I was going to put this up on my web-site, but that will come later.
Here is the discussion at the AIH meeting in 1894.
Very interesting.

JW

***

The American Institute of Homeopathy Meeting
Denver, 1894

Question 5.

When should the Organon be taught and how?

Dr DUDGEON.-The Organon being the best exposition of the homeopathic system, should be carefully studied by every one for himself and Its teachings accepted and endorsed by every teacher of Homeopathy when they are not inconsistent with the ascertained facts of modern science.

Dr. HUGHES.-The teaching of the Organon does not seem to me to belong to the chair of Materia Medica, but rather to that of Theory and Practice of Medicine. From this I would have it at some time in ever student's course, read and critically commented on. I recommend Dr Dudgeon's latest translation.

Dr. SKINNER.-The Organon, in my estimation, should be studied from the very first. In fact, I do not believe it possible for any man to have any sound conception of what Homeopathy is until he thoroughly understands and can take into his comprehension the vast and important tenets and truths of the greatest work that ever was published in Medicine, theoretically, doctrinally or practically.

Dr. BLAKE.-The Organon should be assimilated late in life probably.

Prof. MOHR.-The Organon should be studied during the first year so effectually that its great or fundamental principles will be indelibly fixed on the mind of the student. In the class-room, in the clinic and at every opportunity its practical rules should be brought to the attention of the students, for they cannot be too often repeated.

Prof. DEWEY.--The Organon should be taught during the second and third years of college course. And I believe in each homeopathic college a separate chair should be made for the Organon and Institutes of Homeopathy. Of course much of it can be taught in conjunction with lectures upon Materia Medica; but as it contains the philosophy of Homeopathy it seems to me that a separate chair for it is preferable, and it should be a chair insisted on by the American Institute, with two lectures a week at least.

Prof. HINSDALE.--The principles of homeopathy should be taught to freshmen, well grounding them in the philosophy of the theory of homeopathy. The Organon can be taught by class-room readings, preferably by seniors. Comments can be made as the reading advances and papers prepared by the students upon topics suggested by the author. The teaching of this valuable book should be critical and impartial. Adoration for Hahnemann should give place to admiration for the truth to be taught.

Prof. McELWEE.-The Organon should be taught when the student's mind is rested and fresh; consequently the first thing in the morning, one or two paragraphs only at a time, those paragraphs being read by the student, who gives his idea of it, and then later, under the supervision of the professor, discusses it before the class.

Prof. GILMAN.-The Organon should be taught early and continually until it is mastered. It is the mother's milk to the medical student. It should be taught as the Bible is expounded-- text by text, and explained and illustrated.

Prof. SNOW.-The Oganon should be systematically taught during the first year of college, as it is the foundation work of Homeopathy. Frequent reference should be made to it, however, during the whole three years as occasion may demand. It should be committed to memory as nearly as possible, so that its precepts may remain always engraved on the mind.

Prot. MACK.-I do not use the Organon as a text-book. I think that one can better teach Homeopathy without the Organon as a text-book than with it.

Prof. COWPERTHWAITE.-The Organon should be taught by a separate teacher. It has not fallen to my lot to teach the Organon to any extent and I do not consider myself a competent judge as to how it should be taught. My method is to take my old and much loved copy which I held in my hand when I attended the lectures by Dr. Hering, and which is profusely filled with annotations, comments and underlinings according to Dr. Hering's suggestions. From this book I talk to the class, giving them Hahnemann's ideas, Hering's comments and my own views on each particular section as we take it up.

Prof. WOODWARD.-The Organon should be taught to beginners, not without Judicious criticism.

Prof. ROYAL.-The Organon should be studied and taught throughout the entire student's course.

Prof. LEONARD.-For six years I have tried to teach the Organon in connection with Materia Medica and therapeutics; but whether from my own inability to do it well or from an incongruity of subjects, the results have not been satisfactory. A critical analysis of the Organon with an exposition of its essential parts before senior students, seems to me to be part of the work of the chair of Theory and Practice, and it is so taught in the University of Minnesota.

Prof. EDGERTON.-The Organon should be taught to first course students. A text-book should be gotten up containing the essentials, and the student should commit the same to memory and recite in class.

Prof. PRICE.-- In my opinion the Organon should be taught from the chair of Institutes, first omitting the psoric theory, dynamization, primary and secondary drug action, alternating drug effects, etc. There is too much difference of opinion upon these subjects amongst the best minds in our profession to make a belief in them a point of vital necessity. Of course the chair of Materia Medica and Therapeutics should teach the fundamental principles of Homeopathy whether the Organon be quoted or not.

Prof. CHEESEMAN.--The Organon should be taught by at least two lectures each week during the entire college course by a competent lecturer .

Prof. HAWKES.-The Organon should be taught from the "cradle to the grave" of medicine. In my judgment it should be taught as the good preacher teaches his congregation: select a portion for a text (and each section of the Organon is a sermon in itself) and elaborate to the student and explain its philosophy. Then make him explain it to me.

