Stephen Yeldham 1810 - 1896

Stephen Yeldham 1810? - 1896? LAC 1827 MRCS Eng. 1833 was a British orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy, to become Consulting Surgeon to the London Homeopathic Hospital. Stephen Yeldham was a Vice President and a Fellow of the British Homeopathic Society and a member of the British Homeopathic Association.

Yeldham was a colleague of Frederick Hervey Foster Quin, the first President of the British Homeopathic Society, and Marmaduke Blake Sampson, the Chairman of the British Homeopathic Association, and many other homeopaths.

Stephen Yeldham practiced at 53 Stamford Street Blackfriars Road in London with Joshua Lambert Vardy.

On 6th July 1865, Stephen Yeldham testified in favour of his patient, a Mr. Piercy, who was dismissed from his job as Drawing Master on The Britannia and who won his court case against unfair dismissal on the testimony of his homeopaths Stephen Yeldham and James John Garth Wilkinson. Three old medicine physicians were overruled by this testimony, which resulted in them complaining indignantly to The Lancet. This episode was also reported in The Medical Times and Gazette (Frederick Hervey Foster Quin, Stephen Yeldham, Hugh Cameron, John Rutherford Russell (Eds.), Annals and Transactions of the British Homeopathic Society, and of the London Homeopathic Hospital, Volume IV, (Leath and Co, 5 St. Paul’s Churchyard, and 9 Vere Street, Oxford Street, London, 1866). Pages 359-369).

Stephen Yeldham was active in the foundation of the London Homeopathic Hospital, which was established at 32 Golden Square in 1849, and present at the Festival in Aid of the London Homeopathic Hospital in 1858, at which his wife was also present, alongside ’five Duchesses, three Marchionesses, eleven Countesses, six Viscountesses and thirty one additional ladies of title’, alongside Dr. Ayerst, William Bayes, Hugh Cameron, Edward Charles Chepmell, William Vallancy Drury, George Napoleon Epps, Arthur Guinness, Edward Hamilton, Frantz Hartmann, Amos Henriques, Joseph Kidd, Thomas Robinson Leadam, J Bell Metcalfe, Frederick Hervey Foster Quin, Henry Reynolds, John Rutherford Russell, Charles Caulfield Tuckey, George Wyld, and many others.

Stephen Yeldham was also a colleague of William Edward Ayerst, Hugh Cameron, John Chapman, Matthew James Chapman, Edward Charles Chepmell, Paul Francois Curie, William Vallancy Drury, George Napoleon Epps, James Epps, John Epps, James Manby Gully, Edward Hamilton, George Calvert Holland, Richard Hughes, Joseph Kidd, Thomas Robinson Leadam, Victor Massol, J Bell Metcalfe, Samuel Thomas Partridge, Henry Reynolds, John Rutherford Russell, James John Garth Wilkinson, David Wilson and many others.

From _[Some Abiding Themes Hewn from British Homeopathic History](http://www.homeoint.org/morrell/articles/abiding.htm)_ by Peter Morrell. '... In contrast to devotees of high potency, for doctors like ‘… [John James ](/archives/2008/07/29/the-drysdale-family-and-homeopathy/)_[Drysdale](/archives/2008/07/29/the-drysdale-family-and-homeopathy/)… low dilutions did best and he found no advantage above the 3rd decimal…’ _(Frank Bodman, _Richard Hughes Memorial Lecture_, _British Homeopathic Journal 59,_ (1970). Page184). [Thus the 3x became the officially approved and standard tool of UK homeopathic practice from 1830 to 1900](http://www.homeoint.org/morrell/articles/abiding.htm). The early UK homeopaths therefore comprised ‘… _a remarkably able cohort of 3x men –  Stephen Yeldham, [John Galley Blackley](/archives/2008/11/21/the-blackley-surname-and-homeopathy/), [John Moorhead Byres Moir](/archives/2008/12/06/john-moorhead-byres-moir-1853-1928/), [Washington Epps](/archives/2008/07/30/the-epps-family-and-homeopathy/), [C T Knox Shaw](/archives/2009/03/27/c-t-knox-shaw-1865-1923/), etc…’ _to which we can also add the names of ‘… [John Epps](/archives/2008/07/30/the-epps-family-and-homeopathy/)_, [Paul Francois Curie](/archives/2008/07/26/paul-francois-curie-and-homeopathy/), [David Wilson](../archives/2008/10/04/david-wilson-1811-1889/) as well as [Alfred Crosby Pope](/archives/2009/03/29/alfred-crosby-pope-1830-1908/), [Richard Hughes](/archives/2008/07/04/richard-hughes-and-homeopathy/), [David Dyce Brown](/archives/2008/12/14/david-dyce-brown-1840-1910/),… [William Bayes](/archives/2008/08/05/william-bayes-and-homeopathy/), [Thomas Robinson Leadam](/archives/2008/10/04/thomas-robinson-leadam-1809-1881/) and [Robert Ellis Dudgeon](/archives/2009/05/18/archives/2009/08/29/robert-ellis-dudgeon-1820-1904/)_…’' (A Taylor Smith, _letter re Dr Borland’s Obituary_, _British Homeopathic Journal 50.2_, (July 1961). Page 119 and page 123).

