(Material researched & presented by Barbara Armstrong)

Introduction

In his first lecture in Sydney on January 1863, Dr William Sherwin stated:

It has been laid down that three things are necessary for a true homœopathic practitioner:- 1^st. He should be a gentleman. 2^nd. He should know his profession. 3^rd. He should know the Materia Medica of Homœopathy. ¹⁴

It is interesting that Dr Sherwin considered that the first thing necessary for a person to be a true homœopathic practitioner was that “he should be a gentleman”. This statement was made at a time when virtually all medical practitioners in the world, whether allopathic or homœopathic, were male. ^{(See note 1 below)}

The discovery of our first female homœopathic doctor came about by accident, when I was undertaking research about early Australian homœopathic practitioners who had studied in America. I was astounded to see this woman’s name listed as an Australian, and, given the early date, I recognised that she was a true Australian pioneer in terms of her homœopathic training as well as her qualifications as a doctor.

We usually count immigrants to Australia as Australian, and people who spend their formative years in Australia as Australian, even if they subsequently move to another country. Indeed, Dr Harriet Clisby was enrolled in her medical college as an Australian. She can be described, therefore, as Australia’s first female homœopathic doctor. She commenced her formal medical education in 1863, the same year that Sherwin made his statement about the necessity for a homœopath to be a gentleman. She may, in fact, have been Australia’s first female to qualify as a doctor regardless of the school of thought – allopathic or homœopathic – although I have been unable to confirm this.^{(See note 2 below)}

Background to the period

From the mid-1800s, homœopathy posed a real economic threat to the allopathic, or “regular”, medical profession. Another growing threat to this male-dominated profession came from women who wanted to become doctors, and by choice, many of these women became homœopaths rather than allopaths.

Then, as now, it was mothers who were most likely to seek homœopathic treatment for their own and their children’s health problems, because of the gentle nature of the medicines.  The enthusiasm of mothers for this method of treatment spurred the acceptance of homœopathy for families, and women figured prominently in the growth of homœopathy at all levels of society.

For example, it was through the efforts of a committee of fifteen influential and well-organised ladies in Melbourne that a movement was formed in 1874, in order to establish a homœopathic hospital in that city. The hospital committee (initially unconnected with the all-male committee of the Melbourne Homœopathic Dispensary) was under the patronage of Lady Bowen, the wife of the Governor of Victoria, and Mrs Perry, the wife of the Anglican Lord Bishop of Melbourne. The subsequent involvement of women in all aspects of the hospital – gaining donations and subscriptions, helping to assess the suitability of premises and architectural drawings, selecting the first Matron, and managing the Admissions Committee – was crucial to its early success. ¹⁶

In the same year, 1874, one allopathic practitioner in Melbourne wrote a letter to the editor of The Argus newspaper with the following complaint about homœopaths, and the support which women gave to homœopaths and to homœopathic treatment.

They have, all over the world, a perfect mania for proselytising, and keep quite a little army of “touts,” principally “silly women” (who ought to be at home minding their children), perpetually on the look-out for the chance of making a convert. ¹⁸

The names of a number of male lay prescribers and lay practitioners are known to us. It is extremely rare, however, to know the names of female lay prescribers in Australia, as they were generally the unnoticed, unrecognised, and unrecorded contributors to family and public life. Women, in their role as family carer, were often the homœopathic prescribers for their family and friends, and may have helped introduce homœopathy to some communities. For example, in 1876 Mrs Balding of Portland in Victoria collected funds for the establishment of the Melbourne Homœopathic Hospital, and announced her thanks to those people of the Portland and Western District who also believed in the homœopathic system, which she had “advocated and practised in Portland for the last fourteen years”. ¹²

Homœopathy’s link with social reform movements, including women’s rights, helped influence women’s choice of homœopathy as a profession. In addition, some male homœopaths, who were already considered to be “unacceptable”, tended towards a policy of inclusion, rather than exclusion, of women, unlike male allopathic practitioners. According to Kirschmann, this “enhanced homœopathy’s appeal and strengthened its identity as a progressive, forward-looking alternative to the male-dominated culture of the regular profession.” ¹⁰

