Heritage of Homoeopathic Literature

Overview

An abbreviated bibliography of 915 of the best and the worst of homeopathic literature from 1810 to 2000, written by Julian Winston.

This is one of modern day homeopathy’s greatest treasures. The work contains an index of all the books listed chronologically and an index of all the books listed alphabetically by author.

Serious collectors need this book.

From the Book

The last full bibliography of Homeopathic Books in the English Language was written by T. L. Bradford in 1892.

It missed many of our classic works-- all the work of Kent, Boger, Close, Case, Roberts, and much of the English published works of Burnett and Clarke.

An update (1892-1925) was attempted by Cordasco in 1991, but it omitted so many books as to be almost useless.

"The Heritage of Homoeopathic Literature" is an abbreviated bibliography of 915 of the best and the worst of homeopathic literature from 1810 to 2000.

Written by homeopathic historian ("The Faces of Homoeopathy: An Illustrated History of the First 200 Years") and editor (Homeopathy Today [USA] Homoeopathy NewZ [NZ]) Julian Winston, the book presents the work by category (Materia Medica, Repertory, Domestic Manuals, etc.) and in chronological order.

Each entry contains the date, title, author, publisher, and number of pages. Most of the entries contain more detailed descriptions of the contents, and often quotes from contemporary reviews.

Many of the entries also have a personal commentary by the author, placing the book into historical context, or commenting upon its relative value.

The work contains an index of all the books listed chronologically and an index of all the books listed alphabetically by author.

The book contains a foreword by K-H. Gypser, MD, and an Introduction by Richard Moskowitz, MD

"Julian Winston is a treasure, and The Heritage of Homeopathic Literature is a treasure chest! This book, is without doubt, the most comprehensive review of the homeopathic literature ever published.

"If you want to know what homeopathic books or journals have been published in English and if you want to know something about them, this is the book to get. No other person could have written such a comprehensive book other than Julian Winston.

"And best of all, you can be confident that he has double and tripled checked every fact. Anyone and everyone who is serious about homeopathy should have this book, and once you have it, you will realize the veritable treasure trove of homeopathic literature that exists."
Dana Ullman MPH
Author and Publisher

"The main reason why we create order is to help us see things clearly. Well, that is exactly what the author has done in this, his latest work.

"Just as he ordered the history and people of homeopathy with his masterful Faces of Homeopathy, he has now done so with the literature. One only has to glance at this book to see order, deeper to see design, and deeper still to see detail and finally, love.

"The homeopathic literature was and is created out of love, a people's love for healing, a people's love for the truth.

"This important bibliography will be of assistance to all who encounter homeopathy and Mr. Winston's love has wrought it."
Jay Yasgur
Author, Yasgur's Homeopathic Dictionary

Contents

Preface
-Acknowledgements -- iv
-Foreword -- v
-Table of Contents -- vi
-An Appreciation of our Literature -- vii
-Author's Preface -- xi
-Introduction – xi

The Organon -- 1-8
Principles -- 9-22
Materia Medica -- 23-46
-Comparative Materia Medica -- 47-48
-Regional Materia Medica -- 49
-Materia Medica with Repertory -- 50-52
Repertory -- 53-76
-Computer Repertories -- 77-78
Therapeutics -- 79-98
Domestic Manuals -- 99-112
Veterinary Manuals -- 113-120
Anatomy, Pathology, and Diagnosis -- 121-126
Pharmacy -- 127-136
Popular Books -- 137-144
Critical Works -- 145-148
History -- 149-158
Biography -- 159-164
Other Books -- 165-178
Journals -- 179-188

Appendices -- 189
-The Homeopathic Armamentarium -- 190-194
-Publishers listing -- 195-196
Books by publication date -- 197-216
Books by author -- 217-236
Glossary -- 237
Graph of all books -- 238
Final Thoughts -- 239

Julian Winston

(1941 -2005)

Julian Winston was born May 31, 1941 in New York City and died June 12, 2005.