Prof. ALLEN, H. C.-The Organon should be taught every year of the entire course and taught by one who practices what he preaches. It is the foundation of our system, and no student can ever practice Homeopathy who does not know, and know most thoroughly, its principles.

Prof. PEMBERTON DUDLEY-I hold to the view that every student should, first of all be made acquainted with the methods--perhaps in courtesy I should say "principles"-on which unhomeopathic treatment is applied to diseases and injuries by the various sects of physicians, and that his induction into the mysteries of Homeopathy should come later. I am quite sure that the uncompromising adhesion to the homeopathic law manifested by the "Homeopathic Fathers" was due to the fact that they knew from both study and experience all about allopathic methods and what these methods could and could not do for their patients; and holding this view it would naturally follow that the way to make staunch as well as intelligent homeopathists is to make them quite fully acquainted with the effects and defects of the other modes of medical practice first of all.

Having accomplished this we proceed as follows: We endeavor to discover how the phenomenon known as "cure" is to be investigated. (The allopath never concerns himself on this matter save only as to the fact of its occurrence and the nature of the agencies by which it seems to be brought about. The phenomenon does not present itself to his mind as at all requiring investigation). This study forces us to the bedside as the only place where our curative studies can be pursued-- the only "Laboratory" where principle of cure can be made known. Then having learned the reasonableness and practicability of this method of finding out how to find out cures for diseases, we turn to the Organon and there discover that the author of that book has been before us and has made the way plain for us. So we take up point after point in the development of curative science-- first reasoning it out as well as we can and then turning to the book to find it all in Hahnemann's own words. One of the things that our students discover and often mention in this course is that the author of the Organon was anything but the dreaming visionary he has been so often represented to be. In these studies of Homeopathy both the student and the teacher are expected to have the open book before them. In last winter's class of about eighty first-year men I have counted over seventy copies of the Organon in the room at one time, and all of them in use. We call it our "Sunday School Class in the Organon."

Prof. MONROE.-- It is a question in my mind whether the Organon should be taught during the student years; that is systematically. It should be referred to by the professor frequently, and the student should be taught that he cannot regard himself as a well-rounded homeopathic physician until he is familiar with the Organon. To my mind, however, the book is not of such a character as will admit of its being properly digested during the rushing, cramming gallop that marks the career of a student during his last year; and previous to that time, he is not sufficiently far advanced to comprehend it.

Dr. GRAMM.-- Hahnemann's Organon should be read thoroughly by every student before entering a homeopathic college, and there it should be used by the regular professor of theory and practice as the foundation and guide for his teachings during all the four years. Every section should be properly read and carefully explained, and its teachings as much as possible illustrated by cases from actual practice from beginning to end.

Dr. PECK.--The Organon should be the first book placed in the hands of a medical student. If he has not sufficient sense and knowledge to understand and to appreciate it he never can become a trustworthy physician. The youth should be told to read it slowly and deliberately, stopping at any (to him) obscure point, or at any utterance that does not commend itself to his sober judgment and refer it at once to his instructor for their joint investigation. Rarely will this happen a half dozen times. One or two more rapid re-readings will do no harm.Since many alleged homeopath physicians do not provide their pupils this instruction it becomes necessary for the college to teach the Institutes of Medicine. These should be taught at the very beginning instead of at the close of a course of study, for it is as important that a doctor should know what he believes, and why, as for the preacher, or any other man; and the sooner he ascertains this the better. After a little talk on Hahnemann and his times, display on the blackboard or in other convenient manner singly and successively the various propositions. As each is exhibited ask the class if it accepts that assertion, then call for reasons pro and con.

Dr. NIELSEN.--The Organon should be taught especially to the advanced student, but by a competent teacher and one able to read between the lines.

Dr. KRAFT.-The Organon, like the bible, should be read through not less than once a year; its reading and study should not cease with the medical man's commencement exercises. During school-life it should be listened to from the chair of therapeutics at least once a week. Not read by the teacher but talked. The professor of therapeutics should have naught to do with Materia Medica; in him should be combined the present highly ornamental chair of Organon, and the rare chair of Institutes of Medicine. To him should be given the duties of explaining the homeopathic law, the therapeutical application of Materia Medica, the Organon, and the potencies.

Dr. BOJANUS.--According to my opinion I should think that the Organon should not be given before the end of the third year of study and must be explained and commented in a special course of lectures, and not before the students have visited the homeopathic and allopathic clinics and hospitals for at least two years. In the lectures upon the Organon, the whole homeopathic literature, with all its different tendencies, must be passed in review and particular attention must be paid that the youthful students should not prefer the literature which has given itself the task of clothing homeopathic herapeutics into a form more or less like allopathy. Such compilations are a
comfortable implement in the hands of those who wish to convert science into a milking cow; they are useful to establish a position and keep their disciple in the broad way of the beaten track, but this is preparing the ruin of homeopathy.

Thanks Julian

SK