ABSTRACT
Homoeopathic treatment has been available to patients under the National Health Service since its formation in 1948. The conjunction of royal and aristocratic patronage of homoeopathy as a system of medicine with the availability of hospitals specialising in the care of patients according to homoeopathic principles is not, however, a new phenomenon. Indeed, it is a feature which has characterised homoeopathy in Britain from its first emergence as a distinctive therapeutic system in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Dr Frederick F. H. Quin wit, charm, intelligence and aristocratic connections made him a popular figure among London’s social elites, and came to be an invaluable ally in building support for homoeopathy in the face of mounting medical criticism and hostility. Quin himself was to blame for this fissure within the emerging homoeopathic movement, as he wished above everything else to preserve the professional integrity and dignity of homoeopathic practice.
