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The history of homeopathy in the Russian Empire
until World War I, as compared with other European countries and the USA: similarities and
discrepancies
by Alexander Kotok, M.D.
On-line version of the Ph.D. thesis improved and enlarged
due to a special grant of the Pierre Schmidt foundation.
2.2.4 (iii) The Odessa Society of the Followers of Homeopathy
Since the middle of the 19th century Odessa became one of the largest industrial and
commercial centers of Ukraine in part and the Russian Empire in whole, in first due to its seaside
location. Certainly, such a large city should have proposed rather benevolent conditions to
homeopathic practitioners. In reality, homeopathy most probably came to Odessa relatively late, in
the 1860s either with Dr. Nicholas Raevsky (1811—1889) or with Dr. Lantsky who moved to
Odessa from Khar'kov in 1862. While Dr. Lantsky's biography is unknown, Dr. Raevsky gained
popularity as the author of the pamphlet "Self-help, or Treatment of diphtheria with
homeopathic medicines, without assistance of doctors and expensive pharmacies" published in
1886 and written, in spite of the seriousness of the topic, in brilliant Russian, with humor and
irony77.
In 1863, pharmacist G. Tsorn opened a homeopathic department at his pharmacy78, yet the
first "pure" homeopathic pharmacy was opened on October 13, 1887
by Julius Levi in the center of the city, at the corner of Deribasovskaia and Pushkinskaia Streets.
Julius Levi was a pharmacist, who had worked and had been trained for 9 years in the Central St.
Petersburg Homeopathic pharmacy under Fedor Flemming, before he undertook opening his own pharmacy
in Odessa. I guess that he was the person who initiated the establishing of a homeopathic society
in the city.
"Odessky listok" (Odessa Leaflet) reported:
On October 2 [1890], His excellency the governor of the town of Odessa
rear-admiral P. A. Zeleny received Regulations of the currently forming "Society for spreading
homeopathy", in order to get it delivered to the Minister of Interior. The Society aims at
spreading correct information on homeopathy among the wide public by means of books, lectures etc.,
and opening dispensaries and hospitals, as soon as the means will allow that79.
Certainly, antihomeopathic "Vrach" could not ignore this initiative supported by
high-ranking persons:
In Odessa the Society of the Followers of Homeopathy has been founded. The city
Mayor G. Marazli said that he is going to build a dispensary on his own account. [...]. G. Marazli
made many good things for Odessa. We deeply regret seeing him in the capacity of a denier of
science...80
Together with this prominent Odessa figure, member of many charitable societies and the Mayor of
Odessa from 1890 to 1896, philanthropist Grigory Marazli
(1831—1908), there were Archbishop Nikanor (1826—1890), Generals Nicholas Teplov, Carl
Strandman, Nicholas Fedorovsky, Nicholas Rostovtsev and Christofor Roop (the latter had been the
last governor-general of Odessa from 1883 to 1889, until the abolishment of the post), the Consul
General of Greece Ivan Vuchina (1833—1902), Prof. Valerian Ligin (1848—1905), Drs.
Lev Brazol,
Carl Bojanus Sr. and Carl Bojanus Jr.
(1861—ca.1928), officials of different ranks, etc. The Society was opened officially on April
7, 1891. The councilor of State Ivan Barkovsky was appointed as chairman. Dr. Carl Bojanus Jr. was
elected Secretary, whilst the post of Trustee was given to Julius Levi.
Nevertheless, during the following 5 years very little was made to reach the goals promulgated
in the Regulations. Julius Levi enjoyed a steadily growing income in the capacity of the only and
full-right owner of the homeopathic pharmacy in Odessa, whilst the Society was dying from lack of
finances (only the modest sum of 1000 rubles was collected during 5 years) and any activity. In
1895, a group of dissatisfied members of the Society, headed by Drs. Ivan
Lutsenko (1863—1919)81 and Mikhail Rzhanitsyn (1858 — no earlier 1907), appealed to
the members of the Society demanding to reorganize decidedly the Society's activity. They
proposed opening a homeopathic dispensary and a homeopathic pharmacy in order to finance it. This
idea faced strong resistance of the conservative majority which insisted that this plan would bring
harm both to the Society's finances and to Julius Levi personally.