After moving to Philadelphia to teach at the University of the Arts, Julian Winston was introduced to homeopathy in 1971 by Raymond Seidel, MD, HMD, a pupil of Calvin Knerr.

Julian attended the National Center for Homeopathy Summer program at Millersville in 1980, served as registrar of the program from 1981 through 1987, and served as dean of the program from 1988 until 1992.

He was elected to the board of directors of the NCH in 1982. He was the editor of the NCH newsletter, Homeopathy Today since 1984. He was appointed NCH Director Emeritus in 1997. He was also a member of the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia Convention of the United States (HPCUS). In 1999 he was the first recipient of the Martha Oelman Community Service Award from the National Center for Homeopathy.

He moved to Tawa, New Zealand in 1995. Just a short drive from Wellington, he resided there with his homeopathic library of over 2,000 volumes, 4,000 vials of historical remedies, and a soon to be cataloged collection of homeopathic ephemera. With his wife, Gwyneth Evans, he was a co-director of the Wellington College of Homoeopathy. He edited Homoeopathy NewZ, a magazine of homeopathy in New Zealand.

In 1999 he authored and published The Faces of Homoeopathy: An Illustrated History of the First 200 Years, the first comprehensive overview of homeopathy that included the decline and rise through the last half of the 20th century. It is this masterwork which formed the basis for the history of homeopathy in various countries on this website's Timeline.

Mr. Winston was the homeopathic historian par excellence of our times. His integrity and dedication to homeopathy ensured an accurate record of its past, present, and future. To learn more about his life and career, visit www.julianwinston.com.

Reviews

From
HOMEOPATHY

Reviewed by: Bernard Leary, Windycroft, Brimington, Chesterfield, Derbyshisre, UK

This book is described as an Abbreviated Bibliography and Commentary. It lists most homeopathic books published in, or translated into, English during the past two centuries. It is dedicated to TL Bradford who published a Homeopathic Bibliography in 1892 containing 3000 written works. The purpose of this work is:

First, to remind veteran homoeopaths and to show new homoeopaths the vastness of our literary heritage;

Second, to avoid the false impression given by some references that, for example, Nash's Leaders was written and published in 1984--the date of the Jain reprint; and

Third, to inspire homoeopaths and others to seek out these works and use them for the valuable information which is buried within.

The books are sorted into 15 sections; The Organon, Principles, Materia Medica, Repertory, Therapeutics, Domestic Manuals, Veterinary Manuals, Anatomy Physiology and Diagnosis, Pharmacy, Popular Books, Critical Works, History, Biography, Other Books, Journals.

The appendices start with an article by Benjamin Woodbury, written in 1931 and entitled 'The Literary Armamentarium or Books that the Homoeopathic Physician cannot do without and something about them'. This is followed by a list of publishers and indices by date and author, a Glossary, graphs and final thoughts. Each section lists the books by date of first publication with the original publisher's name. (Details of the publishers are given in an appendix.)

For each book there is usually a brief summary, sometimes with quotes from the author's introduction or from reviews. In some cases this is followed by comments by Winston.

The Organon, not surprisingly, has a section to itself. forty-one editions are listed. Julian Winston gives the original German editions as well as their translations into European languages, and many editions in English.

In his introduction, he tells the story of how the sixth edition finally came to be published, and describes the mysteries that have become attached to this great work.

The next chapter deals with some 60 books on 'Principles'. It begins with Hahnemann's 'Chronic Diseases' and includes Dudgeon's Lectures, Kent, Wheeler, Allen, Burnett's 50 reasons, Boericke, Boenninghausen and other well known names. But other books, of which many will not have heard, are also listed.

Thus he recommends Close's 'The Genius of Homoeopathy' as the book of choice on the principles of homeopathy. He describes Rosenstein's Theory and Practice of Homoeopathy (1840) as the first book, independent of Hahnemann, to discuss homeopathic principles. Von Grauvogl's Textbook, is regrettably virtually unknown but 'not crystal clear'.