One of Boston’s first female homœopaths, Mercy B. Jackson, cited the precedent of Hahnemann’s second wife, and reminded her colleagues that their founder had educated his wife to be a homœopathic physician. Jackson encouraged Hahnemann’s disciples to remember and follow their founder’s example. ¹⁰

A homœopathic college for women

On 14 April 1863, some important legislation was passed in New York, despite much bitter opposition. It was An Act to Incorporate the New York Medical College for Women. The Prospectus and Announcement for the Year 1863-64 stated:

Recognising the fact that there exists in society an imperative demand for female physicians, and a growing conviction that women should be educated to meet it, the legislature has granted a special charter for a college, in which women desirous of entering the profession, but excluded from the existing schools of medicine, may receive instruction in all the branches of medical science. ⁹

The announcement declared that “no effort will be spared to earn for it [i.e. the college] a position of scientific value second to none in the world”. ⁹

An American woman, Dr Clemence Lozier, founder of the college and its first president, knew all about the difficulties encountered by women who wanted to study medicine. She was refused entry to all “regular” schools which taught medicine, and so the only other course available to her was to accept a place in what was termed “an eclectic college”, the New York Central Medical College in Syracuse. ⁹ In 1853 Dr Lozier graduated with the highest honour of her class. Opposition to women gaining medical qualifications was so great, however, that even the college at Syracuse, which had had the courage to admit Dr Lozier, subsequently was forced to close its doors against future female applicants.

Lozier’s New York Medical College for Women opened with its first intake of students in October 1863. Although at that stage it was not officially a homœopathic medical college, several of its professors were graduates of the New York Homœopathic Medical College, and lay homœopaths and advocates of women’s rights were included amongst those who had petitioned for its establishment. Lectures on homœopathic materia medica were part of the school’s curriculum from the beginning. ¹⁰ At the opening of the 1865-66 year it was formally announced that the college was the first and only medical college for women in the world “where the law of ‘similia’ is recognised as the only true guide in the administration of drugs”. ⁹ Dr Lozier became a complete convert to homœopathy.

When the college opened in 1863, eighteen applicants were enrolled. ⁹ The only student listed as coming from an overseas country was Miss Harriet Clisby from Australia, who graduated in 1865. Miss Clisby’s medical education included homœopathic teachings, thus making her the first Australian female to graduate as a doctor from a homœopathic medical college.

Harriet’s background

Harriet Jemima Winifred Clisby was born in London in 1830, daughter of a corn merchant. In 1837, her parents and siblings left England and moved to South Australia, when Adelaide had only been settled for about two years and was still only a collection of huts and tents. Many years later, she recorded that “Adelaide was at that time nothing but a forest, with the names of the streets nailed on to trees.” Her father took up land in King William Street. “One cow, which belonged to the Governor, afforded the little community its only milk supply. We lived in tents for a year or so, felling trees to clear the land, and then we all took a hand in building a little pise, or mud hut, which had a reed roof.” ¹

When she was about nine or ten, the family moved to the Inman Valley (on the Fleurieu Peninsula, south of Adelaide), where they lived in a little house made of eucalyptus bark. Harriet hunted possums, associated with local aborigines, and virtually raised herself, stating that “It would be wrong to say I was ever educated, or even ‘brought up’. I ‘brought’ myself up in the bush.” ¹

When she was fourteen, Harriet taught herself shorthand. The intriguing link here is that Isaac Pitman had, in 1837, written his first book on shorthand called “Stenographic Soundhand”. In the same year, Isaac’s brother, Jacob, sailed to South Australia with his wife and two children, arriving just a few months before Harriet’s family. Mr Pitman brought with him the first hundred copies of his brother’s first manual on “phonography” (re-named “shorthand” from 1841). ¹¹ Jacob and his family obviously had contact with the Clisbys, and it was because of this contact that Harriet was able to teach herself shorthand, most likely from one of these first editions. Harriet became a keen “phoner”, as they were known at that time.

