William Boericke 1849 - 1929

William Boericke 1849 - 1929 was a Professor of Homeopathic Materia Medica and Therapeutics at the Hahnemann Hospital in San Francisco for thirty years. William ran the Boericke and Tafel** Homeopathic Pharmacy, and he also formed Boericke and Runyon Homeopathic Pharmacy in 1890***

‘… From 1880-1920 Dr. Boericke was the physician of choice in San Francisco. Consequently, his family belonged to the ‘high society’ there. In fact, patients came from all over the world to be treated by him homeopathically…’ Boericke was a prolific writer and his text books are standard fare for modern homeopathy. William Boericke was one of the most influential homeopaths in the late 19th and early 20th Century, and his influence is still central to homeopathic practice to this day.

William Boericke was a close friend of James John Garth Wilkinson, and his name is in his address book at 1812 Washington Street, San Francisco US (Swedenborg Archive Address Book of James John Garth Wilkinson ‘Where is it’ dated 1.10.1892).

From http://www.narayana-publishers.com/William-Boericke/en/a74?z=bautor ‘… William Boericke was born on Nov 26, 1849 in Austria. He studied medicine at the University of Vienna for a year before emigrating to the USA. He graduated from the Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia in 1880. Shortly afterwards, he moved to San Francisco, where he worked as a homeopath for more than fifty years. He was the co-founder of the Pacific Homeopathic Medical College in San Francisco and the Hahnemann Hospital in 1881. This was integrated into the University of California, where he became the first professor of homeopathic materia medica and therapy. He worked there for thirty years. In 1901 he published his homeopathic materia medica, which went through nine editions. His brother Oscar added a repertory to it in 1906…’

William Boericke and James William Ward funded Richard Haehl to buy Samuel Hahnemann’s bequest (including the 6th edition of the _Organon_ manuscript) from the Boenninghausen family in 1921. Boericke translated the 6th edition of the _Organon_ manuscript into English before it was finally published by Boericke and Tafel.

From http://homeoint.org/biograph/boericke.htmEminent U.S. homeopath, William Bœricke was born in Austria, on November 26, 1849. He studied for one year at the Vienna Medical School, before immigrating to the United States and settling in Ohio. He graduated from the Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia in 1880. Soon afterwards he moved to San Francisco where he worked as a homoeopath for more than fifty years. He was co-founder of the Pacific Homoeopathic Medical College of San Francisco and Hahnemann Hospital in

1881. This was incorporated into the University of California, where he became the first Professor of Homoeopathic Materia Medica and Therapeutics, a post he held for thirty years. In 1901 he published his Homœopathic Materia Medica. It went through nine editions ; his brother Oscar added a repertory to the book in 1906.

http://www.homeoint.org/cazalet/boericke/story.htm The Story of Boericke & Tafel © Sylvain Cazalet 2001. William Boericke moved to San Francisco in 1870 to take over the Boericke and Tafel pharmacy.

The Boericke and Tafel pharmacy was founded by Francis Edmund Boericke (who graduated from the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania) and Adolph J. Tafel in 1853 on the encouragement of Constantine Hering.

By this time there were over 2400 homeopathic physicians in the United States with over 700 in New York and over 325 in Pennsylvania. Keeping pace with the continuing growth in the practice of homeopathy, Boericke & Tafel established pharmacies in New Orleans, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., Minneapolis, Chicago and Cincinnati in addition to the two in New York City and Philadelphia.

Boericke & Tafel has an equally distinguished record as publishers. They were responsible for issuing over a hundred titles, approximately eighty-five percent of all homeopathic books published in the United States, including the American Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia, the [sixth edition of Hahnemann’s Organon of Medicine](http://books.google.com/books?id=n3YC435gKFIC&pg=PP9&dq=sixth+edition+of+Hahnemann%27s+Organon+of+Medicine+(translated+by+William+Boericke&ei=MDz-R7edNouOywTj09Fg&sig=30-xl4yaqcgHEPKTL\_g1EAWAWmk) (translated by William Boericke), and Boericke’s Materia Medica with Repertory, which is today the standard U.S. materia medica and an integral part of most homeopathic computer repertorization programs.

