George Newman (4 May 1812 – 9 April 1887) (sometimes spelled Newnham) LRC Phys. Edin. MRCS London (St. Bartholomew’s) was an orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy and practiced in Glastonbury.

George Newman was on the Board of Management of the London Homeopathic Hospital, and a member of the British Homeopathic Society, an Honorary member of the British Homeopathic Association, and a Physician at the Bath Homeopathic Hospital at Chapel Road, Queens Square, Bath, which evolved out of the large and successful homeopathic practice of George Newman and operated successfully well into the 1930s,

George Newman was a colleague of John Pitney Aston, Hugh Cameron, J Chapman, Matthew James Chapman, Edward Charles Chepmell, Paul Francois Curie, John James Drysdale, Harris Dunsford, Edward Hamilton, Edward Christopher Holland, Joseph Kidd, Thomas Robinson Leadam, John Hamilton Mackechnie, James Bell Metcalfe, Victor Massol, Samuel Morgan, George Norman, Frederick Hervey Foster Quin, Henry Reynolds, John Rutherford Russell, David Wilson, Stephen Yeldham and many others.

George Newman practiced in Glastonbury and at 17 Queens Square, Bath.

In 1842, George Newman came under attack by allopaths when he was working at the Poor of the Wells Union in Somerset. Objecting to his homeopathic profession, the allopaths tried to get him prosecuted, as usual.

This was one of the first cases in England where such a ‘collision’ between the two disciplines became a National cause celebre.

After George Newman had successfully treated over 7,000 cases, and was re-elected by his employers to his post. However, this case illustrates how petty jealousy and spite can get well and truly out of hand, and the vendetta of sour minded individuals spreading a cloud of disinformation can cause great injustice.

Yet again, when the introduction of homeopathy causes the death rate to plummet dramatically, it is the publication of such statistics which causes the trouble.

In this case, it seems that the sheer weight of the numbers of patients entered into clinical trials of homeopathy across Europe were so staggering, and the results so successful, that allopaths and the Royal College of Physicians felt they had to act to attack homeopathy.

The poor of the Parish and the Board of Poor Law Guardians came out to defend George Newman and re-appoint him into his position, but the Poor Law Commissioners were put under pressure from the Royal College of Physicians who finally managed to get him dismissed from his post.

Robert Grosvenor took this issue up in the House of Commons and the whole issue was laid before the public in The Morning Post on 16.5.1844, who voted en masse in favour of homeopathy. George Newman established a Dispensary for the Poor in Glastonbury, where he continued to treat his patients free of charge, and such Poor Dispensaries proliferated across Britain as a result of this debacle.

George Newman was re-elected to his post at the Poor of the Wells Union in Somerset in 1851.

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