In his speech at the meeting on January 27, 1896 Nicholas Fedorovsky said that financial means
would be found after the Society would decide to open a new public dispensary and pharmacy. Taking
as an example the Central homeopathic pharmacy of Fedor Flemming in St. Petersburg, whose activity
grew significantly just after two public pharmacies had been opened, Fedorovsky insisted that the
opening of a new pharmacy would not bring any harm to the private pharmacy of Levi. He also
stressed that he had a conversation with one of the founders of the Society, the current Mayor of
the city, Prof. Ligin concerning the need to establish a dispensary for the poorest inhabitants.
Prof. Ligin told him with confidence that as soon as the honorary member of the Society G. Marazli
will become convinced that the dispensary has a firm ground for its further existence, he would not
refuse to provide the dispensary with substantial finances. Thus, based upon the previous proposal
of Drs. Lutsenko and Rzhanitsyn, the meeting had to elect a committee which would deal with the
final version of the project of dispensary and pharmacy as well as to appoint a group of members
headed by Dr. Lutsenko, which would have the right to ask G. Marazli for supporting the
establishment of dispensary and pharmacy.
Although being quite reasonable and valid, the project was not accepted by the meeting
supposedly for the fear to ruin Levi's pharmacy on the one hand, and lack of finances to carry
out such revolutionary measures on the other hand. Moreover, nobody belonging to a group in
opposition was elected to be a member of the Board of the Society82.
Several months later, in his report at the special meeting held on March 1, 1896 Dr. Lutsenko
made the last effort to convince the members of the Society that the time had come and changes had
to be done. He stressed that during five years of its existence, the Society had done nothing to
promote homeopathy in Odessa. As a result of this inertia, some members found it hard to belong to
a dead deal and left the Society. The only solution to justify its further existence, in
Lutsenko's view, was to open as soon as possible a dispensary and pharmacy in order to secure
financial stability. When analyzing in detail the activity of the three St. Petersburg pharmacies,
belonging to three different bodies – the private one of Fedor Flemming, the one of the St.
Petersburg Society of the Followers of Homeopathy and the one of the St. Petersburg Society of
Homeopathic Physicians — he demonstrated convincingly that, in fact, every opening of a new
homeopathic pharmacy stimulated activity of the "old" ones and brought them nothing but
additional income. Therefore, Levi and his adherents should not be afraid from establishing a new
pharmacy. Furthermore, Lutsenko showed in figures that the opening of new homeopathic facilities
would not require significant financial support as the expected income provided by a new pharmacy
would soon cover all expenditures, including loans. The Society would not be obliged with any
financial responsibility as even private investors and donators would be found by Lutsenko himself.
Last but not least — Lutsenko viewed all these initiatives as an important step to meet the
main aim, i.e. to establish a homeopathic hospital in Odessa83.
After this proposal was rejected as well, the split in the Society became unavoidable. Lutsenko
and his closest adherents left the Society and established the Odessa Hahnemannian Society, whose
Regulations were approved two years later by the Minister of Interior (on June 8, 1898). When
trying to assess the dual character of a new society, supposed to answer the needs of patients and
doctors, it was stressed in §1 of the Regulations that "the founding of the society [...]
pursued two objects: a) charitable b) scientific-practical"84.
