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PHOTOTHÈQUE HOMÉOPATHIQUE
présentée par Homeopathyforce.com
Dr Edward Payson FOWLER (1833-?)
Photo Sylvain Cazalet – Cleave’s Biographical Cyclopædia p. 437
Homéopathe Américain – New York – USA.
Photo Sylvain Cazalet – Cleave’s Biographical Cyclopædia p. 437
FOWLER, EDWARD PAYSON, M.
D., of New York city, was born in Steuben county, N. Y., November 30th,
1833. His father, judge Horace Fowler, was from an old English family, one
of whom, judge William Fowler, of Islington, London, landed at Boston in
1637, and died at New Haven in 1660. His son and grandson were officers in
the English army. After these, the Hon. Samuel Fowler, next in direct line,
was the father of John Fowler and grandfather of judge Eliphalet Fowler, who
had five children, of whom Horace was the youngest. Horace Fowler had eight
children, of whom Edward Payson, the subject of this sketch, was the
youngest, and who was named after an old friend of the family, the Rev. Dr.
Payson.
The
Fowlers are remarkable for longevity. In a direct line of eight generations
the earliest age at which death occurred was past sixty ; the most
advanced one hundred and six years. The grandfather, Eliphalet, was a hale
man at ninety-nine years of age, meeting death by accident.
Dr.
Fowler’s mother’s maiden name was Taylor ; her mother was a Phillipps,
a family which came to Maryland about the year 1720. His mother’s brothers
were all either doctors or ministers. Edward Payson Fowler was taken, at
about two years of age, with his father’s family, to Jackson county, Mich.,
where he remained, pursuing the ordinary course of studies, until 1844, when
he went to New York city. After studying there for a year, he returned to
Michigan and was placed under the care of private tutors for a time.
Subsequently he studied at the Albion Seminary, and later, at the Ann Arbor
College. Ill health compelled him to forego a completion of his course of
studies.
In
1850, he went again to New York, contemplating the East Indies as a point of
destination for mercantile pursuits ; but becoming acquainted with the
celebrated Dr. John F. Gray, the latter induced him to commence the study of
medicine under his care. On March 18th, 1851, he entered the New York
Medical College (an allopathic institution), where he studied for four
years, graduating March 18th, 1855, taking one of the three prizes given to
his class. On the day of his graduation he became associated in business
with Drs. John F. Gray and A. Gerald Hull. He studied the German language
under Professor Loewenberg, M. D., of Berlin. With the French language at
command-the classics having been a part of his early studies-he was fitted
to avail himself of all the new discoveries and theories as soon as they
appeared in the various languages. In 1858, Drs. Gray, Hull and Fowler
separated, each carrying on a separate practice, and in 1861, Dr. Fowler
associated with himself Dr. William Ogden McDonald, Dr. Fowler’s views in
medicine have always been of the extremely liberal cast ; so much so,
indeed, as to somewhat isolate him from any active support from either
school of practice. He believes that a regularly and honestly recorded
evidence of the possession of the liberal education and moral qualifications
required by law should place all such possessors upon equal footing, and
that there should exist in the profession a complete toleration and a mutual
respect for personal convictions and beliefs. The feeling of bitterness and
the injustice so often displayed by medical men of diverse views, though of
equal attainments, he sees with exceeding regret and aversion. It seems to
him wholly unbecoming to cultured minds, entirely incompatible with true
gentle instinct, and something which the public have a right to view with
the unqualified disgust it does, and as being calculated to bring the
profession into contempt, and in great degree to destroy its use. He
believes that the arena of medicine, however multiplied may be its laws or
truths, is still a unit, and that although his observations have led him to
the conclusion that there is a law expressed by the formula similia
similibus curantur, he still
does not consider that this involves the necessity of denying place to other
laws- and truths. Intolerance in scientific matters he thinks results only
when demonstration is abandoned in favor of bald assertion. Strong in this
sentiment, Dr. Fowler, in 1857, two years after his graduation, attempted to
establish a college which should inculcate a manhood and dignity above the
repulsive and childish quarrels of the profession as it now exists. To this
end he obtained, by untiring Perseverance, a charter from the New York State
Legislature -the most liberal charter ever granted by the State, entitled to
a capital of half a million of dollars- an unconditionally perpetual charter
for a corporation to be entitled The New York College of Medical Sciences.
The corporation was composed of some of the most learned and eminent men of
New York, and a part of the professorships were filled. The doctor, however,
finding that the project met with such violent and unreasonable opposition
from both schools of practice, thought the work too gigantic a one to be
carried on single-handed, in addition to the labors of a large and rapidly
increasing practice. The scheme was therefore abandoned, though it may at
some future time be revived.
By
nature thus liberal in feeling, and by education habituated to the exercise
of toleration to the utmost extent short of violating the rights of others,
this trait of his moral organism has gained breadth and depth by free
intercourse with people in various parts of the world. He is acquainted by
travel with every one of the United States of America east of the Rocky
Mountains, and he has been in the habit of making annual trips to the
various parts of Europe ; so that, although he may not share the
prejudices peculiar to each or any individual locality, he yet has learned
to treat them with that respect and manly tenderness which honesty, right or
wrong, should always receive from Christianity or chivalry.
Some
years since Dr. Fowler was elected to the chair of Theory and Practice in
the New York Homœopathic College, and also in the New York Medical College
for Women, both of which positions he was obliged to decline on account of
engrossing professional duties. He was then elected Censor in both of these
colleges, which positions he still retains. He was also one of the founders,
and for a long time Trustee and officer in the New York Homœopathic
Dispensary, and is member of many scientific societies in the United States,
and an honorary member of various foreign societies.
Dr.
Fowler has been a frequent contributor to the scientific periodicals
(generally anonymously), and has now material ready to be revised and
perfected for publication for a work upon “Sea Sickness,” one upon
“Scarlet Fever,” and one upon “Aids in Diagnosis, or Signs
and their Significance.”
A
faculty for quickly discriminating between an impractical and a practical
scheme, and for at once abandoning the one and adhering to the other,
together with untiring tenacity of purpose and industry, are among the chief
secrets of Dr. Fowler’s success. During the first ten years of his practice
he never took one solitary day for pleasure, and even at the present time
the amount of study accomplished by him in his carriage, with his books,
lexicons, pencil and paper about him, quite equals that of any college
student. This has been rewarded, even at his early age, by one of the
largest and most lucrative practices in America, his income from it
exceeding thirty thousand dollars per year. That he has bestowed much
attention to the Beaux-Arts, as well as to his own profession, may readily
be inferred from his surroundings.
In
January, 1873, Dr. Fowler married Miss Louise Mumford, the second daughter
of George H. Mumford, Esq., of Rochester, N. Y. ; a woman of unusual
gifts and culture, and who is well known in society in New York, San
Francisco, and in the various countries of Europe.
Source : Cleave’s Biographical
Cyclopædia of Homœopathic
Physicians and Surgeons By Egbert Cleave
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