William Philip Harrison 1821 - 1892

William Philip Harrison 1821? - 1892? MRSC England 1847, LSA London 1847, MD Marischall College Aberdeen 1854 LAC, was a British orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy, to become a supporter of the Manchester Homeopathic Hospital, a Physician at the Manchester and Salford Homeopathic Dispensary, a member of the Association for the Protection of Homeopathic Students and Practitioners, and the Proprietor of Ilkley Wells House Hydrotherapy Establishment,

William Philip Harrison treated Charles Darwin at his hydrotherapy establishment at Ilkley Wells House,

In 1851, a public meeting was held in Manchester, where William Armitage, Henry Dixon, Richard Durnford, William Philip Harrison, Walter R Johnson, George Stevenson Knowles, Alfred Crosby Pope, William W Scholefield, Charles Caulfield Tuckey, Arthur de Noe Walker and many others, decided that homeopathy required the protection of a Royal Charter or a Legal Enactment to protect it from their enemies, and they proposed that a Branch of the General Association for the Protection of Homeopathic Students and Practitioners be immediately set in motion, noting that in London an Association for the Protection of Homeopathic Students and Practitioners was already up and functioning.

Also in 1851, William Harrison attended the 4th Homeopathic Congress in Manchester, alongside George Atkin, Francis Black, Hugh Cameron, John James Drysdale, George Dunn, John Epps, George Fearon, George Calvert Holland, Joseph Laurie, Charles W Luther, Alfred Crosby Pope, John Rutherford Russell, Charles Caulfield Tuckey, and many more.

Harrison practiced at 50 Great Dulcie Street, Strangeways, Manchester, and at the Manchester and Salford Homeopathic Dispensary alongside, McDowall, C Thompson, Robert Walker,

Of interest:

Edward Harrison 1759 - 1838 MD, criticised Percival Pott for his notion of caries of the spine causing curvature of the spine, an idea that resulted in painful treatments. Though denounced as a quack, Harrison contested Percival Pott’s theory, and his studies proved beyond question that caries did not cause curvature of the spine, and so now, no patient is subjected to setons or invasive therapies.

Bovine G, Silver JR, Weiner MF, * The role of Edward Harrison’s (1766-1838) disciples, Thomas Engall, John and George Epps, Charles Hoyland, John Evans Riadore, John Robinson and John Baptiste de Serney in the treatment of spinal deformity in the Victorian medical world*. J Med Biogr. 2012 Feb;20(1):18-24.

John Epps successfully treated spinal deformity and worked in Edward Harrison’s Spinal Unit.

Joseph Frederick Leeson ?1831 - ?1898, LRCS Edinburgh 1858, LM Dublin 1858, LRCP London 1861, was a British orthodox physician, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Fellow of the Obstetrical Society London, Staff Surgeon to the 1st Admiralty Brigade WRY Artillery (retired 1875), who became the Proprietor of Ilkley Wells House Hydrotherapy Establishment (in 1868). Leeson also practiced at Wilton House, Bradford, and at Bentinck Place, Bradford. Leeson was under threat of being struck off the medical register in 1889 due to his use of galvanism, and for acting as a cover for an unregistered medical electrician, a Mr. Harness. The Medical Council judged in favour of Leeson due to two investigators (accusers) being ‘interested parties’, and the fact that the investigation was really into Mr. Harkness,