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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.
3.9 The Nizhnedevitsk zemstvo experience
The most interesting experience of one of the Russian provincial zemstvos to introduce
homeopathy officially as a purely medical affair (not by laymen, as in some previous attempts!),
demonstrated convincingly the strong hostility of regular practitioners toward homeopathy on the
one hand and, even more important, the doubtless organizational weakness of Russian homeopathy on
the other hand.
In the beginning of 1901, the Nizhnedevitsk zemstvo (Voronezh province) decided to invite a
homeopathic physician to join the staff. Well-experienced General Nicholas Fedorovsky soon guessed
what would be the following development:
In the coming days we shall experience how the opponents of homeopathy will be
sacrificing the interests of the State to mercenary ends and ambitions. The last meeting of the
Nizhnedevitsk zemstvo [...] decided to invite a homeopathic doctor to serve at the zemstvo [...].
[As a consequence, we shall see] the implementation of so-called 'scientific' pressure the
'ignorant society', i.e., protests and strikes of zemstvo physicians, the noise, rumpus and
the badgering of the Voronezh zemstvo deputies who dare express their lack of belief in orthodox
science, by the false-progressive Pharisees of the medical press, and also by their stooges from
the general press. [...] They will cry out against trampling on the law, on science, and on freedom
of conscience!106
The decision to invite a homeopathic physician was published in the issue No 10 of
"Medico-sanitarnaia khronika Voronezhskoi gubernii" ['Medical-Sanitary Chronicles of
the Voronezh province']. It was pointed out that
A significant decrease in the expenditures as well as a more complete allowance of
'free of charge' help to the population, may be expected only through a radical change in
the method of treatment. Given the present situation of medicine, homeopathy may be such an
alternative method.
The deputy [Kharkevich] argues that there are sufficient data both abroad and in
Russia, to allow the zemstvo to test the homeopathic method in the frame of the zemstvo... [...].
The deputy proposes to invite, additionally to those physicians working in the district, a
homeopathic physician without attaching him to a particular bailiwick, as such an assignment could
be recognized as the introduction of a method which has not yet earned full popularity [...]. The
proposal was accepted by the meeting unanimously. The meeting decided: to charge the board
[uprava] with the invitation of a homeopathic doctor, while 1,425 rubles should be assigned
as his salary and 300 rubles - for required homeopathic drugs107.
The following two pages of the "Khronika" were dedicated to the commentary on this
decision, made by the Head of the Sanitary department of the Voronezh province, Dr. Nicholas Teziakov.
This decision regarding the invitation of a homeopathic physician represents an
unique example in the Zemstvo and, doubtless, will remain so. In fact, one should treat this
decision with indifference. Probably, the Nizhnedevitsk zemstvo, by making this decision, wished
sincerely to help the sick population which had not been provided until now with rational medical
support. The duty of those who know the real value of homeopathy from their special education, is
to explain to the public institutions responsible for the people's health, how they endanger
the population by spending their resources for such experiments. The perfect organization of
zemstvo medicine became only possible due to the joint labour of the Zemstvo and its conscientious
workers, i.e., zemstvo physicians. Accordingly, the latter have to inform the public institutions
on this superstition named homeopathy...108
Further, Teziakov cited the brochure "Against homeopathy" of A. Lozinsky109
supporting the author's view that homeopathy becomes more and more popular because regular
physicians appear to be indifferent toward homeopathy and its supporters, and consequently find it
superfluous "to refute" it. In Teziakov's mind, this approach probably influenced the
decision of the Nizhnedevitsk zemstvo. Teziakov proposed that all the medical organizations of the
province express their opinions on homeopathy and on "the danger it represents for the
people". He also promised that he would publish a special paper entitled "how to
establish a right opinion on homeopathy and prevent zemstvo officials from making false steps"
in "Khronika".
Till today zemstvo medicine, in its progressive gradual development, has been
confronted with wizardry, later with feldsherism, and now, it seems, also with homeopathy... As the
Nizhnedevitsk meeting itself recognises, the situation of medicine in the district is far from
being satisfactory. [...] In the last year the meeting abolished a physician's tenure in Sinie
Lipiagi and left there only the feldsher's tenure. The same meeting returned to the fee system,
while ordering a charge of 5 kopecks for every medicine accepted according to physician's
receipt [...]. Currently in the district one physician's tenure serves 822,1 square
versta [about 932 km2 ] and 42,145 inhabitants. In relation to other districts
within the province, the Nizhnedevitsk district takes the last place (in other districts one tenure
serves from 25,000 to 34,000 of population). In such a situation, this means that the 1,725 rubles
meant by the decision of the zemstvo meeting to be spent for homeopathy [...] might be spent with
certain benefit for the improvement of existing zemstvo medicine110.
