Joseph Hands 1816 – 1865
Joseph Hands MRCS 1816? – 1865? was a British orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy, to become a member of the Medical Council of the Hahnemann Hospital at 39 Bloomsbury Square and a member of the Hahnemann Medical Society.
Joseph Hands practiced at 80 Grove, Hammersmith and 23 Duke Street in Grosvenor Square.
Joseph Hands knew the Staff of the Hahnemann Hospital at 39 Bloomsbury Square which included John Anderson, James Chapman, Edward Charles Chepmell, Paul Francois Curie, Robert Ellis Dudgeon, Thomas Engall, Amos Henriques, Robert Hamilton, Charles Hunt, Henry Kelsall, Joseph Laurie, Henry Victor Malan, James John Garth Wilkinson, David Wilson, George Wyld, William Leaf, Christian Karl Josias Bunsen, Thomas Egerton 2nd Earl of Wilton, Robert Grosvenor, Thomas Roupell Everest, Charles Powell Leslie, James More Molyneux, David Wilson, William Henry Ashurst, W T Berger, W A Case, J M Douglas, G H Flatcher, John Fowler, Joseph Glover, Sydney Hanson, Thomas Higgs, T H Johnstone, John Miller, Chas Pasley, Mathias Roth, Frederick Sandoz, W Stephenson, Samuel Sugden, Allan Templeton, Major Tyndale, William Warne, A Wilkinson, S Wilson and many others.
On 22.1.1852, The Homeopathic Times records a schism in the Hahnemann Hospital, caused by an advertisement placed for Clinical lecturers in the local newspapers, and the appointment of Paul Francois Curie and Amos Henriques.
These appointments led to the resignation of John Chapman, Edward Charles Chepmell, Joseph Hands and David Wilson. The grounds for contention were that the Hahnemann Hospital was founded to eliminate medical cliques, and to promote medical equality. It was felt that by awarding Paul Francois Curie and Amos Henriques the title of Clinical Lecturer and Professor, this rule was breached.
The Association for the Protection of Homeopathic Practitioners and Students had just been founded in 1851, and its members included George Atkin, Francis Black, John Chapman, Paul Francois Curie, John James Drysdale, Robert Ellis Dudgeon, George Fearon, Edward Hamilton, William Hering, C. B. Kerr, Joseph Laurie, John Ozanne, John Rutherford Russell, David Wilson and many others.
John Chapman, Edward Charles Chepmell, Joseph Hands and David Wilson felt strongly enough about the issue of medical cliques and elitism to resign, but the overwhelming feeling of the rest of the staff was in full support of these principles. Apparently, there had been some ill feeling inherited from the earlier establishment under William Leaf, and as Paul Francois Curie and Amos Henriques were not prepared to abandon their titles as Clinical lecturers, a schism occurred.
Joseph Hands wrote Will-ability; Or, Mind and Its Varied Conditions and Capacities, New views of matter, life, motion, and resistance, A Dissertation on Diets and Digestion, Homeopathy and Other Modern Systems Contrasted with Allopathy, Beauty and the laws governing its development, Vaccination Viewed as a Sanitary Measure with Modes and Facts for Establishing Its Future Permanent Efficiency: Being an Address to the Opponents of this Small-pox Preventive Process.
Of interest:
Decimus Hands MRCSE Homeopath practiced at 9 Dorset Square and he was a member of the Hahnemann Medical Society in 1853.
Sue :: Oct.09.2008 :: British History :: No Comments »