After the split had happened, the Odessa Society of the Followers of Homeopathy counted in 1897,
74 members — 40 full, 24 founders and 9 honorary85. It is important to mention that the
most prestigious persons did not leave the Society. When feeling nevertheless that the danger of a
complete breakdown of the Society became real, Julius Levi changed his policy. He made an attempt
both to revive the Society and to fight the competition with Lutsenko and Co, while proposing to
open a dispensary at the Society, and obliging to finance the dispensary's activity (renting
premises, heating, servant staff, free of charge medicines) for three years. This proposal was
accepted and the dispensary was opened on May 3, 1897. The payment for a visit was 30 kopeck, while
poor sick could get physician's advice and medicines free of charge. Yet this project was not
especially successful. Although in 1897, as much as 2032 patients were received, so the Society had
to ask Dr. Carl Bojanus Jr. to join previously appointed as dispensary's physicians Drs. Arthur
Stegemann and Friedrich Jurgenson86, the following years did not show a significant increase of the
number of patients which would be able to justify Levi's expenses. In 1898, 2567 patients
visited the dispensary, while in 1899, 2536 patients came87. The expenditures of Julius Levi were
as following: 1897 — 1547, 1898 — 1239, and 1899 — 830 rubles88. Although a
decrease of the number of visitors occurred in 1899, this might be seen as merely casual because of
the temporary outflow of the workers (the main contingent of the patients) from Odessa in that
year, whilst the expenditures demonstrated clear tendency to be cut down from year to year, Julius
Levi apparently recognized his own idea to be unsuccessful. It seems that the Society also failed
to raise any funds for which Julius Levi most probably expected having agreed to finance the
dispensary's activity. In any event, since 1901 onwards, we find no mention of the activity of
the Odessa Society of the Followers of Homeopathy.
2.2.4 (iv) The Odessa Hahnemannian Society
At the time when the Odessa Society of the Followers of Homeopathy was trying to find its
direction under Julius Levi, the new society placed the work on a broad footing. In its first year
the new-born society had already 149 members. In 1899, the Hahnemannian Society established a
dispensary and a pharmacy; the opening of the latter was supported by private loans obtained by
Lutsenko as he had promised. The number of visits in 1899, made to the dispensary at Khersonskaia
Str., 52 was so significant (1811 visits)89 that the Board of the Society had to employ as much as three
doctors: Ivan Lutsenko, Dmitry Okinchits and Nicholas Skariatin (Dr. Rzhanitsyn left Odessa for
Tiflis). Yet in 1900, Dr. Okinchits fell ill and soon died, Dr. Skariatin left Odessa, whilst Dr.
Lutsenko could not give up completely his private practice. As all the homeopathic physicians of
Odessa refused to take a part in the Society's activity, the Board published announcements in
which homeopathic doctors were invited to settle down in Odessa and work at the Hahnemannian
Society. Although only two replies were received, one of those applied, Dr. Nicholas Rudinsky,
arrived at Odessa in August, 1901. Additionally, the Society opened in October 1900, a
Chemical-Bacteriological Laboratory. In fact, the very first years of real activity proved to be
successful. It turned out that Dr. Lutsenko was absolutely right in his assumption that the
pharmacy would cover soon all the expenditures. Indeed, the Society's pharmacy headed until
1904 by pharmacist David Leibenson not only paid off all the loans but became the main financial
provider and supporter of the Society during all the following years. From 1899 to 1903, the
pharmacy sold medicines for 23882 rubles and books for 816 rubles90. In 1904, the pharmacy was lent
to pharmacist Vladislav Korotkevich who was obliged to pay 1650 rubles in the first year and 1700
rubles in the two following years to the Society, while all the incomes would be his own. Yet the
incomes expected did not prove real. According to Korotkevich's requests, the Society allowed
him to pay only 1200 rubles in the first year instead of 1650, but Korotkevich was unable to pay
even this sum. He paid only 900 rubles and asked the Board both for writing off the debt of 300
rubles and reducing the sum of the constant payment in the following years. The 1904 financial year
the Society finished with a deficit of 380 rubles91.
The delivering of lectures within the Medical Section of the Society, which included medical
staff (doctors, dentists, veterinarians, pharmacists and their assistants) on different topics,
usually related to homeopathy as a theory and to possibilities of homeopathic treatment of various
diseases, was a quite important part of the Society's activity. Here the remarkable working
ability of Dr. Lutsenko has to be stressed especially. 59 of the 69 lectures delivered at the
Society from 1898 to 1903, were made by Dr. Lutsenko. Many of his lectures were published by the
Society as pamphlets, like "Measles and their homeopathic treatment" (1899),
"Diphtheria and its homeopathic treatment", "Hemorrhoids and their homeopathic
treatment", "Scarlet fever and its homeopathic treatment" (1900), "What should
we do? Before the planned meeting of the followers of homeopathy" (1901), "The role of
high temperature in diseases and whether it should be lowered" (1902), "Typhus"
(1903). At the beginning of the 1900s, Lutsenko started delivering lectures on homeopathy also in
the Odessa spiritual seminary. To the best of my knowledge, this was the only experience of an
officially approved teaching of homeopathy in a Russian spiritual institution. It is extremely
important to stress that the Society supported the translation (by Dr. Lutsenko) and the issuing of
Farrington's important work "Pharmacology" from 1906 to 1910 in several
installments, 840 pages in the whole. This was the largest translation into Russian of foreign
works on the subject of homeopathy ever done until… the 1990s! This translation was
republished in 1936 and 1992, as one compact issue.