Obviously, the weekly "Vrach" could not ignore such an event as the invitation of a
homeopathic physician to the zemstvo service. Strangely enough, "Vrach" became informed
about this story, not just from the local zemstvo physicians as it had been usual in the past, but
even from the general press, namely from the newspaper "Rossia" (Russia) of November
2nd , 1901. For the first time "Vrach" limited itself to a short
recommendation:
Hopefully, the Pirogov Society of Russian Physicians will make clear to this
zemstvo, which does not understand what it is doing, that their decision is inaccurate and show
them the responsibility they must carry while depriving the people of scientific medical
help111.
Three weeks later "Vrach" came back to this story with a detailed explanation of what
had happened in the rebellious zemstvo, citing in detail the publications in "Khronika"
and joining its own opinion:
The meeting assigned 1,725 rubles per year for the homeopath's salary and for
purchasing homeopathic medicines; by the way, this is not so inexpensive for a 'cheap method of
treatment' [...]. Doubtless, the experience of this zemstvo cannot be indifferent to the
condition of the health of the population. Thus, the decision of the Sanitary Department of the
Voronezh province [...] regarding the necessity of publishing in 'Khronika' an article
devoted to describing and criticizng homeopathy in order to establish a right view on it and to
prevent the zemstvo of taking false steps, ought to be welcomed112.
This was the last article on homeopathy published in "Vrach". After the death of its
editor, Prof. V. Manassein, on February 26, 1901, the periodical was discontinued according to his
will.
The position of the medical establishment presented in the periodicals was typical enough and
clear: paternalism (the medical establishment should clarify to the stupid deputies who "do
not understand what they are doing" what is the right way in medicine), mixed with open
denigration by the zemstvo authorities. However, it hardly explained why the zemstvo made up its
mind to try homeopathy, and why the zemstvo, being dissatisfied with allopathy, turned to
homeopathy?
Fortunately, "Vrachebnaia gazeta" (Medical Newspaper) later published two letters
signed by representatives of the medical staff employed at the district. Owing to those letters we
can imagine more clearly the true picture of the story. It was not by chance that the letters were
sent to "Vrachebnaia gazeta". After "Vrach" had been cancelled, it was
"Vrachebnaia gazeta", together with "Russky vrach" (The Russian Physician),
which were viewed by the Russian medical community as the main all-Russian professional
periodicals.
In the first journal, feldsher A. Ekimov wrote in a letter to the editors:
It should be noted that the [Nizhnedevitsk] zemstvo, which spent 1/3 of its budget
on medicine, could hardly be proud of an ideal or at least of an excellent organization of zemstvo
medicine [...]; for till now this zemstvo has not abolished the 'fee system' of treatment
which had been abolished everywhere else as inaccurate, and had been badly influencing zemstvo
medicine. The invitation to a homeopath was motivated by a desire to significantly decrease its
expenditures and to more completely attain [sic!] the goal of providing medical service
'free-of-charge' to the population. These changes may be expected, in the opinion of a
deputy, 'by radically changing the methods of treatment [...], challenging the ruling
allopathic one.' It would be probably preferable to destroy zemstvo medicine
altogether...113
Although this letter mainly repeats information which has been already cited earlier, there is a
new and important fact — the cost of medicine in the zemstvo budget, which seems to be rather
high: one third. This partly explains the irritation and desire of the zemstvo deputies to make
some positive changes in its ongoing medical affairs.
In the beginning of 1902 "Vrachebnaia gazeta" published another letter of the
physicians employed at the zemstvo. They wrote:
We feel it is necessary to inform our colleagues of the circumstances under which
this sad circumstance had happened. The zemstvo meeting was almost finished; all the medical
reports had been read and the physicians had also left. At the end of the budget discussions,
before the meeting was closed, one of the deputies, who was also the zemstvo manager, K. N.