But Boericke's Compend of Homoeopathic Principles is 'a crystal clear work'. He prefers Kent's Minor Writings edited by Gypser (1987) to the earlier edition, entitled 'Lesser Writings' (I 926). He warns that Vithoulkas's Science of Homoeopathy is homeopathy through Vithoulkas's filters-not those of Hahnemann.

The Materia Medica section is large, containing 150 books. It is subdivided into Provings, Comparative, Materia Medica with repertory and Regional. All the standard works by Hahnemann, Jahr, Allen, Hering, Clarke, Nash and Julian are included; also many small books such as those of Burnett.

Foubister's Carcinosin also gets a place. Tyler's Drug Pictures is included, as is Catherine Coulter's Portraits of Homoeopathic Medicines.

Repertories, small and large are listed, 123 in all. Winston warns that they are tools to be used in conjunction with the Materia Medica. He points out the deficiencies of Kent, and welcomes the newer books that reference information derived from the literature.

He recognises that the Synthesis and Complete Repertories are now the standard but hopes that the new edition of Boenninghausen will revive its use after 75 years. He describes the amazing power of computer repertories, which allow searches of almost all the homeopathic literature; but also draws attention to the disadvantages of a generation that has stopped reading the primary texts.

Such people have the power to find a symptom spoken of in exact terms in the Materia Medica but can never understand the wholeness of the writer or his thinking. 'This is the failure of computer repertories/materia medica-they can give us results without wholeness'.

The remaining sections containing some 400 books, are of less immediate interest to the practitioner but contain a mine of information for any concerned homeopath.

I cannot comment on the veterinary or pharmacy sections but I am surprised that the Journals selected do not include Homeopathic Heritage which reproduces articles by the old masters, nor Medizin Gesellschaft und Gesichte, published by the Institute in Stuttgart and containing articles in both English and German on the history of homeopathy.

Faculty members get a mixed reception. Gibson's First Aid, Margery Blackie's The Patient not the Cure, Bob Leckridge's Homeopathy in Primary Care and Stephen Kayne's Homoeopathic Pharmacy are recommended, while Classical Homoeopathy, Foubister's Tutorials and Bodman's Insights are merely described.

Noel Pratt's Prescriber is 'one of the many useless books'. Campbell's Two Faces of Homoeopathy is 'an interesting book flawed by many assumptions and inaccurate details'. Peter Webb's Family Encyclopaedia of Homoeopathic Medicine, based on Tyler's Pointers, is, to my surprise, excluded. Andrew Lockle's Family Guide to Homoeopathy is 'another book with a wide, double standard'.

The Heritage of Homeopathic Literature is very difficult to review because it contains so much information.

In a therapy where 'the book' is so important and the Organon has almost biblical status, Winston fears for the future. He fears that the new generation of homeopaths brought up on extracts of the literature in computer programs, will miss getting a real understanding of the thinking that led to the ideas in those extracts.

There is also, according to me, the risk that we will forget how effective homeopathy can be.

I remember a doctor on the Jimmy Young Show telling a patient who asked whether she should see a homeopath 'Go to your doctor and if he says there is nothing wrong, by all means see a homeopath.' We are perhaps tending to become the therapists for hay fever, eczema, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome-non-life threatening conditions.

We are amazed when a patient with secondary carcinoma is kept alive. But Burnett and Clarke treated Cancer, Nash claimed to cure valvular heart disease, and Margery Blackie cured lobar pneumonia overnight. There should be limits on what we attempt, but if we have read the old masters, we will have a better idea of where that limit should be.

This is a marvellous book for someone like me who cannot resist books or history. It has reminded me of books I have read in the past and has drawn my attention to others I should read. Sadly I am not sure whether it will sell. Many practitioners will see no need for it, drawn as they are to the computer.

Perhaps it should be issued on CD ROM. Certainly all librarians should study it to assist them in recommending books for study.

I repeat this is a marvellous book. One may disagree with some of the authcr's comments or with his selection but these are minor points. I thoroughly recommend it to all interested in homeopathy.

From HOMEOPATHY (formerly THE BRITISH HOMEOPATHIC JOURNAL)
Reprinted with permission from the Faculty of Homeopaths