Healing Darwin
Darwin is of course best known for his book ‘Origin of Species’ which was published in 1859 and profoundly challenged the scientific understanding of the day. What isn’t so well known is that he benefitted from the homeopathic treatment of James Gully MD (who also treated Charles Darwin, Alfred Lord Tennison and Florence Nightingale among many others).
Darwin became ill on his famous trip to South America on the Beagle. His health worsened over the next 14 years – he was experiencing bouts of vomiting and weakness, fainting and seeing spots in front of his eyes. In 1847 he wrote that he was so ill that he was “unable to do anything one day out of three” and was too ill to attend his father’s funeral in November 1848. An old shipmate from The Beagle recommended Dr Gully who practiced a number of unconventional unorthodox treatments, including homeopathy.
Darwin was skeptical but was prepared to give it a try. He began to feel the benefit of the treatment within two days, admitted after just a month that homeopathic treatment was not quackery after all, and after 16 weeks declared that he felt like a new man, “almost in perfect health” and was able to go home and resume his work.
He never publicly attributed his improved health to homeopathy – perhaps because, then as now, homeopathy was popular amongst the British royalty and many rich and powerful people, but was viewed with animosity amongst doctors and scientists (despite the brutal nature of medical practices of the time) and perhaps didn’t want to exacerbate the likely reaction to his ‘shocking’ theories on evolution which were developing.