The spread of homeopathy to the united states

- On the cutting edge of extinction : how the quest for modernity led to the erosion of identity in american homeopathy from 1865-Craig Repasz (Craig Repasz)

American Homeopathy

Homeopathy spread through the United States by two different means. One was through the efforts of Dr. Hans Burch, an American of Danish descent, who returned from medical training in Copenhagen in 1825. While abroad, he learned about homeopathy and became a practitioner. Through his influence and zeal, many old school physicians were converted to homeopathy in the northeastern states.
 The other means for the spread of homeopathy was through Swiss physician, Dr. Henry Detwiller. After immigrating to eastern Pennsylvania, Detwiller converted to homeopathy through self-study in the late 1820s and later he established a group of German-speaking homeopathic practitioners. Another German immigrant, Constantine Hering, arrived in Pennsylvania in 1833. Hering had been introduced to homeopathy directly from Hahnemann himself. Together Detwiller and Hering opened the Allentown Academy in 1835, which taught homeopathy only in German, a limitation that caused its doors to close in 1842.
 Graduates from this institution and German immigrants spread homeopathy throughout the Midwest. Eastern Pennsylvania had become the center for homeopathic education in the United States. v In 1848, Hering opened the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania. This college would serve as a main force behind homeopathy in the US.
 Another pivotal institution established during this period was the American Institute of Homeopathy (AIH), the first national medical organization in the country. Its essential purpose was that of the "restraining of physicians from pretending to be competent to practice homeopathy who have not studied it in a careful and skillful manner."vi The AIH was founded in 1844 at a meeting in New York, and Hering was elected the first president.