Dr. Frederica Eugenie Gladwin was born on 18th February 1856. She was a well-known student of Dr. J.T. Kent who worked tirelessly along with her mentor to spread Homoeopathy. Dr. Gladwin was an able clinician and an enthusiastic teacher loved by her students and patients alike. One of her most famous works is the book The People of the Materia Medica World.
Entering into Homoeopathy
Dr. F.E. Gladwin was born as well as brought up in Connecticut, the northeastern state of the USA. However, she moved to the city of Chester, Pennsylvania to teach high school children. Here in Pennsylvania, she got interested in studying medicine.
To study medicine, she became a student of a homoeopath, Dr. Franklin Powel. She then attended the St. Louis Homoeopathic Medical College. This was at a time when female physicians were very scarce in number and some medical colleges had just started admitting female students in the USA.
Professional Life
St. Louis Homoeopathic Medical College had started granting degrees to women in 1874 and Dr. Gladwin graduated in 1890. Dr. Kent had taught her at St. Louis Homoeopathic Medical College and she became one of his closest students. She followed him to Philadelphia to closely associate with him and assist him at his Post-Graduate School in 1891. She also set up practice in Philadelphia after her graduation, having great knowledge of Dr. Kent’s works.
She was one of the first students of Philadelphia Post-Graduate School of Homoeopathy and passed from the institution with the Degree of Masters of Homoeopathics. She also served at the school as a Clinician, Professor of Children’s Diseases and Professor of Repertory. It was in the month of May in 1891, that she was appointed by Dr. Kent as the Clinical Assistant for Homoeopathy Education, to teach those physicians who wanted to become homoeopaths. She was a Staff Physician in the Department of Medicine at the Women’s Southern Homoeopathic Hospital, located at South Broad Street, Philadelphia. This hospital was founded in 1896 and had a bed capacity of 110. It rendered outpatient services as well as laboratory facilities.
She was a member of the International Hahnemannian Association (IHA), the American Institute of Homoeopathy (AIH) and the State Homoeopathic Society of Pennsylvania.
Various Contributions
She participated in the development of the Repertory of Homoeopathic Materia Medica alongside Dr. Kent’s other students like, Dr. Harvey Farrington. She even helped publish the posthumous editions of the Repertory of Homoeopathic Materia Medica, with Dr. Clara Louis Kent. In the chapter “Stomach of Dr. Kent’s Repertory”, the compilation of rubrics of “Thirst” was majorly entrusted to her. Much of Dr. Kent’s articles were posthumously published by her and hence Dr. Gladwin had been a proponent of his works all over the world.
Dr. F. E. Gladwin helped form the “American Foundation for Homoeopathy”, with a panel of 12 others which included the likes of Drs. Cyrus Maxwell Boger, Julia Minerva Green and Stuart Close with a view of promoting the practice of Homoeopathy in the USA. This foundation was previously “International Foundation for Homoeopathy” and later in 1924, it was officially incorporated under the name “American Foundation for Homoeopathy”. The purpose of this foundation was stated as “promote the art of healing according to the natural laws of cure from a strictly homoeopathic standpoint, to establish and direct centres for the study and understanding of homoeopathy, together with research work in any correlated subject; to diffuse knowledge among the laity concerning homoeopathic principles; to serve as a reference centre for all that relates to homoeopathy and to serve as a repository for homoeopathic literature and drugs.”
The first student who presented himself as soon as the foundation opened was Dr. Pierre Schmidt, the young doctor hailing from Switzerland.
Enthusiastic Teacher
Known to be a great teacher of Homoeopathy, Dr. Gladwin was very didactic despite being quite sick. Inspite of her being quite deaf lifelong, it was her dedication and perseverance that she was able to contribute so much. She had been teaching from the late 1890s through 1931 until her health failed. As Dr. Julia M. Green puts it, “She had a way of explaining things clearly, graphically; she could put herself in the pupil’s place, see his difficulties and bring him back every time to the basic principles of homoeopathic philosophy.” As per Dr. H. A. Roberts, she was “one of the greatest teachers that our school of medicine has possessed” and that “probably no one in the country had her knowledge of the Repertory, having worked with Dr. Kent in helping prepare it”. Dr. Gladwin believed that sometimes the remedy will act in spite of habits like taking coffee, tobacco and alcohol and sometimes it would not. She was a frequent contributor of articles, many of which were printed in the Homoeopathic Recorder.
Dr. Gladwin’s love for teaching and promoting homoeopathic education can be established through a little story as narrated by Dr. Roberts. Once when walking down the sidewalk at Postgraduate School during the summer season, where she was teaching, she found a one-cent piece, she picked it up and exclaimed that she would “potentize it for Homoeopathy”. With the help of her students and patients, she collected “pocket change” from them and created a $800 scholarship fund from a single penny.
Two of her pupils, Dr. Elizabeth Wright Hubbard and Dr. Pierre Schmidt, became renowned homoeopaths after receiving training from her.
Literary Work
Dr. Gladwin gave her students an idea of the “whole individual” through her Materia Medica book, which was like the patient’s counterpart in the “Organon of Medicine” As Dr. Gladwin says, Dr. Kent led her and made her acquainted with the people of Materia Medica. Hence, her work on Materia Medica, “The People of the Materia Medica World: A Comparative Materia Medica”. This book was written in 1921 for her favourite pupil Dr. P. Schmidt. It was published in 1984 at the urging of Diwan Harish Chand.
She was the associate editor of “The Critique” where many of her articles were published which were later compiled in her Materia Medica book.
A few to name are-
1. The Christmas with Crocuses
2. A Visit to Sanatorium
3. Conium
4. The Reunion of Phosphorus family
Demise
She passed away on May 7, 1931. Her enthusiastic teachings and imaginative lectures to her students left a deep impact on the future of Homoeopathy not only in the USA but worldwide.
“Are you one who ‘carries a chip on his shoulder’ for those who do not see the homoeopathic truth as you see it? Knock it off yourself immediately and forget it. Concentrate your thoughts on the truth of homoeopathy as you have found it. Make it so vivid that all the world must get a vision but even then, don’t expect all to register it alike. When a ray of light is thrown upon a diamond it flashes back red or blue or gold, but the diamond remains steadfastly clear”.
-F. E. Gladwin, 1928
About the Author
Prof. (Dr.) Subhas Singh1, Dr. Rumsha Tamkeen2, Dr. Vignesh K2 , Dr. Binay P. Singh2, Dr. Vaishnavi Achrekar2, Dr. Jyotidarshanee2
1. Director, National Institute of Homoeopathy, Kolkata
2. PGT, National Institute of Homoeopathy, Kolkata
