John Rutherford Russell 1816 – 1867
John Rutherford Russell (MD Edin. 1838) 1816 – 1867 was an orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy to become Physician of Edinburgh Homeopathic Dispensary, Physician at the London Homeopathic Hospital, member of the Royal Medical Society, member of the Pennsylvania Homeopathic Medical College, Fellow of the British Homeopathic Association, and editor of the British Journal of Homeopathy with John James Drysdale and Robert Ellis Dudgeon from 1846 to 1884.
John Rutherford Russell was also a member of the Association for the Protection of Homeopathic Students and Practitioners,
John Rutherford Russell employed Isabella Fyvie Mayo, and he was a friend of Walter Scott, to whom he was distantly related to on his mother’s side, and who was a frequent visitor to his family home.
John Rutherford Russell was the homeopathic practitioner of Eneas Sweetland Dallas, Alexander John Ellis, William Gregory, George MacDonald, Aurelio Saffi,
John Rutherford Russell practiced at 17 York Terrace, Leamington and at 3 Harley Street.
John Rutherford Russell wrote a moving Obituary tribute to John Conolly in The British Journal of Homeopathy, Volume 24, in which he praised John Conolly for his ‘unusual liberality’ towards homeopathy.
John Rutherford Russell recounts that he was the homeopath of a mental patient who was placed under John Conolly’s care at Hanwell Lunatic Asylum. The family of the sick woman were keen advocates of homeopathy, and they asked John Conolly if John Rutherford Russell could treat her as she was not improving under orthodox medical care.
John Rutherford Russell asked John Conolly if he had any objection to his intervention, and John Conolly wrote:
Hanwell Lawn House 9.2.1863: ‘My Dear Sir, I never object to anything that can by possibility be useful to any patient under my direction unless I think it sure to be mischievious; and in a case such as this the importance of what is done for the satisfaction of those dear to her cannot be overlooked.
‘Instead, therefore, of troubling the patient with a call tomorrow, I would propose that Dr. Russell should see her quietly, and, if it seems desirable, more than once, and that, aftrewards, I should have the pleasure of conferring with him anywhere and at any time that can be arranged.
‘I am sure that this will be the best plan to pursue.’
John Rutherford Russell explains that this plan was indeed put into effect, and the patient remained under the joint care of John Rutherford Russell and John Conolly until she recovered, much to the satisfaction of her family.
John Rutherford Russell studied under Friedrich Wilhelm Karl Fleischman in Vienna with John James Drysdale. John James Drysdale and John Rutherford Russell were fellow students with Robert Ellis Dudgeon in Vienna. The three also edited the British Journal of Homeopathy from 1846-84 after which it ceased.
James John Garth Wilkinson reports that John Rutherford Russell was the first homeopath to use cobra venom as a homeopathic remedy for diseases of the heart valves.
John Rutherford Russell was present at the Festival in aid of the London Homeopathic Hospital in 1858 with many Aristocratic and minor gentry patrons attending, alongside Dr. Ayerst, William Bayes, Hugh Cameron, Edward Charles Chepmell, William Vallancy Drury, George Napoleon Epps, Arthur Guinness, Edward Hamilton, Frantz Hartmann, Amos Henriques, Joseph Kidd, Thomas Robinson Leadam, J Bell Metcalfe, Frederick Hervey Foster Quin, Henry Reynolds, Charles Caulfield Tuckey, George Wyld, Stephen Yeldham, and many others.
John Rutherford Russell was also a colleague of William Edward Ayerst, Hugh Cameron, John Chapman, Matthew James Chapman, Edward Charles Chepmell, Paul Francois Curie, William Vallancy Drury, George Napoleon Epps, James Epps, John Epps, James Manby Gully, Edward Hamilton, George Calvert Holland, Richard Hughes, Joseph Kidd, Thomas Robinson Leadam, Victor Massol, J Bell Metcalfe, Samuel Thomas Partridge, Henry Reynolds, David Wilson, Stephen Yeldham and many others.
John Chapman, George Atkin, Frederick Hervey Foster Quin and Robert Ellis Dudgeon, John Rutherford Russell, James W Metcalfe and an anonymous ‘friend’ put together a Directory of British and Foreign Homeopaths and their supporters to counter the suppression of all mention of homeopaths and their supporters by the editors of the London and Provincial Medical Directory in 1853.
In 1853 John Rutherford Russell married Georgina Isabella Maxwell.
John Rutherford Russell was a friend of George MacDonald and a colleague of John Epps and George Napoleon Epps, and he attended a dinner in honour of Frederick Hervey Foster Quin in 1861, alonside William Edward Ayerst, Hugh Cameron, Matthew James Chapman, Edward Charles Chepmell, Edward Hamilton, Amos Henriques, George Calvert Holland, Henry Kelsall, Joseph Kidd, Thomas Robinson Leadam, J Bell Metcalfe, George Wyld, Stephen Yeldham, William Bayes, and many others.
John Rutherford Russell wrote Defence of Hahnemann and His Doctrines, On the Respiratory System of Nerves, Considered as the Vehicle of General Sympathy, The History and Heroes of the Art of Medicine, Introduction to the Study of Homeopathy edited with John James Drysdale and Fletchers Elements of Pathology with John James Drysdale, editor of Homeopathy in 1851, and various articles to the British Journal of Homeopathy and other publications.
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