Alfred Crosby Pope 1830 - 1908

Alfred Crosby Pope 1830 - 1908 MD St. Andrews 1847, MRCSE England, was an orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy, to become a Physician at the Manchester Homeopathic Hospital, Surgeon at the St. James Homeopathic Hospital Doncaster, General Secretary and Treasurer of the Northern Homeopathic Medical Association, Medical Officer at the Blackhealth Homeopathic Dispensary, and a Fellow of the British Homeopathic Society,

Alfred Pope was active in homeopathic politics, and was the Co Editor of The Monthly Homeopathic Review alongside William Bayes, and John Ryan.

Alfred Pope was awarded a MD from the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1852, and he was a Lecturer in Materia Medica at the London School of Homeopathy (later merged with the London Homeopathic Hospital), and he was President Elect (Anon, The British Homoeopathic Review, Volume 20, (1876)) of the British Homeopathic Congress in 1876 and in 1877, and a staunch defender of homeopathy for over forty years.

Alfred Crosby Pope was the Vice President (Anon, The Homeopathic World, Volume 43, (1908). Page 236) of 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.

Homeopathy had many converts in Scotland at this time, including Francis Black, Samuel Cockburn, Robert Ellis Dudgeon, Adam Lyschinski, William MacDonald, William MacLeod, Charles Ransford, John Rutherford Russell, Thomas Skinner, George E Stewart, John Stuart Sutherland, Dionysius Wielobycki, and many others. By 1851, 8 out of 48 graduates from the University of Edinburgh were homeopaths, including Alfred Crosby Pope.

George Stevenson Knowles converted to homeopathy in 1851 as a direct result of the attacks on his close friend Alfred Pope.

From Some Abiding Themes Hewn from British Homeopathic History by Peter Morrell. ‘… In contrast to devotees of high potency, for doctors like ‘… John James Drysdale… 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. 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, etc…’ _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,… William Bayes, Thomas Robinson Leadam and Robert Ellis Dudgeon…’’ (A Taylor Smith, _letter re Dr Borland’s Obituary, British Homeopathic Journal 50.2, (July 1961). Page 119 and page 123).

In 1851, Alfred Pope was refused his MD degree from his Alma Mater, the University of Edinburgh, due to his conversion to homeopathy, which radicalised him for the rest of his life.

However, due to national outcry (many hundreds of physicians and surgeons - 26 being graduates of the University of Edinburgh - 191 clergymen - including Alfred’s father - 47 Magistrates and 67 military and naval officers all signed a petition against this outrage!), many people signed this petition including Lord Lindsay (Henry Lindsay 9th Earl of Lindsay 1787-1851 or possibly his son John Trotter Lindsay 10th Earl of Lindsay 1827 - 1894), John Rutherford Russell,

Due to this international outrage, and the efforts of The British Homeopathic Association, he was awarded a degree from the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1852.

William Hamilton 9th Baronet, Professor of Logic at the University of Edinburgh came out to support Alfred Pope, and eventually, he was awarded his degree.

In 1866, Pope conducted clinical trials of  the treatment of cattle plague with homeopathic remedies, claiming up to 50% recovery rates with arsenicum, belladonna, phosphorus, rhus tox and turpentine.

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 (written by Marmaduke Blake Sampson City Correspondent for The Times from 1846 - 1871?).

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’.

Alfred Pope was a Surgeon at the York Homeopathic Dispensary, and he practiced in Grantham, in Tunbridge Wells, in Tring in Hertfordshire, and in Kent.

Alfred Pope was a contemporary of William Bayes, Charles Harrison Blackley, John Galley Blackley, David Dyce Brown, George Henry Burford, James Compton Burnett,  John Moorhead Byres Moir, John Henry Clarke, H A Clifton Harris, Robert Thomas Cooper, R M Le Hunt Cooper, Paul Francois Curie, Robert Ellis Dudgeon, John Epps, Washington Epps, Giles Forward Goldsbrough, Clarence Granville Hey, Richard Hughes, Gottlieb Heinrich Georg Jahr, James Johnstone, C T Knox Shaw, Thomas Robinson Leadam, Octavia Margaret Sophia Lewin, Edward M Madden, Henry R Madden, David MacNish, Edwin Awdas Neatby, Ethelbert Petrie Hoyle, Frederick Hervey Foster Quin, Mathias Roth, Edward Wynne Thomas, Florence Nightingale Ward, Charles Edwin Wheeler, John Weir, David Wilson, James Craven Wood, Dudley d’Auvergne Wright, Stephen Yeldham and many others.

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 – Association, John Galley Blackley, John Moorhead Byres Moir, Washington Epps, C T Knox Shaw, etc,” 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.”

Alfred Pope attended the International Homeopathic Congress, in Atlantic City in 1891, and the World’s Congress of Homeopathic Physicians and Surgeons in 1893 (http://archive.org/details/transactionsofwo00inte).

Volume II, The History of Homeopathy, contains contributions both foreign and domestic. Appropriately enough, the first section is a 90 page history of homeopathy in Germany 1794-1875, including statistics about certain hospitals and dispensaries, written by Carl Gustav Puhlmann and Clotar Mueller. This is followed by an historical and statistical report on homeopathy in the United Kingdom, specifically Great Britain and Ireland, each section written by a different member of the British Homeopathic Society: C. B. Kerr, Herbert Nankiveli, Richard Hughes, Alfred Crosby Pope and William Bayes.

Alfred Pope’s Obituary is in the Transactions of the Homeopathic Medical Society of the State of New York in 1908. He was the eldest son of Rev. Alfred Pope.

Alfred Pope wrote a long article detailing the Enquiry into the Pathology and Treatment of the Cattle Plague, detailing the involvement of George Jones Emerton and C J Dring (homeopathic Vetinary Surgeons), and he also wrote Ethical Impediments to the progress of Homeopathy throughout the Profession, Landmarks of progress in the history of homœopathy during eighteen hundred and sixty nine, The Scientific Basis of Homeopathy, Notes on the Position and Progress of Homeopathy in the United States of America, The homeopathic system of medicine, The drift of modern medicine, Who is a Homeopathician?, A Medical Handbook for Mothers, Scarlett Fever, Observations of the Physiological and Therapeutic Effects of Alcohol, The Cattle Plague in York, and he contributed a great many cases and numerous articles to various homeopathic publications.

Of interest:

H Pope Jnr was a Physician at the Manchester Homeopathic Hospital in 1851.

R Pope was a member of the Management Board of the London Homeopathic Hospital at its inception in 1850, and he was a Steward at the Annual Festival in aid of the funds of the Charity, and in commemoration of the opening of the London Homeopathic Hospital on Thursday, the 10th of April 1851,