Edward Hamilton 1824 - 1899

Edward Hamilton **MS FLS 1824 - 1899 was a British orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy to become Physician to the London Homeopathic Hospital, Fellow of the Linnean Society and Zoological Society. **Hamilton was a member and treasurer of the British Homeopathic Society, and he practiced at 22 Grafton Street, Bond Street, London.

Hamilton was the homeopathic practitioner of Charles II Duke of Parma (then Duke of Lucca), Antonio Cotogni, Gabriel Urbain Faure, Italo Gardoni, Christina Nilsson, Adelina Patti, Giorgio Ronconi, Therese Titjens, and many other famous people.

Edward Hamilton was a student of Frederick Hervey Foster Quin and he lodged in his house from 1834 to 1839. He subsequently became Frederick Hervey Foster Quin’s executor.

Edward Hamilton worked at the Westminster and Lambeth Homeopathic Dispensary alongside Joseph Laurie and William Henry Mayne in 1844.

In 1844, John Yate Lee, John Chapman, Edward Hamilton and others founded a Bank of Deposit and National Assurance and Investment Association.

Edward Hamilton was active in the foundation of the London Homeopathic Hospital, which was established at 32 Golden Square in 1851. He was a 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.

Edward Hamilton 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, George Calvert Holland, Richard Hughes, Joseph Kidd, Thomas Robinson Leadam, Victor Massol, J Bell Metcalfe, Samuel Thomas Partridge, Henry Reynolds, John Rutherford Russell, David Wilson, Stephen Yeldham and many others.

In 1851, Edward Hamilton was on the committee of the Association for the Protection of Homeopathic Students and Practitioners, and Chair of the 2nd Annual Congress of British Homeopathic Practitioners.

In 1866, Hamilton visited Belgium to investigate the work of Jules Gaudy and E Seutin in the treatment of cattle plague with homeopathic remedies.

In 1866, the Treasury placed rooms at Adelphi Terrace at the disposal of John Winston Spencer Churchill 7th Duke of Marlborough, who was the Chairman of the Association for the Trial of Preventative and Curative Treatment in the Cattle Plague by the Homeopathic Method, based on the research done in Belgium by Edward Hamilton, with John Winston Spencer Churchill 7th Duke of Marlborough overseeing the work of Edward Hamilton, George Lennox Moore, James Moore and Alfred Crosby Pope.

William Coutts Keppel Viscount Bury 7th Earl of Albemarle issued an address or report for the Association for the Trial of Preventative and Curative Treatment in the Cattle Plague by the Homeopathic Method in 1866. Bury reported that the Dutch had experienced such success with homeopathy against that cattle plague, that they had authorised Edward Hamilton to visit Holland to investigate this.

Edward Hamilton discovered that the Dutch had treated 4798 cattle, 1031 were destroyed = 3767 were treated (with a mixture of allopathic and homeopathic treatments), the survival rate for the beasts treated was 45%, and the survival rate for the beasts treated only by homeopathy was 72-5%.

The Dutch Government had agreed to allow E Seutin, a homeopathic chemist, the total control of infected cattle in Matterness, and initially, E Seutin saved 70% of the cattle, though latterly, he had saved 9 out of every 10 beasts brought to him for treatment, and E Seutin’s use of homeoprophylaxic treatment of unifected beasts brought the epidemic under control entirely within four weeks. Matterness was pronounced free from infection and it has remained thus ever since. The remedies used were arsenicum, phosphorus, phos ac, rhus tox and sulphur.

In 1866, George Lennox Moore became involved with Association for the Trial of Preventative and Curative Treatment in the Cattle Plague by the Homeopathic Method, alongside Edward Hamilton and Alfred Crosby Pope, and overseen by John Winston Spencer Churchill 7th Duke of Marlborough.

George Lennox Moore wrote a detailed report on these trials, including a refutation of the falsities published in _The Lancet__ _regarding the homeopathic treatment of the cattle plague, attacking William Coutts Keppel Viscount Bury 7th Earl of Albemarle and accusing him of ‘being completely misinformed on this matter‘, and inventing a trail of misleading mistruths about the situation.

The orthodox statistics of this clinical trial revealed 8640 cases, 8% killed, 77% died and 15% recovered, though John Winston Spencer Churchill 7th Duke of Marlborough subsequently issued the interim homeopathic results claiming up to 50% recovery rates with arsenicum, belladonna, phosphorus, rhus tox and turpentine as the main homeopathic remedies used.

The Times wrote an article wishing the homeopaths success in these homeopathic trials, but they also made a pithy comment that the allopaths would probably rather see all the cattle die than have homeopathy proved successfull.

The final report on the homeopathic trials in the treatment of cattle plague was issued by John Winston Spencer Churchill 7th Duke of Marlborough. The orthodox statistics of this clinical trial revealed 8640 cases, 8% killed, 77% died and 15% recovered, though John Winston Spencer Churchill 7th Duke of Marlborough subsequently issued the interim homeopathic results claiming up to 50% recovery rates with arsenicum, belladonna, phosphorus, rhus tox and turpentine as the main homeopathic remedies used.

Of course, the ‘valuable and so far successful’ results of the homeopathic trials so far outstripped orthodox treatments, the homeopathic trials were immediately postponed by ‘orthodox sources’.

Edward Hamilton attended (Anon, The Homeopathic World, Volume 43, (1908). Page 236) the 2nd International Homeopathic Congress held in London (Anon, The Medical Counselor, Volume 7, (The Michigan State Homeopathic Society, 1883). Page 347) in on 11th-18th July 1881 (Anon, The Homeopathic World, (August 1,1881)) at Aberdeen House, Argyll Street, Regent Street.

Edward Hamilton wrote the Comparative Results of the Homeopathic and Allopathic Treatment of Asiatic Cholera, A Short History of Cholera, The Flora Homoeopathica, A Guide to the Practice of Homeopathy, A Memoir of Frederick Hervey Foster Quin.

Of interest:

Charles Hamilton was on the Management Committee of the British Homeopathic Association in 1847.

John Hamilton is mentioned in The Journal of the British Homeopathic Society in 1901.

Robert Hamilton MD was a Physician at the Hahnemann Hospital at 39 Bloomsbury Square and a member of the Hahnemann Medical Society in 1853.