Jacob Pitman also founded the first society of the New (Swedenborgian) Church in the southern hemisphere in Adelaide in 1844. Many members of the Swedenborgian church around the world developed strong associations with homœopathy, and church beliefs were extremely sympathetic to this method of treatment. For example, Edward George Day, who became the second minister of the Swedenborgian church after Jacob Pitman moved to Geelong in Victoria in 1859, was a very keen advocate of the use of homœopathy. On his voyage to South Australia in 1850, Day used his medicine chest and the book called Laurie’s Domestic Medicine to treat his family and many others on-board the ship. In fact, he virtually took over the role of the ship’s surgeon, who, according to Day, had gained the reputation for “general inattention” and “lack of medical skill”. ⁵

Harriet and her family returned to Adelaide in about 1845, when she was 15 years of age. It was hoped that as a result of the move to civilisation, Harriet would become a lady, and she was forced to exchange her “short prairie frock” for fashionable long skirts. ¹ There is further evidence for the association between the Clisby and Pitman families when Harriet, her father and two sisters were baptised at the Swedenborgian church in 1847. ²¹

In 1848, aged eighteen, Harriet married thirty year old widower, Henry Edward Walker, about whom very little could be discovered. Shipping records show that he had travelled from England to Australia on the same ship as the Clisbys, many years previously. Was this a marriage of convenience, to make this strong-willed and radical young woman “respectable” in the eyes of the community? Or was it considered to be a good match with a long-standing family friend?

It would be interesting to know how much Harriet knew about homœopathy at this stage of her life. Homœopathy was not unknown in South Australia. Immigrants who had come into contact with homœopathy in their home country brought their homœopathic medicine chests with them to Australia, and treated their family and friends. Edward Day, mentioned above, was one of those immigrants. His association with the Clisby family was stronger than just a casual acquaintance via the Swedenborgian church. His diary records that when he arrived in Adelaide, the first person he sought out was Mr Clisby, with whom he dined “and had some pleasant chat with his wife and daughter”. ⁵ Mr Clisby also helped him find accommodation and a job. Harriet would have been aged twenty at the time, and if she did not already know about homœopathy, she may have heard about it via Day’s graphic accounts of his journey to Australia.

By 1851 it was reported:

The medicines are procurable here; some have been imported, and a German chemist undertakes to make them up. Dr Bockhaus also, a German Romish priest here, is reputed to possess medical skill in the new system. ²⁰

The correct spelling for Dr Bockhaus is “Backhaus”. In 1847 Dr Henry Backhaus (Doctor of Divinity, not a medical doctor) arrived in Adelaide, after a brief posting in Sydney. He was a German Roman Catholic priest, who eventually became well-known in the Bendigo goldfields for caring for the sick, providing homœopathic treatment in addition to his duties as priest. ⁸

Move to Melbourne

Following her marriage, Harriet’s exact movements were very difficult to trace, although Harriet herself reported that she moved to Melbourne, apparently around 1856. She did not mention whether she travelled with her husband, or alone. She spent six years in a house in Collins Street, and some time in a “country house” in Richmond. ⁴ (Today it is amazing to think of Richmond, that inner-city area, having ever been considered as being “in the country”.)

Unfortunately, there is no record of Henry or Harriet in the Melbourne post office directories of the time, which possibly means that she, or they, were in rented rooms or a boarding house, and therefore did not rate a mention. Shipping lists, however, record Henry Edward Walker (presumably Harriet’s husband) as “Master” of various ships which regularly plied their trade between Adelaide, Melbourne and Launceston. During the year 1854, for example, he was probably at home only one week in every four. From 1859, Henry also started to take on longer journeys to New Zealand. If this person was indeed Harriet’s husband, these separations may have been the reason he and Harriet eventually parted ways, or perhaps he took on the longer voyages because they had already separated and there was no reason for him to return home. ^{(See note 3 below)} Harriet made no mention of her husband in any of her activities, and her marriage is not cited as part of her entry in the Biographical Index of South Australians. ³ Harriet reverted to her maiden name.

