensaries to hospitals occurred: a process which accelerated in the first
fifty years of this century and mostly after 1880-90. They declined rather slowly and the
word ‘dispensary’ still appears up to the 1960s. It is questionable however, what
purpose this inclusion of the name in hospital titles actually served, other than a romantic
one that appealed to the public imagination in a nostalgic sort of way.The existence of dispensaries seemed to
accelerate after the passing of the Apothecaries Act in 1815. Presumably this means that the
improved status of apothecaries encouraged them to set up dispensaries or to become involved
in their running.
Homeopathic Dispensaries
The numerous homeopathic dispensaries that
sprang up throughout the country were modelled very much on the allopathic ones. For
example, they were small, they included a physician/surgeon as well as a Dispenser, and they
were run by committees of local dignitaries. They also served important as bridgeheads for
propaganda for the dissemination of homeopathy and for keeping it as a medical specialism or
option within the public mind.There were no dispensaries and only 51
homeopathic doctors listed by Rosenstein in 1848, for example; there were only a few
hospitals by 1860 and only 200 or so homeopathic doctors. As can be seen, the number of
dispensaries peaked in the 1870s and then declined very rapidly through the early years of
this century.
HOMEOPATHIC DISPENSARIES
YEAR
NUMBER
1840
0
1857
33
1867
64
1868
70
1870
80
1874
117
1876
120
1880
45
1895
39
1900
35
1909
34
1930
25
The number of homeopathic pharmacies
reached a peak of 120 in 1876.[Source: UK Medical Directories 1863,
1913, 1941, 1948; Homeopathic Medical Directories, 1867, 1874, 1895, 1909, Nicholls 1988
and Homeopathic World, 1932]The development of homeopathic dispensaries
and hospitals would seem to signifies a degree of organisation and consolidation of the
position of British homeopathy after about 1860. It seems to safe to conclude therefore,
that it essentially had established itself as a feature of nineteenth century life in most
towns and cities by that time.There is clearly a lot of scope for further research in both these areas
of Aristocrats and Dispensaries. All I have presented here is a small amount of the huge
mass of material which is available. It would be interesting to establish pathways and
networks between the various families and how the use of homeopathy was passed around
amongst them. It would also be interesting to compile more data about individual homeopathic
dispensaries and an illustrated history of them.
DISCUSSION
In the early years of the movement,
homeopathy mostly became the preserve of the rich and powerful. Once it was clear that it no
longer posed a serious threat to regular medicine, after about 1860, homeopathy became
tolerated as a semi-legitimised medical approach containing a deep but innate tension
between its internal orthodoxy as ‘medically qualified men’ and the fact of it being
practised as an heretical system of therapeutics which was rejected and deviantised by the
mainstream. By the latter half of the 19th century, it is clear that homeopathy had peaked
and was occupying a comfortable though minor niche within the medical world. As we have
seen, it was continually patronised by Royals, the fashionable, clerics and aristocrats, who
in fact were its main supporters throughout Europe.In this 1850-1890 period, homeopathy also
had a fairly important ‘reforming impact’ upon regular medicine, inspiring it to reduce
its doses and reduce the complexity of drugs in use. Forcing it also to reconsider its use
of the more barbaric heroic practices like bloodletting, use of calomel and emetics. Though
deeply unpopular with the public in their own right, repeated reminders by medical
sectarians of the harmfulness of these techniques (not to mention their questionable
therapeutic efficacy) must have gradually eroded their popularity and forced regular
physicians to conceive ‘an impulse for change’. And it was this impulse which ultimately
translated into a move away from heroic practices and towards less damaging therapeutic
methods by the century’s end. Homeopathy was not responsible for all of that, but
certainly contributed to the process.There was also considerable ideological
damage caused to allopathy in the 1850s by the backfiring of its own critique of homeopathic
efficacy based upon ‘trusting in nature’ and ‘self-limiting diseases’. Briefly, this
meant that leaving the disease to heal itself not only explained away the ‘efficacy’ of
the small doses of homeopathy, but also tended to undermine any underpinning justification
for the dangerous heroic practices of the regulars. The considerable ideological discomfort
within regular medicine, forced it to reconsider its philosophy and methods.
