Amos Gerald Hull 1810 - 1859

Amos Gerald Hull 1810 - 1859 was one of the first students of homeopathy in America, and the first student of homeopathy to undergo a public recorded examination by the *Medical Society of the County of New York.

Amos Gerald Hull of New York city, was born in New Hartford, Oneida county, N. Y., in 1810. He received his lay education at the Union College, Schenectady, where he graduated, in 1826, at the age of sixteen.

His father, Amos Gift Hull, was a surgeon of eminence in central New York, and one of the *founders of the *Medical Society of the County of New York.

Amos Gerald Hull began the study of medicine. He entered Rutger’s Medical College, and look his degree from that institution in 1832. In the meanwhile his attention had been forcibly directed towards homœopathy, which he diligently studied, commencing the practice of that system in 1833.

He was the first student who underwent the public and recorded examination recently established in the *Medical Society of the County of New York.

Hans Burch Gram, John Franklin Gray (his brother in law), Amos Gerald Hull, William Channing and Abram D Wilson were all in place to treat the 1832 cholera epidemic with homeopathy.

In 1843 Amos applied for membership of the *Kings County Medical Society of New York with Phineas Parkhouse Wells, but they were both turned down because they were homeopaths.

Amos took to the Courts against this decision, but the allopaths immediately passed a resolution banning all sectarians and anyone who had not graduated from an ‘incorporated’ medical college; and who was not already a member of a county medical society.

Amos fought this through the courts for sixteen years before the courts finally decided in his favour. When the *Kings County Medical Society of New York finally acceded and paid all his legal costs and invited him to join, Amos turned them down.

In 1844 Amos was elected Provisional Secretary of the Homoeopathic Medical Society of the State of New York.

After practicing for some years he removed to Newburgh, but returned to New York, where he recommenced practice a few years prior to his death, which took place April 25th, 1859.

His literary record is full, and tip to the present time no man, living or dead, has done more for homœopathic literature than he has.

In 1834, he edited, in connection with Dr. **John Franklin Gray, the ”American Journal of Homœopathy,” and in 1840, the ”Homœopathic Examiner,” three volumes of which were published.

He edited (with Egbert Guernsey, Charles Julius Hempel and Frederick Greenwood Snelling) several editions of ”Jahr’s Manual,” and assisted in the ”Symptomen Codex.” He edited an American edition of Thomas Roupell Everest’s ”A Popular View of Homoeopathy,” and several editions of ”Laurie’s Domestic Homœopathic Practice” by Joseph Laurie.

The literary work which had done so much for the dissemination of homeopathy in England, A Popular View of Homoeopathy by Rev. Thomas Roupell Everest was rendered into a second edition by Hull in 1842.

In 1828, he became a member of the New York Medical and Philosophical Society ; the next year he was appointed its Corresponding Secretary, and in the year following was elected its President. He was also a member of the *New York County Medical Society, and was made one of the Censors in 1835, becoming prominent as an advocate for the public and recorded examinations of applicants for membership in that institution.

*It should be mentioned that, at the period we write of, the membership of the County Medical Society was made obligatory on every physician by the law of the State of New York.

He visited Samuel Hahnemann, in Paris, in 1836-37, of which he wrote a very interesting account for the Homœopathic Examiner, and which was also published in pamphlet form, with a portrait of Samuel Hahnemann.

His character was marked by many interesting and amiable -traits. He was always highly esteemed by his confrères, and possessed unusual scientific and literary attainments. He was endowed with eminent ability and skill as a physician, and was an upright, honorable gentleman, remarkable for his strong attachments.

His early death, at the age of forty-nine, was a loss to the entire community and a great misfortune to the cause of homœopathy.

Amos Gerald Hull also wrote Elements of homoeopathic practice of physic with Joseph Laurie and James S. Douglass, A Popular View of Homoeopathy with Thomas Roupell Everest, and he contributed to several homeopathic journals.

Of interest:

*Amos Gift Hull, and his second wife, Elizabeth Morris, had a son not given in HFAm. He was Morris Norton Bartholomew Hull, who was executed (hung) in Baltimore, MD, on 14 July 1819, for the murder of John Heaps in a mail robbery.

Dr. *Amos Gift Hull also had another son not given in HFAm, by his third wife, Eunice Williams. He was Dr. Amos Gerald Hull, the first American to take up the study of Homeopathic Medicine.

A daughter, also not mentioned in HFAm, was Elizabeth Hull, who married Dr. **John Franklin Gray, an associate of Dr. Amos Gerald Hull in the field of homeopathic medicine.

Also:

Justin M. Hull of Lake Mills Eclectic Physician in 1880.

Phoebe C Hull and Annie Lord Chamberlain Phoebe and Annie were magnetic physicians and they operated Hull and Chamberlain Publishing Company in Chicago in 1873. They wrote Magnetic and Electric Powders: Something Entirely New in 1873.

Daniel W Hull wrote the Manual of Magnetic Healing in 1906.

Amos Cooke Hull was President of the Kings County Homeopathic Society in 1857.