Early publications

Later in life, Harriet was to state her belief that many cases of serious nervous diseases and other maladies among women originated from lack of education, as well as from a lack of involvement in vital and interesting work. ¹⁰ According to her, even well-off women, who did not work for pay, wanted to escape the "immense imprisonment of life which was stifling them".¹⁵

No doubt to keep her active and intelligent mind gainfully occupied, Harriet edited a magazine, written almost entirely in shorthand, called The Southern Phonographic Harmonia, which was published in Melbourne. ¹⁸

Also published in Melbourne, in January and February 1861, were two editions of a monthly magazine of literature, science and art. ¹⁹ Called The Interpreter, this magazine has been recognised as the first published by women in Australia. It was a collaboration between Harriet Clisby and Caroline Dexter, wife of artist William Dexter and, after his death, of William Lynch who became mayor of Brighton.

In addition to poems and reviews, The Interpreter included a medical page where

It is intended to devote a portion of our space to practical information on Medical Science as to the prevention of disease, with hints for its cure. ¹⁹

The page particularly addressed mothers

who, having charge of the young, aim to do their duty in teaching them how to regulate themselves in obedience to the laws of health, and thus to realise the many benefits which naturally accrue from such a course. ¹⁹

Basic issues were covered, including the need for attention to the importance of dress, exercise and diet. Dress (wearing not too much or too little) was considered to be important, particularly in the Australian climate.

Perhaps, in no part of the world, more than this, should these be attended to, with our variable climate, where the thermometer ranges throughout the year from 40^o to 100^o. Our dress, our diet, our habitation, should all accord, and be in harmony with our climate. ¹⁹

The only advertisement in the publication was for “Madame Carole, herbal physician, mesmerist and clairvoyante” of 114 Collins Street, with a testimonial for her from “G.F. von Viettinghoff, MD” at the Homœopathic Dispensary, Myddleton Square, London.^{(See note 4 below)}

Another interesting article, surely written by Harriet, was titled “My ‘Acquaintance’ of the South Australian Range”, in which she described an encounter with a young aboriginal woman who was distressed because she was to be given to a man she did not love. (Was this a hint to her own situation?) The author made a passionate defence of the nobility of the aboriginal character, when not ruined by their “civilisers”.

Speaking from my own experience, and I have roved among them at all seasons, from the commencement of the colony [of South Australia], I must admit that both for delicacy of feeling and generosity of character I have seen but few Europeans surpass them, with all our vaunted superiority. ¹⁹

Both Harriet and Caroline were independent, dynamic and unconventional. Caroline startled society by opening an Institute of Hygiene and promulgating such novelties as divided skirts and abolition of corsets. Both were interested in social reform. ¹³ Harriet, however, wrote disapprovingly of defiant women who hated society and lived lives to shock society, “speaking and thinking as it pleased them, acting independently, holding on to personal rights without regard to their neighbour.” ⁷

Harriet reported that in 1858 she returned to Adelaide, where she was responsible for running a community home “for the rescue of women prisoners”. ^{1 (Also see note 5 below)}

Harriet’s inspiration & training

It was about this time (when Harriet was around twenty-nine years of age) that she saw a copy of a pamphlet by Dr Elizabeth Blackwell, “The Laws of Life: with special reference to the physical education of girls”, published in London in 1859. Dr Blackwell was the first woman to complete a course of study at a US medical college (in 1849). Blackwell produced several publications on medicine as a profession for women, in which she told of the many difficulties and disappointments which women were encountering in the world of medicine. But this didn’t deter Harriet. “I was so thrilled to read this account of Dr Blackwell’s life, and was so proud to know that she was an Englishwoman, that I felt that medicine and not writing was my vocation after all.” “I rushed to a dear doctor friend of mine and asked him if I should ever make a good doctor. He said I had many of the qualities of a good physician, and there and then started me on anatomy and physiology!” ¹

Unfortunately the name of this most progressive and supportive doctor is not known. It is also difficult to determine from the records whether the doctor was in Adelaide, or whether Harriet had returned to Melbourne and received her training there. The publication dates for Harriet’s Melbourne-based magazines could indicate that after a short period in Adelaide, Harriet returned to Melbourne, and that her training was undertaken there. This would also accord with the number of years which Harriet said that she had lived in Melbourne. If so, her training could have been conducted by a homœopath, especially given her later connections and support from a homœopathic doctor in London when she moved to England. Drs Berigny and Hickson, homœopaths who lived in Collins Street during 1860 and 1861, are possible candidates.

