EDITORIAL


EDITORIAL. Woods Hole has three scientific marine institutions to which many come in the summer months for employment and study. Besides, there is the usual amount of summer tourists to a sea-side resort, altogether swelling the population so the already over- worked doctors are run ragged.


ALLOPATHY.

Allopathy is defined in Websters Collegiate Dictionary as the “theory or system of medical practice which combats disease by the use of remedies producing effects different from those produced by the disease treated. Also, erroneously, the system of medical practice making use of all measures which have proved of value in the treatment of disease”.

The Could Medical Dictionary, edition of 1945, has this to say about the term Allopathy:

“Allopathy: according to Hahnemann, who invented the term, allopathy is that method of treatment of disease consisting in the use of medicines the action of which, upon the body in health, produces marked phenomena different from those of the disease treated: erroneously used for the regular medical profession”.

Hahnemann used the term to describe the techniques of medical practice based on the therapeutic formula, Contraria Contraribus Curantur. In his day and time the methodology of “the regular medical profession” was based almost exclusively on the above therapeutic formula and hence Hahnemanns word, Allopathy, had force and weight. Furthermore, Hahnemann was in need of an expression to point up the difference between school medicine and Homoeopathy.

Although Hahnemann called his detractors, allopaths and their method Allopathy, using these terms with derogatory intent, yet it should be understood that he was reacting in a perfectly natural way to the storm of obloquy and hatred to which he was subjected by his colleges. He could not accept condemnation without trial, which is exactly what he and every homoeopath since have had to bear. It is small wonder, therefore, that by the homoeopath, the term Allopathy has been used as a wholesale denunciation of regular school practice and to express his rejection of and resentment for the opprobrium expressed by traditional medicine toward himself and Homoeopathy.

It is a sad thing that Homoeopathy has been so tinctured by Hahnemanns bitterness that even to-day its adherents continue to use Allopathy as an expression of contempt for all things not homoeopathic. To do this is to ignore the real advances made by the regular medical practice since Hahnemanns day and to imply that those disciples of Aesculapius are motivated not so much by a desire to heal the sick as by venal and mercenary desiderata. furthermore, the term Allopathy correctly applies only too those medical techniques using remedies “producing effects different from those produced by the disease treated,” such as vasodilators for vasoconstriction, antipyretics for fever, anti acids for hyperacidity and the like. Not all therapeutic measures fall into this category.

Since, for the regular physician, as well as for the Homoeopath, anything in the great field of medicine is his by training, by tradition and by right, it is obvious that he would sharply and seriously limit his usefulness as a doctor were he to confine him self strictly to allopathic methods. This he does not do and for this reason, if for no other, to describe his practice as Allopathy is erroneous.

Homoeopaths are urged to discontinue the use of the world, Allopathy, since it no longer accurately describes the total activities of the regular medical profession and can serve only to irritate those whose sole motive is the same as our own: to heal the sick.-A.D.S.

COMMUNICATIONS (Continued from page 23)

Dr. A. Sutherland

Sec. International Hahnemannian Association

Brattleboro, Vt.

Dear Sir:

I am thoroughly convinced that homoeopathy is the only means by which my family should be cared for during illness. Therefore, I am eager to find a doctor who would be interested in setting up a practice in Woods Hole.

There have been too few doctors of any kind for the town of Falmouth, of which Woods Hole is a part. There is no resident doctor in Woods Hole. However, there are already two families who are eager to have homoeopathic care available.

Woods Hole has three scientific marine institutions to which many come in the summer months for employment and study. Besides, there is the usual amount of summer tourists to a sea-side resort, altogether swelling the population so the already over- worked doctors are run ragged.

I should be most grateful if you could given me information as to where I might inquire about homoeopathic doctors. Or, if you would be so kind, you could send on one of the enclosed letters to such a place.

Allan D. Sutherland
Dr. Sutherland graduated from the Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia and was editor of the Homeopathic Recorder and the Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy.
Allan D. Sutherland was born in Northfield, Vermont in 1897, delivered by the local homeopathic physician. The son of a Canadian Episcopalian minister, his father had arrived there to lead the local parish five years earlier and met his mother, who was the daughter of the president of the University of Norwich. Four years after Allan’s birth, ministerial work lead the family first to North Carolina and then to Connecticut a few years afterward.
Starting in 1920, Sutherland began his premedical studies and a year later, he began his medical education at Hahnemann Medical School in Philadelphia.
Sutherland graduated in 1925 and went on to intern at both Children’s Homeopathic Hospital and St. Luke’s Homeopathic Hospital. He then was appointed the chief resident at Children’s. With the conclusion of his residency and 2 years of clinical experience under his belt, Sutherland opened his own practice in Philadelphia while retaining a position at Children’s in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department.
In 1928, Sutherland decided to set up practice in Brattleboro.