Stephen Yeldham qualified as an apothecary in 1832, and as an MD in 1833. Stephen Yeldham of 9 Stamford Street, Blackfriars Road, London and Kingston, Surrey was formerly Surgeon to the Royal South London Dispensary and the Royal Maternity Charity Hospital, obtained a patent for improved indices to books in 1857 as listed in The London Journal of Arts and Sciences (and repertory of patent inventions …

Stephen Yeldham of Stamford Street, Blackfriars, Homeopathic Chemists. Stephen Yeldham also practiced at 53 Moorgate Street Chambers, Bank, and at 10 Taviton Street, Gordon Square. In 1858, his address was 7 Upper Montague Street, Russell Square.

Stephen Yeldham is listed in the Homeopathic Medical Directory of Great Britain and Ireland in 1871 at 10 Taviton Street, (or Tainton Street) Gordon Square London.

In contrast to devotees of high potency, for doctors like ”Drysdale…low dilutions did best and he found no advantage above the 3rd  decimal,” [3; 184].

Thus the 3x became the officially approved and standard tool of UK homeopathic practice from 1830 to 1900.

The early UK homeopaths therefore comprised “a remarkably able cohort of 3x men – Stephen Yeldham, John Galley Blackley, John Moorhead Byres Moir, Washington Epps, C T Knox Shaw… to which we can also add the names of ”John Epps, Paul Francois Curie, David Wilson as well as Alfred Crosby Pope, Richard Hughes, David Dyce Brown,” [4; 123], ”William Bayes, Thomas Robinson Leadam and Robert Ellis Dudgeon,” [4; 119].

Robert Ellis Dudgeon, for example, was “critical of Hahnemann’s Psora theory and of dynamisation,” [3; 181], and he was not very happy either about the increasing use of nosodes.

In reporting to colleagues on his US trip to the American Institute of Homeopathy Congress in 1876, Richard Hughes “was discouraging about Robert Thomas Cooper’s introduction of new remedies…Adolph Lippe and Constantine Hering…came in for unfavourable comment, and so did Hempel, who was accused of  Swedenborgian mysticism,”

Stephen Yeldham’s obituary was in the The Journal of the British Homeopathic Society in 1896.

Stephen Yeldham wrote Homeopathy in Acute Diseases, Homeopathy in Venereal Diseases, Remarks on the different modes of administering homeopathic medicines, with a view to the disease of the globule, On the Rule of Dose, Remarks on the Different Modes of Administering Homeopathic Medicines, Homeopathy. A lecture, The moral evidences of the truth of homeopathy, and many articles for the The British Journal of Homeopathy, The British Homeopathic Review in 1857, Annals and Transactions of the British Homeopathic Society in 1864, The Science and Art of Surgery in 1867 and the Anthropological Journal in 1866, A Treatise on Apoplexy in 1852, Surgery and Its Adaptation Into Homeopathic Practice in 1855, and many others.

Walter Yeldham son of Stephen Yeldham, surgeon, of Stamford Street, London. Born in the parish of Christ Church, Surrey, Oct. 4, 1837 is mentioned in the Biographical History of Gonville and Caius College, 1349-1897.