Until recently, very little had been documented about the history of homœopathy in Australia. The main Australian text is Jacqueline Templeton's book about the history of the Prince Henry's Hospital, which was originally established as the Melbourne Homœopathic Hospital.  This book, titled "Prince Henry's: The Evolution of a Melbourne Hospital", was published in 1969. More recently, in 2002, Philippa Martyr's "Paradise of Quacks: An Alternative History of Medicine in Australia" was published. This provided an update to the background and progress of various types of alternative and complementary medical treatments in Australia. There are also two booklets on the history of the Launceston and Hobart Homœopathic Hospitals which provide useful information about the context within which homœopathy developed in Tasmania, and the key figures involved. (See the Resources section for further information about these publications).

Several websites have provided potted histories of homœopathy in Australia. Unfortunately, most of these websites have reproduced information which, through more thorough research, has been proved to be incorrect and limited.

Via these various sources, fewer than 100 names of Australia's pioneer 'homœopathists', homœopathic chemists and dispensaries were known.

By contrast, the research recorded on this website has identified over 230 early homœopaths, along with over 100 homœopathic chemists and dispensaries. Ongoing research is continually adding to these numbers, as well as expanding biographical information on existing entries, and presenting articles on new aspects of Australian homœopathic history.

Previously Australian students were taught mainly British and American homœopathic history, and had few Australian resources available to them to learn about their own rich Australian heritage.

AIMS & SCOPE:

SPELLING of HOMŒOPATHY Vs HOMEOPATHY:

In current usage you will sometimes see the same word with a number of different spellings, sometimes even within the one article. But, for those who may be confused, ‘homœopathy’ is the same as ‘homeopathy’.  Sometimes the word is also displayed as 'homoeopathy'.  This is a carry-over from the days of the typewriter, before special fonts became available on computers, thus making it possible to display the dipthong character "œ", which is a more accurate representation.

However, on this website, the original spelling of the word using the dipthong character "œ" is used because:

(a)  Its usage is authentic to the period.

(b)  This spelling retains its derivation, and hence its original meaning.

For an explanation of the origin of the spelling refer to the article Homœopathy / Homeopathy - The Spelling.

The author of this website is not a homœopath or a doctor. The author is unable to provide any advice or comment regarding any form of medical treatment.

Every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this website is accurately recorded from reliable sources, including original sources where possible. However, no guarantee is given that every detail is correct. The contents of this site are subject to ongoing research which may alter certain facts, and therefore the context of homœopathy’s place in Australia’s history.

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For those wishing to use any of the information provided here please acknowledge copyright of the source of the information by acknowledging the author and this website in their references.

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