Nonetheless, all efforts of enlarging the activity were unsuccessful, in first because of
financial difficulties. The second dispensary, opened by the Society in November 1901 at Stepovaia
Str., 48 where Dr. Rudinsky was appointed as head, had to be closed soon, after 5 months, as only
122 visits were made92. One of the possible reasons was poor knowledge of the local inhabitants
of the dispensary's existence, but the Society had no money neither to advertise it nor to wait
till the information would spread among the wide public. The economical crisis spread all over the
Russian Empire since 1902, and decreased the number both of the members of the Society and that of
those who turned to the dispensary. The Society had to decrease the reward of Dr. Lutsenko to 300
rubles yearly in 1903. Dr. Rudinsky, who was left without any reward at all, refused to work in the
dispensary. Another unsuccessful project of the Society was connected with the publishing of a
homeopathic journal. Dr. Evgraph Diukov of Khar'kov, who had published "Vestnik
gomeopaticheskoi meditsiny" in 1900—1902, proposed to the Odessa Hahnemannian Society to
continue issuing the journal. Although the Society had no experience in such affairs, it agreed.
The issuing continued for two years and brought nothing but significant costs. I suppose that the
Society stopped its activity between 1905 and 1908 because of social and financial instability, as
I found no reports on these years. Additionally, it seems that also the relationships of the
Society with the city authorities were not excellent in the late 1900s. When in autumn 1909, during
the epidemic of cholera, the Board of the Society turned to the Mayor of the city asking him to put
into disposal of the Society the only single room in a city hospital in order to treat there with
homeopathic medicines as well as an auditorium to hold a lecture on cholera, this inquiry was
rejected. At the same autumn Dr. Lutsenko was going to deliver a lecture on homeopathy in the
educational society "Prosvita" ("Enlightenment" in Ukrainian), but this
proposal was rejected as well on the base of the opinion of the Medical Inspector93.
The last pre-WWI reports of the Society which were published in homeopathic periodicals and not
as separate issues, testify that the number of its members was decreasing sharply, whilst the
number of patients remained almost the same. Most probably that the Society stopped its activity
after Dr. Lutsenko was called up to military service in 1914.
The contemporary Odessa Medical Index of 191494 listed the homeopathic pharmacy of
Julius Levi, the Odessa Hahnemannian Society and its dispensary at Khersonskaia Str., 52 as well as
practicing homeopaths Drs. Lutsenko, Carl Bojanus Jr., Rudinsky, Stegemann and Jurgenson. This was
the last pre-WWI information on homeopathy in Odessa I was able to obtain.
Table of the activity of the Odessa Hahnemannian Society95
Year |
Members |
Visits made
Paid |
Visits made
Free |
Patients received |
1898 |
149 |
|
|
|
1899 |
|
1437 |
374 |
|
1900 |
156 |
1660 |
717 |
836 |
1901 |
176 |
1563 |
415 |
753 |
1902 |
180 |
1262 |
465 |
688 |
1903 |
161 |
872 |
456 |
540 |
1904 |
126 |
1144 |
239 |
514 |
1909 |
|
1106 |
110 |
578 |
1910 |
|
1229 |
91 |
596 |
1911 |
|
1063 |
122 |
|
1912 |
59 |
1231 |
210 |
660 |
1913 |
62 |
1281 |
122 |
703 |
1914 |
44 |
|
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Copyright © Alexander Kotok 2001
Mise en page, illustrations Copyright © Sylvain Cazalet 2001
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