Gerard Smith 1854 - 1931

Gerard Smith 1854 - ?1931  MRCS England, LSA, was a British orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy, Orthopaedic Surgeon at the London Homeopathic Hospital, Member of the British Homeopathic Society.

At the first evening of the 1896 Homeopathic Congress in London, was an informal ‘at home’ by the president of the Congress, Alfred Crosby Pope and his wife at Queen’s Hall, with music and an exhibition of x-rays [Anon, Journal of the British Homeopathic Society, Volume 4, (1896). Page 477. ; Anon, Journal of the British Homeopathic Society, Volume 40, (1.12.1896). Page 767] delivered by Gerard Smith [Anon, Transactions of the … Session of the American Institute of Homeopathy, Volume 62, Part 1, (1906). Pages 52, and 65-66. ; Anon, Directory of Homeopathic Physicians, (American Institute of Homeopathy, 1925). Page 140] ‘… The chief feature of the gathering was the opportunity afforded for renewal of old acquaintances and the cultivating of new. The opportunity was readily seized for booking engagements for the coming week in the shape of luncheons and dinners… [Anon, The Homeopathic World, Volume 31, (Jarrold, 1.9.1896). Page 399]…’

Gerard Smith also practiced in Hobart in Tasmania between 1903 - 1907 (he acted as ship’s surgeon on the ship from London to Sydney in 1900), and in 1913, he represented Tasmania at the International Homeopathic Council, (Wheeler was a homeopath in Clapton, who left his practice in the hands of Gerard Smith and emigrated to Australia to practice in Melbourne in 1889),

At the London Homeopathic Hospital, Gerard Smith exhibited a child, aged four years, who had injured his index finger two years previously. This set up primarily periostitis and abscess, but without symptoms of necrosis, and on probing no sequestrum was found.

The swelling of the finger increased during six months until the bone was almost globular. At the end of this period, under a prolonged course of Silicea, the bone became much smaller. At the end of a second six months, an abscess again formed, was opened, and a probe passed into a soft mass. The finger again greatly improved, and became smaller under a course of Hepar and Silicea.

Gerard Smith was born in Blackheath, Kent, the son of a silversmith who had 6 daughters and 3 sons (Ancestry.com). He was married and the record for his eldest child (born around 1887) says that he was born in Shanghai, China, so Gerard Smith, and sometimes his wife (she does not appear to have been with him in Australia or New Zealand), did a fair bit of travelling.

Gerard Smith wrote Our growing children: with special reference to the physical education of the weakly, and he submitted cases and articles to various homeopathic publications, including Early Diagnosis of Spinal Caries, X-Ray Demonstration, A New Cycle seat, Headache of Children, Pulsatilla in Acute Orchitis,