Thomas Jefferson 1743 - 1826
September 07, 2007
Thomas
Jefferson 1743 - 1826
was President from 1801 to 1809. This man and his colleagues set the
tone of freedom that allowed homeopathy to flourish in America.
Jefferson wrote:
”If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls who live under tyranny.”
And his colleague Benjanin Rush commented:
‘… Unless we put medical freedom in the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organise itself into an undercover dictatorship. To restrict the art of healing to one class (of men) and deny equal privileges to others will constitute the Bastille of medical science. All such laws are un-American and despotic and have no place in a Republic. The Constitution of this Republic should make special privilege for medical freedom as well as religious freedom…’ Benjamin Rush 1746 - 1813 Benjamin Rush, Access to Medical Treatment Act: hearing of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, United States Senate, One Hundred Third Congress, second session, on S. 2140 to permit an individual to be treated by a health care practitioner with any method of medical treatment such individual requests, and for other purposes, July 22, 1994, Volume 4, (United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Labor and Human Resources, 1994). For further information on Benjamin Rush’s contributions to the AMA Code 1847 see John Balint, Martin Strosberg, Ethics and epidemics, (Emerald Group Publishing, 2006) for the building blocks of the AMA Code 1847, (Bell and Hays (1847), 1999).
Jefferson was fascinated by the study of plants in his garden at Monticello and in the whole of America, many of which could be used as remedies. His library at Monticello was well stocked with herbals. Jefferson was opposed to blood letting and often treated himself with herbs.
As a result of the freedoms enshrined by Jefferson and his like minded colleagues, homeopathy spread to America and became extremely popular. Hahnemann wrote the first edition of the Organon in 1810, and pioneeers like William Channing took full advantage of Jefferson’s interest and protection to train in homeopathy at the New York County Medical School, which began life as a homeopathic college.
Frederick Hahnemann, fleeing from persecution in Europe, soon arrived. Thus was homeopathy well placed to treat the epidemics that plagued America in those early days, and for homeopathy to prove forever its worth.