Storm Rosa 1791 - 1864

Storm Rosa 1791 - 1864 an orthodox doctor who converted to homeopathy to become the first homeopathic teacher in the West of America and the first Chair of Homeopathy at the Eclectic Medical Institute and lecturer at the Western College of Homeopathy.

The period from 1849 to 1852 in the history of Ohio homœopathy is important. The Homœopathic Society of Cincinnati was composed largely of laymen and had a thousand members whose purpose was to vindicate homœopathy and to uphold the truth regarding the cholera epidemic: to petition the assembly of 1849 for an act establishing a homœopathic college ; to promulgate the lectures by Storm Rosa in 1849; to organize a college at Cleveland in 1850; and to promote the advancement of the system throughout the towns of the state…

Storm Rosa was born in Coxsackie, Green county, N. Y., July 18, 1791. He studied medicine with Dr. Doubleday, of Catskill, Dr. Taw Green, of Chenango county, and Dr. Clyde, of Broome county, N. Y. After three years study he was examined by the board of censors of Senaca county, and was granted a license March 9, 1816.

He then located in Madison, Ohio, practiced there until October, 1818, when he removed to Painesville. While in Madison he married Sophia Kimball, by whom he had two children, Lemuel K. and Catherine Rosa. Lemuel became a homœopathic physician.

In 1841 Dr. Rosa began to investigate homœopathy at the suggestion of friends who had been using homœopathic medicine with success. He received the assistance of Dr. Samuel Bancroft Barlow, of New York, and Joseph Hyppolyte Pulte, of Cincinnati, who supplied him with books and medicines.

In 1843 he formally adopted the system. Dr. E. M. Hale thus writes of him:

"When the [Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati](http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=mwXloc9v1NwC&dq=eclectic+medical+college+of+cincinnati&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=-kBFxjyB0P&sig=gbaIWqFRDSIaclb-Po7nxEOF5dg) was organized, it was understood by the legislature that chartered it and the original faculty that it was to be organized upon the broadest basis of ture eclecticism.

“Drs. Morrow, Hill, Gatchell and other able men were members of the faculty, and Dr. Rosa was selected by the homœopathists of Ohio as a suitable person to occupy the chair of theory and practice of homœopathy.

“His labors in that college mark an era of homœopathy in the west. They gave an impetus to the system that is felt even to this day. He began one course of lectures, which had the effect of converting not only one-third of the class, but two of his most prominent eclectic colleagues in the faculty, Drs. Hill and Gatchell.

“This was a result not relished by the eclectic school and Dr. Rosa was deposed from his position.”

The trustees formally abolished this chair August 22, 1850. A trustee published a letter to the ”American Journal of Homœopathy” for October, 1850, in which he said that as there were many errors in homœopathy, and as the students were already overburdened with study, and as the professors were quite competent to teach the doctrines of homœopathy as much as necessary, a special homœopathic professorship was of no utility, especially as there had been considerable opposition in the ranks of the homœopathic school.

When the Western College of Homœopathic Medicine was opened in Cleveland in the fall of 1850, Dr. Rosa was tendered the chair of obstetrics and diseases of women, which position he occupied for several years.

When the St. Louis Homœopathic College was established he was offered the chair of theory and practice, but declined. He presided over the first meeting of homœopaths held in Ohio, at Burton, and there were but nine physicians present.

Dr. Rosa died at Painesville, May 3, 1864.

Storm Rosa of Painesville, Ohio, who had made such an impression with his homeopathic teaching at the eclectic school, was now called to the chair of gynecology and obstetrics. Dr. Benjamin Hill, the surgeon, came from the eclectic school to act as a founder of the new school and to teach surgery.

In accordance with the liberal policy previously referred to, an

invitation was sent to a body of Homeopathic physicians who had

settled in the West and were contemplating the organization of a college

of Homeopathists at Cleveland, to select a representative to occupy a

chair of Homeopathy in the Institute. At a convention held by the

Homeopathists

In accordance with the liberal policy previously referred to, an invitation was sent to a body of Homeopathic physicians who had settled in the West and were contemplating the organization of a college of Homeopathists at Cleveland, to select a representative to occupy a chair of Homeopathy in the Institute.

At a convention held by the Homeopathists at Cleveland, Professor Hill was present to urge the innovation. On June 26, 1849, the invitation was accepted and Doctor Storm Rosa, of Painesville, Ohio, was unanimously chosen to fill the position, and Doctor David Sheppard Smith, of Bainbridge, Ohio, was selected as editor of a Homeopathic Department in the Eclectic Medical Journal, the successor of the Western Medical Reformer.

During the following session of the Institute, Professor Rosa lectured “with dignity upon the principles of Homeopathy” as was declared by the whole class, “notwithstanding the many embarrassments appendaged thereunto.”As a result, a few students were won over to Homeopathy, though the majority of the class remained Eclectic.

At the Commencement, held March 6, 1850, six students received both Eclectic and Homeopathic diplomas. Thus was the Eclectic Medical Institute the first institution in the West to give Homeopathic instruction, and the first in the West to graduate a class in Homeopathy.

Storm Rosa wrote Homoeopathy and Allopathy Compared and The history of medical science.

Lemuel K. Rosa was born in 1827. He graduated at the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, and soon afterward, 1849, associated in practice with Dr. Adam Miller of Cincinnati, with whom he remained a year.

In the spring of 1850 he became associated with Dr. H. P. Gatchell. His health was now feeble, he having for some time been subject to pulmonary hemorrhage. He returned to his father’s home and attempted to practice with Dr. Manter, of Elyria, but was again obliged to give it up. He died February 29, 1854, aged twenty-seven years.