Everything you didn’t know about this oft-forgotten department.

Columbia University plans to mark the 130th anniversary of a storied school next year: a department that’s been around for almost as long as the School of Medicine it’s embedded in but has received comparatively fewer accolades. That department is, of course, the School of Homeopathy.

As everyone today knows, the School of Homeopathy at Columbia University’s Medical Center has a long, and sometimes colorful, history. But what’s less common knowledge is its humble beginning: in 1892, a concerned alumnus of the university wrote to The New York Times, suggesting “another step toward the ideal university.” A prospective medical student, the alumnus wrote, should be able to study either orthodox, modern medicine, or homeopathy. “In this way,” they wrote, “homeopaths would justly share in the prestige conferred by Columbia universities.”

The president of the university at the time, Seth Low, was no stranger to major reforms. He would oversee the transition of campus from midtown Manhattan to its current location in Morningside Heights, the organization of the various departments under a singular university council, and the wholesale expansion of several areas of study. He believed that the addition of a homeopathic school to the College of Physicians and Surgeons would ensure that this vital area of medical practice was well-represented as it expanded its reach in the United States.

Homeopathy originated with Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician, in 1810. “Like cures like” is the driving maxim behind the practice: the best treatments are those which produce similar symptoms to the diseases they treat. A cure for malaria, for instance, should produce the same (but milder) symptoms as malaria itself. In order to produce the least virulent effects, these cures are diluted as far as possible, to ratios approaching 1:100,000,000—in Hahnemann’s words, the cure retains its ability to treat disease because it persists as a “dematerialized spiritual force,” and in fact increases in potency through that process. So too goes the work of Columbia’s School of Homeopathy.

The school, which celebrates its 130th anniversary next year, has pioneered research in the field and has been privy to important accomplishments. The existence of a prestigious university’s School of Homeopathy spurred the American Medical Association’s acceptance of homeopathic practitioners in 1903. And several graduates, including current professor Dr. Emerson V. Brynum, won a Nobel Prize in Medicine for their use of an electron microscope to observe a single atom of diphtheria antitoxin remaining in solution in 1987.

He spoke to us in preparation for the anniversary, saying there was still work to be done by the School of Homeopathy. “Right now, we’re in a bit of a tough spot,” he said. “Homeopathy was founded as a practice when normal medicine was all about cutting people open and hoping you let the right blood out. Now, that whole scientific approach is looking a bit more robust.”

When asked how he hoped the field would be revitalized, he was less certain of its direction. “Well, to be honest, a lot of our prestige comes from the fact that we use fancy-sounding buzzwords like ‘holistic medical approach’ and treat afflictions which go away with or without our help. But some of my colleagues are pioneering a diagnostics machine which promises to help identify that dematerialized spiritual force present in homeopathic remedies.” Echoing pledges made by several of his contemporaries for decades, including the controversial Dr. Tannarive Helding-Holtz, he stated “We’re due to find it any day now, really. Only a matter of time.”

Other alumni and current students were excited to join in anniversary celebrations. “I really feel like I’m part of something important,” said Roberta Ejaze, class of 2023, currently studying the applied placebo effect. “My father wanted me to be a dentist, but homeopathy just seemed like the better path. A lot less resource-intensive, for one.”

Today, the School of Homeopathy is one of the few Columbia schools to have embraced the changes wrought by the pandemic. “We all understand that virtual learning means we have less of the medical school experience,” Brynum said. “But at our school, of course, that means that the classes we do have, and their particular spiritual force, only increases in potency.”


Note: This piece is not endorsed by the Columbia School of Homeopathy, mostly because that school doesn’t actually exist, nor has it ever existed. For some reason, President Low was unconvinced of its necessity despite the exhortations of the above letter.


Columbia Medical Center via Bwarchives

“A Plea For Homeopaths” via The New York Times Archive, in the public domain