One small, insignificant item in The Argus may provide the clue to the doctor’s identity. On 17 April 1860, it was reported that Dr Hickson gave a talk to about twenty members of the Victorian Phonetic Society with the title “Phonography as an aid to the medical profession”. During the talk he emphasised

the importance of the acquisition of the phonographic art by the medical student and the physician [and] alluded to personal experiences as illustrating the truth of his position. (My italics.) ¹⁷

Might Harriet have been the medical student who had used shorthand to her advantage in taking notes from Dr Hickson? Because of their mutual connection with the Phonetic Society (a very small group), they would certainly have known each other. The above coincidences provide a strong case that Dr Hickson was Harriet’s mentor. But we may never know for sure the name or background of Harriet’s benefactor and teacher.

After about two years of private study in Australia, Harriet decided to continue her training in England. (Harriet would have been aged in her early thirties). It was at this time that Dr Hickson moved to Ballarat, and the new Medical Bill restricting the registration of medical practitioners, to the exclusion of most homœopaths, was about to be enacted. These factors, which would have blocked any further progress in Australia, may have provided the impetus for the move.

In England, Harriet met Miss Elizabeth Garrett (later Dr Garrett Anderson) who eventually, after a long struggle with the authorities, became the second female doctor registered in England, after Dr Blackwell. Miss Garrett told Harriet that at that stage England had no opportunities for women to study, and that America was the only place to obtain a medical qualification. Having no funds to make such a move, Harriet met “a celebrated homœopathic doctor” (unfortunately not named) who introduced her to the head surgeon of Guy’s Hospital. She was allowed to work at the hospital, but only as a private nurse like the other women, not as a trainee doctor. ¹

After writing a lecture regarding her experience of many troubles and diseases, and showing it to an agent, Harriet was sent to Bristol. There she gave her very first lecture, and returned to London “with six guineas in my pocket – the first money I ever earned!” ¹ This skill of public speaking was to be one which she developed and honed in her future career.

When finally she had accrued sufficient finances, Harriet travelled to New York and entered the Medical College for Women, where she received a general medical education, as well as training in homœopathic principles.

Dr Clisby graduated “in spite of fierce and organised opposition from the male students and some of the doctors” [at the hospital where the female medical students were taught clinical medicine]. ¹ The male students blocked their entrance, pelted them with balls of paper, and shouted and laughed at them. “The women students were actually protected by a guard of honour sent by the mayor”. ¹

Friends of homœopathy & women’s rights

During her stay in New York, Dr Clisby became friends with American poet and supporter of homœopathy, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and clergyman Henry Ward Beecher. ⁹ The latter was the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and also an advocate of homœopathy), and uncle to E. Beecher Hooker, who was a homœopathic physician and President of the American Institute of Homœopathy. Henry Beecher was also a member of the Board of Trustees for the New York Medical College for Women, where he, along with famous women’s rights advocates Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, gave speeches at the college’s first graduation ceremony. ⁶ Elizabeth Cady Stanton was, in fact, a lay practitioner of homœopathy in New York, having seen its effectiveness in the treatment of her brother-in-law in the 1830s. ¹⁰

After a period, Clisby went to Boston to practise and use her skills to provide lectures on hygiene. In 1877, she founded the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union (WEIU) – which is still active in Boston today – and became its first president. ⁷ Another member was Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women and Jo’s Boys, and also an advocate of homoeopathy. (Jo’s Boys contains a character, Nan, who uses homœopathic medicines and decides to become a homœopathic physician. The book was dedicated to Alcott’s “friend and physician”, who was a Boston homœopath. ¹⁰)

The WEIU was staffed exclusively with women homœopaths until the middle of the 1880s, although men were on the advisory board from the start. Dr Clisby saw the Union as a “union of all for the good of all”, and the WEIU adopted this expression as its motto. ⁷ The aim of the WEIU was to strive for social justice for poor and middle-class women, to promote the best practical methods for securing their educational, industrial and social advancement. The WEIU combined “spirituality, self-improvement and social activism”.