William Boericke graduated from the Philadelphia Medical College in 1876 and from Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia in 1880. He was editor of the California Homoeopath and co-founder of the Pacific Homoeopathic Medical College and Hahnemann Hospital in 1881. In 1901 he authored Boericke’s Materia Medica. His brother Oscar added a repertory to the book in 1906. This ‘pocket manual’ finds its way into almost every homeopath’s library. It is a concise guide to hundreds of remedies, some of which appear nowhere else. Many a homeopathic professional has depended on this work for daily practice.

Along with Willis Alonzo Dewey he wrote The Twelve Tissue Salts, published in 1888.

From 1880-1920 Dr. Boericke was the physician of choice in San Francisco. Consequently, his family belonged to the ‘high society’ there. In fact, patients came from all over the world to be treated by him homeopathically. He was a hard worker and his family was devoted to him.On April 1, 1929 he died of a massive heart attack. A few months before, he had developed angina symptoms after racing his son down Tamalpais Avenue. For a man in his late 70s he was still physically active. Two months after he died, his house burned down. All that was left was the stone fireplace and all of his homeopathic books.

In addition to the above, Boericke also wrote A Compend of the Principles of Homœopathy as Taught by Hahnemann, The Treatment of Disease with the Twelve Tissue Remedies Being a Treatise on … , and The Care, feeding and homoeopathic treatment of children.

Oscar Boericke wrote The Homeopathic Repertory.

Of interest:

Felix Aerial Boericke MD, a relative ? uncle of William Boericke, who was the ultimate successor to Boericke and Tafel, and its President until his death, published several books on homeopathic veterinary practice, including The elements of homœopathic theory, A Manual of homœopathic veterinary practice,

Felix Aerial Boericke was a colleague of Edward Pollock Anshutz, and together they wrote articles for various homeopathic publications.

Garth Wilkinson Boericke 1893 - 1968, son of William Boericke, named after James John Garth Wilkinson would also become a homeopath (*photo used courtesy of Homéopathe International by Sylvain Cazalet at PHOTOTHÈQUE HOMÉOPATHIQUE)

Johann Friedrich Immanuel Tafel 1796 - 1863, brother of  Johan Friedrich Leonhard Tafel 1800 - 1880, father of Rudolph Leonhard Tafel 1831 - 1893 (NB: Tafel means Plate)

 From http://famousamericans.net/johannfriedrichleonhardtafel/ ‘… TAFEL, Johann Friedrich Leonhard, educator, born in Sulzbach, Wurtemberg. Germany, 6 February, 1800. He was graduated at Tubingen in 1820, and was professor for many years at the gymnasia of Stuttgart, Ulm, and Schorndorf, introducing the Hamiltonian interlinear method of teaching languages, and editing several periodicals, among which was the “Beobachter,” a daily paper devoted to the interests of the Liberal party (1849-‘53). He came to this country in 1853, was for three years professor in Urbana university, Ohio, and then removed to St. Louis, Missouri He is the author of several text-books of ancient and modern languages, translated into German the works of Xenophon and Dion Cassius, and select novels of Charles Dickens, William M. Thackeray, and James Fenimore Cooper, and published “Staat und Christenthmn” (Tubingen, 1851); ” Der Christ und der Atheist ” (Philadelphia, 1856) ; and with his son, Ludwig H. Tafela” German-English and English-German Pocket Dictionary” (1870).—His son, Rudolph Leonhard, educator, born in Ulm, Germany, 24 November, 1831, came to the United States in 184’7, and in 1860-‘1 was teacher of French and German in Washington university, St. Louis. Mo. He held the chair of modern languages and comparative philology there from 1862 till 1868, and since the last-named year has been a Swedenborgian minister in London, England. He has published “Latin Pronunciation and the Latin Alphabet” with his father (New York, 1860);” Investigation into the Laws of English Pronunciation and Orthography” (1862); and “Emanuel Swedenborg as a Philosopher and Man of Science” (Chicago, 1867). Edited Appletons Encyclopedia, Copyright © 2001 VirtualologyTM…’

*Adolph J Tafel, brother of Rudolph Leonhard Tafel (1831-1893), and Francis Edmund Boericke form the pharmacy Boericke and Tafel in 1853 (NB: Francis Edmund Boericke joined the Philadelphia First Society New Church (Swedenborgian) in 1852 and he married Elise Tafel, daughter of Johan Friedrich Leonhard Tafel in 1863):

In 1850, the 18-year-old Rudolph and Adolph. J. Tafel met Francis Edmund Boericke, and invited Boericke to assist in some English to German translating. Dr. Hering (Constantine Hering) persuaded Francis E. Boericke and Adolph J. Tafel to enter into the manufacture and sale of homeopathic medicines. In 1857 Boericke entered the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania, but kept his pharmacy operating. In 1862, William Radde, Jr. died, and Boericke bought the Radde pharmacy and kept it running. Adolph J. Tafel had returned to Philadelphia, and Boericke sold him the pharmacy at 48 N. 9th Street in 1863, keeping the Radde Pharmacy at 635 Arch St. Boericke graduated with his MD degree in 1863.