Kharkevich, raised the question of the benefit of homeopathy for zemstvo medicine. His proposal was
supported by the chairman of the meeting and by 2 or 3 of the deputies. The remaining deputies
greeted the proposal with silence - partly because they were unacquainted with homeopathy, partly
because they were seduced by the proposal's seemingly cheap price. In this way, the proposal
was accepted [...]. The resolution regarding inviting a homeopath to zemstvo service has some
connection with the regression of medical status in the district in comparison with the previous
years. So, in 1900, the meeting had abolished one physician's position [...]. The fact itself
and the circumstances of inviting a homeopath as well as a very specific relation of the zemstvo
meeting to medical affairs, no doubt bring harm to the right construction of the system of medical
help in the district and also represented an undeserved injury for all the district physicians.
Therefore, we physicians of the Nizhnedevitsk zemstvo, recognising this job as becoming morally
more and more difficult, hereby decided [...] that a common service with a homeopath in a public
institution is impossible because it contradicts the scientific principles and the physicians'
dignity.
Nizhnedevitsk, 16.01.1902
Signed: the zemstvo physicians I. Gorshechnikov, V. Vassil'v, V. Kravets, Y.
Nevelstein, V. Es'kov114.
The editorial board of the periodical added the following comments to the letter:
We are publishing this statement of our highly respected colleagues with special
satisfaction. In our opinion, the light-minded decision of the Nizhnedevitsk zemstvo meeting,
threatens the main foundations of zemstvo medicine, and should not be regarded in another way.
Honor to our zemstvo colleagues, who are steadily keeping the dignity of medical science!115
Furthermore, the allopaths in the Voronezh province did not limit themselves to sending letters
to "Vrachebnaia gazeta". On November 26, 1901, Dr. Andrey
Shingarev (1869—1918)116, then a zemstvo physician in the Voronezh province,
delivered a speech at the meeting of the Voronezh branch of the Russian Society for Protecting
People's Health. His speech, entitled "What is homeopathy and why it should have no place
within zemstvo medicine", was almost immediately published in the periodical
"Meditsinskaia beseda" ('Medical Talking') issued in the Voronezh province, in
January 1902.Dr. Shingarev stated:
The true reason for my appearance here with this lecture is the unanimous decision
of the last session of the Nizhnedevitsk zemstvo [...]. If I am not wrong, this is the first
example of inviting a homeopath to the zemstvo service117.
He was right indeed. Nevertheless, Dr. Shingarev presented in his lecture no serious discussion
on homeopathy and its laws. Many facts which form the history of homeopathy were misinterpreted,
many events were presented from a definitely subjective point of view. For example, he implied a
negative attitude of homeopaths toward the editor of "Vrach" Prof. Manassein and toward
Rudolf Virchow, a subject of particular importance for Russian physicians, as being a proof of
"evil inclinations" of homeopathy, etc. However, he also had to recognize that homeopathy
was spreading all over the world in general and in Russia in particular.
Shingarev ended his lecture with the following conclusions:
1. Homeopathy is not a science and its 'laws' have no significance.
2. Its successes within some circles are caused first by the need of the people
for the nebulous and the mysterious, and by the accidental coincidences of self-recoveries from the
diseases when treated with homeopathic medicines [...].
3. It is necessary to cope both verbally and in print with the spreading of
homeopathy; to cope, not by applying prohibitive measures and punitive laws, but by promoting a
wide popularisation of true scientific medicine.
4. It is necessary to energetically protest against the establishment of
homeopathic healing among the ignorant rural population118.
Summing up, the situation of the medical services in the Nizhnedevitsk district seems so far
more or less clear. The zemstvo deputies, being bitterly disappointed by the high expenditures on
medicine (one third of the whole zemstvo budget), wanted to change this. This disappointment,
together with the impact of homeopathic propaganda, brought the deputies (at least the zemstvo
manager Kharkevich) to conclude that the root of all the evil is in the medical system, i.e.,
allopathy, adopted by the zemstvo. Hence, it would be beneficial to try a new medical system, i.e.,
homeopathy. Most probably, that the medical reports presented at the meeting (it is very
demonstrative that the physicians left the meeting without even waiting for a discussion on the
matters or statistics submitted by them — at least they did not mention in the letter to
"Vrachebnaia gazeta" that their reports were in some way discussed) consolidated the
deputies in the opinion that the medical affairs are being badly managed. Therefore, the proposal
regarding the invitation of homeopathic physicians did not meet obstacles and was approved
unanimously.