One of the earliest concerns of the WEIU was women’s health – lack of knowledge of basic hygiene that would maintain their families in good health. A Hygiene Committee was formed to educate women on health and nutrition (preventative medicine), and for a number of years the Committee sponsored a free clinic for women. This was run by Dr Clisby and a colleague. ⁷ The WEIU gave lectures on the physical disorders caused by layers of heavy skirts and tight lacing, and advocated dress reform. ¹⁰

In America, Harriet was known as a woman doctor and women’s rights activist from Australia.

In 1885, Clisby travelled to Geneva, where she founded L’Union des Femmes. In 1888 she returned to Boston, and continued work with the Hygiene Committee of the WEIU until 1894, after which she returned to Europe.

Later years

In 1910, aged eighty, Dr Clisby was invited to travel to England to give a lecture, and subsequently, in 1911, she moved to London. There she continued to give lectures on spiritual and medical subjects till she was aged ninety-six.

In 1928 an article about Dr Clisby was written in England, declaring that she was “the oldest living woman doctor in the world”, and reporting details of an interview where she described her early life in South Australia. A cutting from the London paper was sent to The Register newspaper in Adelaide, which resulted in several articles in Australian newspapers. ^{1, 4}

When Dr Clisby turned one hundred, more articles were published about her. ² Naturally, there was great interest in her secrets to a long life. It was reported that when she was eighty, she attributed her longevity to vegetarianism, but now she was one hundred, she had “taken ferociously to meat”.² She rose early and went to bed before 10.30 pm. She still did gymnastics, using dumbells, and rowing exercises, while sitting in her chair. She also avoided worry. One means of doing this was to avoid worrying about fashion. She reported that early on she had chosen a style of clothing and hairdo (a short bob well before this was fashionable), and then didn’t think further about these issues for the rest of her life. ²

Dr Harriet Clisby died in London in 1931.

Her final words on women doctors? She believed that they should make better specialists than general practitioners. “They are abundantly endowed with common-sense, and as much can be done by common-sense and sympathy as by drugs, when reasonably applied.” ²

Note 1:

Dagmar Berne enrolled at Sydney University in 1885 and transferred to the medical school in 1886, the first time that an Australian university allowed entry to females to study “orthodox” medicine. She had to complete her studies overseas, however, some say because of the antagonism of the Dean of Medicine, who had not wanted women to be admitted to the course.  Emma Constance Stone studied overseas in the United States and Canada, obtaining her qualifications in 1888. She was the first female to be registered as a doctor in Australia, in 1890. Her sister, Grace Clara Stone, was one of two females who were the first to graduate in medicine from an Australian university (in Melbourne) in 1891.

NOTE 2:

Since writing this article, I have determined that Harriet Clisby was in fact the first Australian female to qualify as a doctor, regardless of the school of thought - allopathic or homœopathic. Because she did not become registered as a practitioner in Australia, the credit for being Australia's first female doctor is usually attributed to others (see Note 1 above).

NOTE 3:

Subsequent research has shown that the sea captain was Harriet's husband. By 1859 Henry Walker and Harriet had parted ways, and he became involved with another woman, by whom he had a son and a daughter. He died while at sea, on a sea journey from Hong Kong.

NOTE 4:

“Madame Carole, herbal physician, mesmerist and clairvoyante” was the pseudonym for Caroline Dexter.

NOTE 5:

There is no evidence for Harriet having returned to Adelaide to run a community home for the rescue of women prisoners.  However in 1859, around the time of Harriet's letters to the Editor of The Argus, the committee of the Melbourne Ladies' Benevolent Society established an 'industrial home' for destitute women and children. A newspaper article of 7 February 1861, reported that one of the members of the committee was a 'Miss Walker'.  It is possible that this was a reference to Harriet.

©   Barbara Armstrong

       www.historyofhomeopathy.au