A Work in Process
Description
The following is a list of readings, and their links to pdfs, google books, etc., that I recommend to people interested in the unusual and esoteric for the topics I cover at this site. Some of these articles may be controversial, some bring up interesting historical questions, some even make us question the paradigms we adhere to in the health field in general.
In a way, I consider these articles important to be made available for researchers and students. Whenever I teach a class and come upon them, they are often in the next day’s handouts.
NDStebbins_1857_The-Scriptures-and-Homeopathy
Much of medicine is detached from religion. This is especially true from about 1800 onward, when science and religion were totally separated, and when agnosticism and atheism became popular due to the influences of French scientists. Early existentialism (Nietzschism, or nihilism) and positivism (science) were in peoples’ minds. Natural theology and pantheism–the notion of God in everything–had their rebellious counterparts. The “God” in nature was likened to some as a form of energy. “God’s energy”, the universal laws were taught as a normal part of natural philosophy. This enabled people to remove themselves from being responsible to someone or some thing. Homeopathy experienced changes in its philosophy due to this. Homeopaths had this pseudo-quaker, natural philosophy they used to argue its effects. Today’s homeopaths call these natural forces that make homeopathy work “vibrations”. Samuel Hahnemann had various terms for it, but likened it the most to the reasons why vaccinations worked–very small amounts of something made you body build stronger natural defenses. Stebbins by passes this philosophy and instead tries to argue that homeopathy is religious because it is inspired or inferred by “the Holy Word.” He provides us with numerous quotes from the Old and New Testament to prove its claims. The reason this is important today is that of the three major non-allopathic professions of the 19th Century (Eclectics and New Thomsonians/Indian Doctors were the other two), homeopathic schools and hospitals outlived the other alternative medical wards in teaching hospitals by several decades (the last was ca. 1933, Portland OR). The major agencies funding these hospitals–the religious leaders and their churches–did not wish to fully stop believing in homeopathy. This is a lengthy 3 part article, about 84 pages in length.
Biblical medicine by Kemper 1872
Medical Geography
1774 Further proofs of the insalubrity of marshy situations by Price 1774
1850 The fungoid and animalcular theory of epidemics by Judkins 1850
This is an important piece because the author accurately defines the environmental and ecological relationships soil born organisms, involving such features as sun angle or aspect, surface slope, and even which side of the mountain the problems are most likely to exist. This latter philosophy is a repeat of a similar philosophy promoted by Contemporary (and traditional) Chinese philosophers–the yin and yang face of a mountain determine the type of flora and in particular trees that reside on each side, and make one side yang, the other yin, due to these trees impacting the ability of a slope to light up more easily with forest fires (the yang side). [See my work on the Forest Fire Ecology in Oregon at Tillamook for the details and citation of this philosophy.]
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FINIS
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Brian Altonen, MPH, MS 
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