Answering this initiative, the zemstvo physicians, after they had listed their opposition to the
zemstvo in an open letter, informed the zemstvo authorities that they would leave the zemstvo
service if the invited homeopath would start working. Naturally, the pro-allopathic periodical
"Vrachebnaia gazeta" supported them.
Regarding the letter of the Nizhnedevitsk physicians [...] 'Novoe vremia'
[New Times] of February 2nd , says: 'By leaving their places, the Nizhnedevitsk
physicians will give a large field for the activity of representatives of wizardry and probably
homeopathy. [....] Thus, this is a reason toward their duty - to prevent the spreading of ignorance
and superstitions among the people, etc.' 'Novoe vremia' as well as
'Khar'kovsky listok' [The Khar'kov Letters] of February 6th , did
probably not understand the reasons of the zemstvo colleagues' action. As seen from the [above
mentioned] letter, the Nizhnedevitsk zemstvo reverses the usual sense of medical affairs. [...]
They [zemstvo physicians] say: if you want to introduce homeopathy for the sake of economy, then
invite homeopaths to all the physicians' places in the district. Only in this way would the
'experience' of the Nizhnedevitsk zemstvo become a demonstration. Collaborative work
between a homeopath and zemstvo physicians is impossible because the activity of the homeopaths
denies the science to which physicians dedicate all their lives119.
It is remarkable that neither physicians nor the periodicals refer to the fact that the zemstvo,
according to its decision cited in "Khronika", did not plan to replace any local
zemstvo physician by a homeopath nor did they suggest enlisting some zemstvo doctor to work
jointly with a homeopath. On the contrary, the invitation intended to establish an
"extraterritorial" physician's position, thus to allow the local population to have
access to a homeopath. All that, in fact, in order to make the everyday labour of zemstvo
physicians easier. The periodicals continued delivering explanations on their behalf, not
disdaining to collect rumours:
'Kur'er [The Courier] on February 15th , was informed from the
Nizhnedevitsk district that the last decision of the zemstvo meeting is not being executed only
because homeopaths are not satisfied with the reward of 1,300 rubles assigned by the zemstvo
meeting but asking the by far non-homeopathic sum of 3,000 rubles120. [...] It is interesting to
see how the zemstvo will solve this 'physicians' problem' which is significant for the
whole district. It is impossible that it [the zemstvo] will remain with only one single homeopathic
physician. Another question is whether other physicians, after they have read the letter of their
colleagues published in 'Vrachebnaia gazeta', will come to serve at the Nizhnedevitsk
zemstvo. One might suppose that if other zemstvo meetings would follow this instance, the
homeopaths would increase their wages up to 5,000 rubles and more. Then it would be clear that this
is not for the people's benefit (which is the goal and purpose of the work of zemstvo
physicians), and homeopaths would destroy zemstvo medicine with their propaganda121.
In turn, the zemstvo manager K. Kharkevich sent a letter to "Vrach-gomeopat", in which
he wrote:
According to a motivated proposal of Yacov Kharkevich and me, the Nizhnedevitsk
zemstvo meeting decided unanimously to invite a homeopathic doctor […] and to assign him a
sum of 1420 rubles, i.e., the salary of our doctors, and 300 rubles for medicines […]. Many
criticize us, but we were ready for it when making this decision. Our allopaths are being insulted
and do threat to leave the service – I think nobody would keep them on the condition that a
replacement would be found, but this is the problem! We have to find a good homeopath, not a
charlatan who turned to homeopathy after having failed in allopathy […]. In my opinion, it
is a moral duty of the best [homeopathic] people to find out such a man from among them […].
Let's see, we have spent a third of the whole budget for medicine, some 5,000 rubles yearly,
some years even more, and nevertheless, we had to give up free of charge medicine for the lack of
finances […]. As to results [of these expenditures], you are well aware how poor they are.
Our doctors have considered their duty discharged after they had examinated a patient and
prescribed him/her some medicine, no matter how the patient would feel later on, as they had been
convinced that the lack of culture within the common people and the anti-hygienic situation in
general make them free of any responsibilty. Fortunately, homeopaths have a different view and
treat even in bad conditions. So, be so kind to inform us whether there is a chance to get a good
homeopath to our service and to whom should we turn for that122.
