This book review is reprinted with the permission of the American Institute of Homeopathy
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Homoeopathy in the Irish Potato Famine
by Francis Treuherz, MA, MCH, RSHom, FSHom.
Samuel Press, London, 1995.
138 pages, paperback, US. $22.00
Reviewed by Harris L. Coulter, Ph.D.

To the rather slender library of books on the history of British and UK homeopathy has now been added an engaging collection of materials assembled and introduced by Francis Treuherz, whom we know well as the long-time editor of The Homoeopath.

While Homoeopathy in the Irish Potato Famine is principally about this tragedy in Irish history, when in 1845-1847 Ireland lost 2.5 million people from the famine and the accompanying emigration to Boston Massachusetts, and other North American cities, the author gives us much more.

A major theme is the proving of Solanum tuberosum aegrotans, the nosode of the Potato rot, by the French homeopath, Benoit Mure in 1849. Hi suggested that the remedy for potato rot be found by proving it on humans; the resulting pathogenesis indicated that the potato be preserved from rot by insertion of homeopathic Arsenicum or Bryonia, or the potato rot nosode itself, prior to planting.

C. J. Hempel's 1854 translation of Mure's essay is reproduced in full and is supplemented by the proving of Solanum tuberosum aegrotans recorded in John Henry Clarke's Dictionarv.

There follow two original writings on the Irish potato famine by the English-trained Irish homeopath, Joseph Kidd (1824-1918), and a biographical essay on Joseph Kidd by his descendent, Walter Kidd.

Kidd was born in Limerick in 1824 and studied homeopathy in London under Paul Francois Curie, grandfather of Pierre Curie. In 1847, horrified by the potato famine, he went back to Ireland for several months to treat the associated fever and dysentery.

He then returned to London and pursued a successful practice for many decades, retiring only in 1914. His most distinguished patient was Prime Minister Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield), whom he treated from 1878 until his death in 1881. Kidd's account makes fascinating homeopathic reading and has, indeed, become a biographical classic.

This poignant collection of materials about the "great hunger" not only enlightens us about a dark page in Ireland's history, but also fills some of the gaps in our own incomplete and imperfect picture of Irish homeopathy. As such, it should bring us all into closer relations with our Irish colleagues. Having myself recently met the charming Nuala Eising, Principal of the Burren School of Homoeopathy, and heard what she and other Irish homeopaths have been doing to bring our medical truths to the Eastern outlands (in her case, the Republic of Belarus), I know that we in the US. would all benefit from a better acquaintance with homeopathy in the Emerald Isle. For this we owe a vote of sincere thanks to Fran Treuherz.

JAIH Summer 1996, Vol. 89, No. 2