Trial and Expulsion
Issued for the "examination and consideration of the Fellows of the Massachusetts Medical Society," this pamphlet outlines the charges and defense of the eight homeopathic practitioners who were threatened with expulsion. This particular copy is filed with the original documentation on the case held by the Society's Committee on Ethics and Discipline.
H. I. Bowditch was the sole dissenting voice in the vote to expel homeopaths from the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1871. "By the sympathies excited among the laity, by our worse than foolish persecutions, we have built up their sectarian schools and hospitals, and the words Homœpath, Eclectic and Regular have become the watchwords for contending parties."
Bowditch delivered this address "for the future well-being of the Profession" to the Rhode Island Medical Society in 1886, arguing that orthodox and homeopathic physicians should be permitted consultation without repercussion and that homeopaths should be allowed to join state medical societies after giving proof of sufficient medical study and experience
Picture of Samuel Augustus Fisk, the president of the Massachusetts Medical Society during the trial and expulsion of homeopathy practitioners in 1871.
Printed as part of the published proceedings of the Society, this list of fellows from 1872 is the last to include homeopathic members such as Israel Tisdale Talbot, David Thayer, and Herman L. H. Hoffendahl, prior to their expulsion in June 1873. Their names were deleted from the list of fellows printed in the following year and only begin to appear in comprehensive membership lists in 1930.
In addition to Samuel Gregg, seven others were expelled for following homeopathic practices. Here are pictured three of those men: Milton Fuller, David Thayer, and Israel Tisdale Talbot.
