Editorial
by Richard Pitt
We are happy to bring you a more reflective edition of the California Homeopath, looking at some people’s experience of practicing homeopathy in California, noting the changes in homeopathic work as the state changes and the social and political winds have their impact. In the last ten years, all the homeopathic schools in the Bay Area have closed but still many of the graduates of these schools are in practice and spreading homeopathy. Many of the original practitioners that brought homeopathy out from the cold in the 1970’s are still working while a whole new generation of homeopaths carry on the baton. Ten years ago, the Bay Area Homeopathy Association was started and is still going strong and the California Homeopathic Medical Society is also maintaining its active role in the community and offering an annual conference in California. The Pacific Academy of Homeopathy morphed into the Homeopathy Institute of the Pacific and is continuing making homeopathy accessible to many communities. Schools in Los Angeles and San Diego area have continued to educate people and carry on the important work of homeopathic education, but as with all things, there are ebbs and flows in how things evolve.
More broadly on a world stage, we have seen how homeopathy has been under attack from many sides. In some countries, especially in the UK there has been a coordinated campaign against homeopathy, from people who find its presence as part of the National Health Service an affront to their idea of science. Some of these groups are funded by “big pharma” and supported by various medical bodies and media outlets and by what could be called “secular fundamentalists.” These individuals and groups see homeopathy as a threat to their idea of science and reality, as well as anything that smacks of religion and/or a “holistic” perspective to life that embraces an energetic model of the universe. However, homeopathy has prevailed in spite of these attacks and while it may seem we have gone underground a bit, all the work that has been done and continues to be done has an impact and it’s important we all recognize and embrace this.
So in these challenging times it is interesting to reflect on the work that has been done to make homeopathy more known and accepted in California. The articles in this edition reflect this work, both on an individual level and also on a political level, and especially since the significant California bill SB-577 was passed, one of the most important health freedom bills in the country. John Melnychuk, who was the guiding force behind this legislation lays out the story of the bill and is a reminder of its importance today for all natural health care practitioners in California and beyond. Therefore it is important we are all reminded of the impact of this legislation and how we need to comply by its guidelines. My thanks to John for submitting this article, and also to all the other contributors this time who have shared their experience of being a homeopath in California.
Also, this will be my last edition that I will edit the journal. It is now over 10 years since the 1st edition of the journal was produced, where I shared the editorial duties with Premananda Childs. Since then, I have focused on producing two issues a year, often with long “New Yorker” style articles, reflecting a desire to produce a more literary homeopathic journal that also explored other areas of health. But having left California eight years ago and now living in Africa – as I sit here now surrounded by mosquitos at dusk - it is time to move on and allow the journal to move into a new direction. I want to thank everybody at the California Homeopathic Medical Society for supporting the journal, to Premananda who helped initiate the journal with me and to Marci Mearns, for doing all the sterling design and practical work to get the journal online and on time!
Finally, I would like to resubmit the first editorial of the journal back in April 2006 that outlines the history of homeopathy in California and the origin of the California Homeopath in 1882. I am particularly keen on recognizing the historical continuity of homeopathy in California, the role of the journals over many years that reflected the work of dedicated folk and the role of the California Homeopathic Medical Society in maintaining a voice for homeopathy in the great state of California.
“The California Homeopath” was founded in 1882 by Dr. William Boerike and Dr. W.A. Dewey. Published in San Francisco, the bimonthly journal existed under this name until 1892, when it was replaced by “The Pacific Coast Journal of Homeopathy.” In 1984, a rare biography, published by Drs.’Jacques Baur, Klaus Gypser, and others, listed 682 homeopathic periodicals, beginning in Leipzig, Germany in 1822, and of which, 240 originated in the U.S. Many of these journals offered valuable clinical experience. Discussions about philosophy and cases were carried on through the journals between the best homeopaths of the day, and these periodicals have become the documented history of the efficacy of homeopathy.
In 1883, The Hahnemann Medical College of San Francisco was founded. Dr. Boericke, through editorials in “The California Homeopath” was instrumental in its opening.
“Every homeopathic physician on this coast, and especially in this state, has a personal interest in this most important and far-reaching move.” In June of 1884, the first course of lectures began.
“We believe that we have such a principle in the law of similia, and just so long as we are faithful to it and in our teachings uphold only the best and truest interpretations of the law...... just so long as we teach homeopathy as an inductive science in the spirit of Hahnemann, Hering and Dunham-....... we have a right to our separate existence......that if we give up its teachings and practice....(give up) the purity of the homeopathic method...it becomes eclectic merely, and with it forfeits its right to a separate existence.”
In the words of Constantine Hering, “If our school gives up the strict inductive method of Hahnemann we are lost and deserve only to be mentioned as a caricature in the history of medicine.”
Homeopathy struggled then as it does now, to maintain its own laws and recognition, “a separate existence.” Legally it does so with the existence of the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia. A continuous publication since 1897, it received a big boost politically in 1938 when federal legislation created the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Thanks to the tireless work of Dr. Royal Copeland, homeopathic doctor and fortunately, U.S. Senator, the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia was added on with the main legislation he proposed, a bill to create the Food and Drug Administration. It took five years for Congress to finally pass the bill, five days after the death of the homeopathic senator who had been the main force behind the formation of the FDA. It is the legal recognition of homeopathic medicine and the homeopathic pharmacopoeia that has helped keep homeopathy from being a “caricature in the history of medicine,” at least in the U.S. Now let us not forget to honor Hering’s other demand to not give up the “strict inductive method of Hahnemann.”
“The California Homeopath,” under the auspices of Dr. Boericke, was an effort to unite homeopaths on the west coast. The journal was a powerful instrument, especially in its support of the homeopathic hospital, and we hope that today we may humbly offer a reliable voice to the homeopath.
The Editor
All the best to everybody in 2017. Good night and good luck!
