Burnett: the Homeopathic Rebel with a cause - Part 2
15 July 2026 | by The Contemporary College of Homeopathy
Burnett: the Homeopathic rebel with a cause – Part 2
Following directly on from Part 1 of this lecture excerpt, Dion Tabrett focuses on Burnett’s practises and discoveries that made him a distinguished pioneer in homeopathy, and how this breakaway lineage continued through the 20th Century and directly into modern day teachings within The Contemporary College of Homeopathy.
Famously, at the end of Burnett’s medical degree, all the students had to complete an anatomy exam and this was done in the morgue. There, each of the medical students had a cadaver in front of them and then the professors of anatomy would circle the room like sharks and it was supposed to be terrifying. They would come up and they would question a student, and they wouldn't tell them when the exam was over. Then they might walk off and come back, or call a colleague over and then bark instructions at them, and you had to sort of take all this intimidation and answer correctly.
And when they got to Burnett, they examined him for a full two hours and called all the professors over. Then, when they finished, the professor walked around the table and shook his hand, and said “I've never known such a brilliant student”1. Later on, after Burnett converted to homeopathy, that professor of anatomy wrote to Burnett and said: “What are you doing? Why are you a homeopath? You're throwing it all away. You could have any career in medicine. You're brilliant, you’re the best student we have ever had and you’re throwing it all away for this useless medical system.” And Burnett wrote back saying, “I don’t care about all the accolades, or rewards that I could get, I just want to follow the truth”2. So, you see, he knew his stuff.
Burnett went from Glasgow down to Merseyside and practised there, and it was there that he found, like Hahnemann, that allopathy failed3. He was treating kids in a fever ward, and he found that allopathy was useless, and so he decided to give up. But then a friend of his persuaded him to experiment with homeopathy, and he found that it worked.
He then converted over to homeopathy, and ultimately moved down to Brighton, and from there he traveled up to London and worked on Wimpole Street. Wimpole Street runs parallel to Harley Street, everyone knows Harley Street, with its famous, top-end physicians. So, he worked there and when he died they did an audit, and found he had the most successful practice in London. Not out of just the homeopaths, but everyone: he beat everyone, including the allopaths.
Burnett also wrote twenty-three small books on the application of homeopathy, and each time he published, then the homeopathic community would slate him and say, “this isn't proper homeopathy, this isn’t similimum style prescribing,5” even though the cures were fantastic. But we'll do a whole lecture on Burnett and look into that.
But what Burnett did do is he did use similimum style homeopathy as part of what he did clinically, but he also used and expanded the idea of organopathic remedies (or organ remedies)6, which is the giving of remedies to strengthen and regulate specific organs. So you have liver remedies, heart remedies, spleen, uterus – you think of an organ, and there's a whole range of remedies that have an affinity and help that organ. That was one of his specialties, and again, we'll do lots of lectures on those.
So you see this fragmentation that was occurring, where some were adhering dogmatically to what Kent was preaching7, but not practicing, and these other homeopaths who were saying, “well, you know, we're going to keep doing what we do.”
This split remained in homeopathy between the classical Kentians and those of the Cooper Club variety8, and then once the others had died, Clark took to teaching interesting lay practitioners and they went on to split into what's called the North London and the South London groups. And then it was these groups that taught one man called Dr. Thomas Moore9, who wasn’t a medic, he was a scientist and a Druid, who would go up to Stonehenge for the Solstice and Equinox rituals there. And they also taught a number of teachers, including people like Robert Davidson and Martin Miles10.
Then, when we were at College, Robert Davidson taught myself, Mike Bridger, Tony Hurley, Linda Shannon, essentially your teachers were taught by either the North or South London group and then Robert Davidson went on, I think it was the late 70s, to establish the London College of Homeopathy, which then blossomed into the London Practical College of Homeopathy, and then the colleges of Homeopathy all over the UK. So your teachers were taught by them, who were taught by the Cooper Club, and that's your lineage, you know, you came down that way through history, and we still use classical homeopathy, but we didn't give up the other stuff as well. And that brings us up to date.
Dion Tabrett (MCH MSc RShom) has been in full time practice since graduating in 1992 from the London College of Homeopathy. He is a regular Lecturer at The Contemporary College of Homeopathy, and is the author of “Burnett Rediscovered”. This fascinating book describes Burnett’s work, prescribing style and clinical strategies.
References:
1 Support, B. F. (2024). Burnett, James Compton (1840 – 1901). Hahnemann House Trust. https://www.hahnemannhouse.org/james-compton-burnett-1840-1901/
2 Vickers, A., & Zollman, C. (1999). ABC of complementary medicine: Homoeopathy. BMJ, 319(7217), 1115–1118. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.319.7217.1115
3 Chaitow, L., Zeff, J., Snider, P., et al. (2008). Physical Medicine in a naturopathic context. In Elsevier eBooks (pp. 1–23). https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-044310390-2.50006-7
4 Full text of “Life & Work of James Compton Burnett. . .” (n.d.). https://archive.org/stream/lifeworkjamesco00clargoog/lifeworkjamesco00clargoog_djvu.txt
5 The role of simillimum in homeopathy. (n.d.). https://www.scholarsliterature.com/journals/la-prensa-medica/fulltext/the-role-of-simillimum-in-homeopathy
6 S.K.Banerjea. (2025). How To Practice In This Drug Dependent World (Scope & Utility of Organopathic Medicines) - S.K.Banerjea. Hpathy.com. https://hpathy.com/homeopathy-papers/how-to-practice-in-this-drug-dependent-world-scope-utility-of-organopathic-medicines/
7 Campbell, A. (1999). The origins of classical homoeopathy? Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 7(2), 76–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0965-2299(99)80085-5
8 FROM COOPER CLUB TO FLOWER ESSENCES: A PORTRAIT OF BRITISH HOMEOPATHY 1870-1930 - Peter Morrell. (n.d.). http://www.homeoint.org/morrell/articles/pm_coope.htm
9 HOMOEOPATHIC TECHNIQUE - Doctor Thomas K. MOORE, M. D. - Presented by Dr Robert Séror. (n.d.). http://www.homeoint.org/seror/archives/moore1.htm
10 A HISTORY OF HOMOEOPATHY IN BRITAIN - Peter Morrell. (n.d.). http://www.homeoint.org/morrell/articles/pm_brita.htm