Rudolph Leonhard Tafel **(1831-1893)** was born in Germany, and immigrated to America in 1847. In 1860, he was a teacher of French and German in Washington University, St. Louis, where he held the chair of modern languages and comparative philology there from 1862 till 1868. In 1868, he lived in London, and became a Swedenborgian minister. Rudolph Leonhard Tafel collaborated with his father Johann Friedrich Immanuel Tafel on many academic projects.

Rudolph Leonhard Tafel was a very close friend of James John Garth Wilkinson, and his name is listed in both address books at 46 St. Georges Avenue, Tufnell Park (this address for Mrs. R L Tafel is crossed out in the ‘Where is it?’ address book, possibly because she moved out of this address when her husband died?), 17 Anson Road Tufnell Park, and at 55 Hillmarten Road, Camden Road. His date of death is recorded as 9.1.1893 (Swedenborg Archive Address Book of James John Garth Wilkinson dated 1895. See also Swedenborg Archive Address Book of James John Garth Wilkinson ‘Where is it’ dated 1.10.1892).

** In 1987, Willmar Schwabe Pharmaceuticals** *purchased Boericke and Tafel, thereby entering the American market (Richard Grossinger, [Homeopathy: The Great Riddle*](http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6MCWXx7H6_EC&pg=PA142&dq=schwabe+homeopath&lr=&ei=ZtevSqqfJZG-ywSg1KiRBQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=schwabe&f=false), (North Atlantic Books, 14 Aug 1998). Page 142).

* William Boericke also formed a company with **Edward Wheelock Runyon (1851-1937) (Dean of the California College of Pharmacy from 1885-1891) called Boericke and Runyon, in New York City in 1890 (Benjamin Lillard, Practical Druggist and Pharmaceutical Review of Reviews, Volume 50, (Lillard & Company, 1932). Page 12. See also http://julianwinston.com/archives/bt/bt\_history.php See also https://digital.library.ucsf.edu/items/show/2609).

From http://collections.museumca.org/?q=collection-item/20055281 ‘… In about 1890, William Boericke formed a partnership with E. W. Runyon, in San Francisco, and formed the company of Boericke and Runyon, a homeopathic pharmacy. Sometime during the 1940s Boericke and Runyon were sold to Humphreys Pharmacal, and became a division of that company. William Boericke was born on October 25, 1849 in Austria. He studied for one year at the Vienna Medical School and then immigrated to the Unites States where his family settled in Ohio. In 1880 he moved to San Francisco to take over the Boericke and Tafel pharmacy. He graduated from the Philadelphia Medical College in 1876 and from Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia in 1880. Moving to San Francisco he practiced as a homeopath for over fifty years.He was editor of the California Homoeopath and co-founder of the Pacific Homeopathic Medical College and Hahnemann Hospital in 1881. This facility was eventually incorporated into the University of California, where Boericke became the first professor of Homeopathic Materia Medica and Therapeutics, a post he held for thirty years. He was also on the faculty of the Hahnemann Medical College in San Francisco. In 1901 he authored Boericke’s Materia Medica. His brother Oscar added a repertory to the book in 1906. This ‘pocket manual’ finds its way into almost every homeopath’s library. It is a concise guide to hundreds of remedies, some of which appear nowhere else. From 1880-1920 Dr. Boericke was the physician of choice in San Francisco. Consequently, his family belonged to the ‘high society’ there. In fact, patients came from all over the world to be treated by him homeopathically. He was a hard worker and his family was devoted to him. Edward Wheelock Runyon was born in Chicago in 1851. He was a postmaster to the Ohio Regiment during the Civil War. He went to California in 1887, met William Boericke, and returned to the east coast to get a degree from the New York College of Pharmacy in 1893. He was the president of Boericke and Runyon in New York City from 1908 until his death at age 86 on December 17, 1937…’