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The Faculty of Homœopathy Richard Hughes memorial lecture
14
THE BRITISH HOM(EOPATHIC JOURNAL
T H E FACULTY OF H O M ( E O P A T H Y R I C H A R D H U G H E S MEMORIAL L E C T U R E COMMEMORATIVE LECTURE BY T. DOUGLAS ROSS
THE PRESIDENT said that when Dr. Richard Hughes died fifty years ago one o f his friends said "that we owed it to his honour and to the honour of the Society that whatever we could do to honour his name we should do". What manner of man was this Richard Hughes? A colleague described him as a handsome presence, rather tall in height, with a gentle stoop due to his advancing years, he had a graceful head and a voice suave and clear. On tho table was a book from the Library containing a portrait of Dr. Hughes published in 1902. He was, as many Victorians were, a keen Alpinist and every year from 1880 he went to Switzerland and was a climber in the Alps, providing himself with an alpenstock and knapsack. He was born in 1836 and after he qualified he was not long before he became a force in the homceopathic world. He was said from 1886 onwards, from the time he was 31, to have dominated the homceopathic world. His publications were translated and circulated throughout the homceopathic world. His greatest rivals said of him that until he published his book on Materia Medica he was only able to obtain such knowledge from a very severe process of study and application. I f a Victorian doctor could say that, one could realize in these days just what was involved in the study o f Materia Mediea in the days before Dr. Hughes wrote his books. Dr. Hughes held all the offices in the British Homceopathic Society: Secretary, Editor, President, Lecturer in Materia Medica, and later he held the Chair in Materia Mediea in the London School of Homceopathy. He died in harness, dealing with the proofs of the current number of the JOURNAL. Dr. Douglas Ross was to give the lecture in memory of one of their great forebears and there was no one better able to do so. R I C H A R D H U G H E S TODAY By T. DOUGLASROSS, M.B., Ch.B.Glas., F.F.Hom. WHEN I was asked to give the Richard Hughes Lecture for this year I knew very little about this remarkable man and I had difficulty in finding anyone who could enlighten me. I am grateful to those who have revived these lectures for the opportunity to learn something of his work and ideas which I think have value for us today and throw light on the evolution of our Materia Medica. Hughes died in 1902 aged only 66, famous for his scholarship and industry even in that age of learned physicians, and the author of three textbooks which for homceopathic doctors in the last thirty years of the nineteenth century were household words, the Pharmacodynamics, the Principles and Practice of Hom~eopathy which evolved from an earlier work Therapeutics, and the Cylopaedia of Drug Pathogenesy with its Repertory. He gave many lectures in this Board Room and it must have been a pleasure to hear him for he wrote beautiful English and he was a man of striking personality and handsome appearance as we can see from his portrait. W h y then has he been almost forgotten since the turn of the century? There are, I think, two main reasons, and Hughes' fate contains a lesson for those of us who would bring the homoeopathic materia medica up to date. Up to this date, perhaps, but what of the future? He tried to interpret the provings in terms of the pathology and physiology of his day. That gave his work great popularity, but in his lifetime only. The second and most important reason is that Hughes was an iconoclast and dared
THE BRITISH HOM(EOPATHIC JOURNAL
T H E FACULTY OF H O M ( E O P A T H Y R I C H A R D H U G H E S MEMORIAL L E C T U R E COMMEMORATIVE LECTURE BY T. DOUGLAS ROSS
THE PRESIDENT said that when Dr. Richard Hughes died fifty years ago one o f his friends said "that we owed it to his honour and to the honour of the Society that whatever we could do to honour his name we should do". What manner of man was this Richard Hughes? A colleague described him as a handsome presence, rather tall in height, with a gentle stoop due to his advancing years, he had a graceful head and a voice suave and clear. On tho table was a book from the Library containing a portrait of Dr. Hughes published in 1902. He was, as many Victorians were, a keen Alpinist and every year from 1880 he went to Switzerland and was a climber in the Alps, providing himself with an alpenstock and knapsack. He was born in 1836 and after he qualified he was not long before he became a force in the homceopathic world. He was said from 1886 onwards, from the time he was 31, to have dominated the homceopathic world. His publications were translated and circulated throughout the homceopathic world. His greatest rivals said of him that until he published his book on Materia Medica he was only able to obtain such knowledge from a very severe process of study and application. I f a Victorian doctor could say that, one could realize in these days just what was involved in the study o f Materia Mediea in the days before Dr. Hughes wrote his books. Dr. Hughes held all the offices in the British Homceopathic Society: Secretary, Editor, President, Lecturer in Materia Medica, and later he held the Chair in Materia Mediea in the London School of Homceopathy. He died in harness, dealing with the proofs of the current number of the JOURNAL. Dr. Douglas Ross was to give the lecture in memory of one of their great forebears and there was no one better able to do so. R I C H A R D H U G H E S TODAY By T. DOUGLASROSS, M.B., Ch.B.Glas., F.F.Hom. WHEN I was asked to give the Richard Hughes Lecture for this year I knew very little about this remarkable man and I had difficulty in finding anyone who could enlighten me. I am grateful to those who have revived these lectures for the opportunity to learn something of his work and ideas which I think have value for us today and throw light on the evolution of our Materia Medica. Hughes died in 1902 aged only 66, famous for his scholarship and industry even in that age of learned physicians, and the author of three textbooks which for homceopathic doctors in the last thirty years of the nineteenth century were household words, the Pharmacodynamics, the Principles and Practice of Hom~eopathy which evolved from an earlier work Therapeutics, and the Cylopaedia of Drug Pathogenesy with its Repertory. He gave many lectures in this Board Room and it must have been a pleasure to hear him for he wrote beautiful English and he was a man of striking personality and handsome appearance as we can see from his portrait. W h y then has he been almost forgotten since the turn of the century? There are, I think, two main reasons, and Hughes' fate contains a lesson for those of us who would bring the homoeopathic materia medica up to date. Up to this date, perhaps, but what of the future? He tried to interpret the provings in terms of the pathology and physiology of his day. That gave his work great popularity, but in his lifetime only. The second and most important reason is that Hughes was an iconoclast and dared