This is indeed a very interesting point to be discussed. After numerous failures, Russian
homeopaths finally succeeded to convince one zemstvo to introduce homeopathy. Moreover, the zemstvo
authorities did surrender neither to the physicians' threats to leave their service, nor to the
pro-allopathic support in the medical and general periodicals, athough they, most probably had no
slightest idea whether homeopathy was indeed "superior" over allopathy or not —
they just tried to find the most appropriate way to lower their expenditures for medical services.
One way or another, this might have been a wonderful opportunity for homeopaths to prove the
promulgated "doubtless superiority of homeopathy over allopathy" — the conviction
that homeopaths never tired of speaking about. But the end of the story was completely discouraging
for homeopaths.
After a long silence on the subject, a homeopathic periodical "Vestnik gomeopaticheskoi
meditsiny", in one of the closing issues of 1903, sadly noted that the affair finally ended
when the zemstvo received ... a lot of "warmest greetings" both from individuals and from
homeopathic societies. Like in the story that happened 15 years earlier in the Novgorod-Seversk
zemstvo, not even one homeopathic physician agreed to come to the Voronezh province to prove
not only by word but also by deed "the superiority of homeopathy"! From the editorial
commentaries on the matter in "Vestnik", one could understand that this end was
anticipated. Even large cities like Saratov and Yalta for several years could obtain no homeopathic
physician, although they published their needs in homeopathic periodicals permanently. The
opportunity had gone, never to return123.
All that was left was to criticise allopaths:
The rural population has been treated with only morphine, castor oil, salicylate,
carbolic acid and other allopathic drugs. Now the Zemstvo is going to add to this allopathic
arsenal also an arsenal of Aconitum, Bryonia and other homeopathic medicines through efforts
of a physician who is also familiar with homeopathy. Why does not the zemstvo [...] have sensible
ground for adding this kind of medical care? Is it only because the zemstvo physicians do not want
this? But that is not a sufficient ground [...]. Homeopathy is not intended to replace the system
of public health in the zemstvos, like smallpox vaccinations, free-of-charge treatment, surgical
and obstetrical support, fighting epidemics, area and hospital activity of physicians, etc., but it
wishes only to add the homeopathic method to all these124.
The zemstvo inquired also at the St. Petersburg Charitable Society of the Followers of
Homeopathy whether some homeopathic doctor could be recommended to be employed by the zemstvo.
Replying to this inquiry, the Board of the Society noted that
There is no possibility to recommend a homeopathic physician to the zemstvo for
the scantiness of medical staff. At the same time, the Board proposes its services in teaching
homeopathy to feldshers, who can be sent on an official journey trip for this goal to the Emperor
Alexander II Hospital125.
Having heard this reply at its meeting, the zemstvo board decided "to keep the matter open
unless more favourable time comes"126. Most probably, this time never came.
I think that this conclusion could have been anticipated not only because of the chronic
shortage of homeopathic physicians in Russia but also because of the poor working conditions within
the rural population. The overwhelming part of Russian homeopathic physicians had their profitable
private practices in the large cities where they also enjoyed all the advantages of urban life. One
could hardly imagine that anyone of them might desire to move into a god-forsaken locality to work
side-by-side with hostile allopathic counterparts, without receiving a significant enough financial
reward.
This zemstvo experience was the breaking point for homeopathic propaganda in Russia. Although
pre-war and later pre-revolutionary situations within the Empire in 1903—1904 and later, also
considerably influenced the development of homeopathy, in my opinion the Nizhnedevitsk experience
ought to be viewed as a serious defeat of both homeopaths and their lay supporters headed
unofficially by Nicholas Fedorovsky. Both groups revealed that they had misled themselves by
supposing that homeopathy would easily be introduced into zemstvo medicine with the agreement of
the zemstvo authorities. The open hostility and blackmail of the allopaths, together with the
bitter truth of the inability of the Russian homeopathic community to provide even one
zemstvo with a follower of Hahnemann who had graduated from the university, explain this failure.
The massive and expensive zemstvo-directed homeopathic propaganda from the 1880s onwards, proved to
be absolutely pointless. Although the leading homeopaths and the homeopathic societies took this
experience in silence (to the best of my knowledge there were neither analytical articles in
homeopathic periodicals nor any serious discussion of the matter within homeopathic societies),
they learned a lesson. First of all, all kinds of publications entreating the zemstvos to introduce
homeopathy were abandoned. The St. Petersburg Society of the Followers of Homeopathy virtually
stopped its Russia-wide activity and limited itself mainly to managing its hospital and
dispensaries. The local societies in Russia and Ukraine also continued mainly to manage their own
internal affairs. All these events could probably not be connected exclusively or at least directly
with the sad Nizhnedevitsk experience. Be this as it may, the topic of the zemstvos adopting
homeopathy in the capacity of a competitor of allopathy remained a non-issue in the homeopathic
press till the Bolsheviks solved the problem in a different way, when they put an end both to the
zemstvos and to the homeopathic societies.
