Washington Epps (1848 – 1912) (photo curtesy of  Dr Gary Bovine, Canada) LRCP Senior Assistant Physician, London Homeopathic Hospital also practiced at 80 Great Russell Street

Washington Epps MBHS, MRCS England 1871, LRCP Edinburgh, LM Edin. 1871. Assistant Physician at the London Homeopathic Hospital in 1889 (Anon, London Homoeopathic Hospital Reports, Volumes 3-4, (London Homoeopathic Hospital, 1893). Page x).

From Some Abiding Themes Hewn from British Homeopathic History by Peter Morrell. ‘… In contrast to devotees of high potency, for doctors like ‘… John James Drysdale… low dilutions did best and he found no advantage above the 3rd decimal…’ (Frank Bodman, Richard Hughes Memorial Lecture, British Homeopathic Journal 59, (1970). Page184). Thus the 3x became the officially approved and standard tool of UK homeopathic practice from 1830 to 1900. The early UK homeopaths therefore comprised ‘… a remarkably able cohort of 3x men –  Stephen Yeldham, John Galley Blackley, John Moorhead Byres Moir, Washington Epps, C T Knox Shaw, etc…’ to which we can also add the names of ‘… John Epps, Paul Francois Curie, David Wilson as well as Alfred Crosby Pope, Richard Hughes, David Dyce Brown,… William Bayes, Thomas Robinson Leadam and Robert Ellis Dudgeon…’’ (A Taylor Smith, letter re Dr Borland’s Obituary, British Homeopathic Journal 50.2, (July 1961). Page 119 and page 123).

Washington Epps died at his residence in Wellgarth Road, Hampstead, there passed away as gently as he had lived, Washington Epps, the last medical representative of a family intimately associated with the rise and progress of homeopathy in the UK.

He was the youngest son of George Napoleon Epps, and nephew of John Epps, of Richard Epps, and of James Epps, the homeopathic chemist, all of whom were intimately concerned, in the early days of homeopathy, in its being brought, by means of lectures and pamphlets, within the purview of the intelligent laity all over the kingdom.’

Washington Epps was at the London Homeopathic Hospital in the early days and during its rebuilding and extension. In a very busy life, numerous items also flowed from his pen, including 14 articles in the journals and a sound homeopathic text on skin conditions -Skin Diseases Treated Homeopathically and ‘now in its fourth edition’.

Charles Edwin Wheeler says he was ‘of strikingly handsome personal appearance…and very much beloved by all his patients.’ Upon his cremation on Thursday 17 October 1912, at Golders Green, nearly all the medical and surgical staff of the London Homeopathic Hospital were present.

Washington Epps attended (Anon, The Homeopathic World, Volume 43, (1908). Page 236) the 2nd International Homeopathic Congress held in London (Anon, The Medical Counselor, Volume 7, (The Michigan State Homeopathic Society, 1883). Page 347) in on 11th-18th July 1881 (Anon, The Homeopathic World, (August 1,1881)) at Aberdeen House, Argyll Street, Regent Street.

Washington Epps gave lectures and was a contributor to the Journal of the British Homeopathic Society.

Publications:

Eighty-Six Cases of Sin Diseases, Treated Homoeopathically (1876)

Washington Epps also revised and edited several homeopathic books that were resissued by the Epps Publishing Company, including:

The Homoeopathic Family Instructor by Richard Epps, revised by Washington Epps (1888)

The Homoeopathic Domestic Physician, by Joseph Hippolyte Pulte, revised and enlarged 2nd ed./9th Br. ed. (1888)

He also wrote many journal articles.

 

Of interest:

The Epps family were also publishers. James Epps & Co published James Compton Burnett‘s Diseases of the Spleen. The Epps books were published in America by Otis Clapp.

Ellen Elliott Epps

Ellen (Nellie) Epps wrote children’s stories, contributed to various journals.

George Napoleon Epps

James Epps

John Epps

Richard Epps