3.10 Summary
After it had become evident that homeopathy could not compete with allopathy as State supported
kind of medical service because of the small number of physicians who converted to homeopathy and
because of the lack of homeopathic institutions in Russia, the Zemstvo reform of 1864 gave an
additional opportunity to homeopaths and their supporters. But they proved unable to seize this
opportunity.
The main reasons for this, in my opinion, are the following:
1. Systematic propaganda and systematic efforts to develop popular conviction in the advantages
of homeopathy were only possible by means of constant support by homeopathic societies. Russian
homeopaths did not yet have those in 1864. The first homeopathic society was established in Russia
in 1868 (The St. Petersburg Society of Homeopathic Physicians) and had a character similar to that
of allopathic societies. As we have seen, among its main aims were research, meeting different
universities' graduates, etc. Such a topic as propaganda was not mentioned in the
"Regulations" of the society at all. The first lay society of the followers of homeopathy
was created only in 1881, when allopathy had been firmly rooted within the zemstvo medical system.
More Russian homeopathic societies were established in the 1890s and later, and played a relatively
modest role in the propaganda of homeopathy, in comparison with that of the St. Petersburg Society
of the Followers of Homeopathy. I may speculate that if a systematic propaganda had been started in
the 1860s or in the 1870s at least, homeopathy would have had more chances to be introduced into
the Zemstvo.
2. A more important factor, in my opinion, was the institutional weakness of Russian homeopathy.
As far as we can learn from the related documentation available, the homeopathic propaganda went no
further than the simplest appeals to introduce homeopathy in the Zemstvo by the distribution of
homeopathic literature and publishing eloquent articles in the general press. There was no mention
in either homeopathic periodicals, nor in contemporary allopathic publications, that after some
zemstvo had decided to have an experience with homeopathy, this decision was supported in any way
by homeopaths. The examples of the Ostersk, Trubchev and Belev (on the latter see the chapter
"Homeopathy and clergy") zemstvos all testify that the decision to try homeopathy failed
to secure a future development of homeopathic affairs within the zemstvos. Most probably, these
decisions lacked any support by word and or by deed from homeopaths. While facing the hostility of
their own local zemstvo physicians, the zemstvos soon became disappointed, lost interest in
homeopathy and returned to allopathy.
3. Even recognizing that the homeopathic propaganda in Russia had an obvious enough
zemstvo-directed character, I ought to stress that neither homeopaths nor their lay supporters had
a clear idea how, or in which way homeopathy should have been adopted by the zemstvos. On the one
hand, most articles published by the homeopathic societies till World War I, appealed to
intelligent laymen living in the countryside, like priests, teachers, and landlords. On the other
hand, it was evident that without first attracting a number of physicians and of feldshers to
practice homeopathy in the zemstvos, laymen practice would forever remain a matter of passing
fashion and would disappear as soon as it had emerged. Except for the more or less formulated,
although naive, proposals of priest Karolinsky127, I was not able to find even one
sensible idea regarding a real, day-to-day use of homeopathy in zemstvos till 1900. The
establishment of the Christ-Loving Society of Self-Help in Diseases in 1900128,
intended to distribute the homeopathic teaching and homeopathic drugs through the church-parish
communities, was belated and relatively pointless, as allopathy meanwhile had been accepted
everywhere throughout the Russian countryside. Moreover, homeopaths had not even succeeded to work
out the problem of introducing homeopathy into the zemstvos. No meeting of Russian homeopathic
societies dealt with this subject, not one serious discussion took place, not one worthy proposal
was submitted. In fact, the book by Deriker and Grech was as actual and legitimate in 1914, as it
had been almost 50 years earlier, in 1867! Their attempt to stress the value of homeopathy as a
valuable method in preventive medicine and in the early stages of disease had however lost part of
its utility, in view of the progress of allopathy in the bacteriological era.

Copyright © Alexander Kotok 2001
Mise en page, illustrations Copyright © Sylvain Cazalet 2001
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