Homeopathy Papers

History of Homeopathy – Cyrus Maxwell Boger

Written by Iman Navab

The author talks about the important role Dr. Cyrus Boger has played in the history of homeopathy.

It has always been a life goal of mine that as a homeopath and fellow human being, I contribute to serving others, and that my contributions would be part of the solution and not the problem. One of my great role models whose contributions became solutions, which positively influenced the homoeopathic medical system, was Dr. Cyrus Maxwell Boger.

He was born on May 13, 1861 in Western Pennsylvania. His father was Professor Cyrus Boger, who was then principal of the Lebanon High School in Pennsylvania. Dr. Boger graduated in pharmacy from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and later in medicine from Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia.

Dr. Boger knew homoeopathic philosophy fluently, and his goal was to devote all his time to teaching and writing. He frequently lectured before scientific audiences at the Pulte Medical College in Cincinnati and was a teacher of philosophy, materia medica, and repertory at the American Foundation for Homoeopathy Postgraduate School, since its third year in 1924.

He was a devoted student of Dr. Boenninghausen and worked persistently from early 1933 till the end of his life on translating, compiling and expanding Boenninghausen’s Characteristics and Repertory (which he translated into the English language in 1905).

His outstanding contribution to the homoeopathic system, was the coordinating and compiling of significant features of seemingly dissociated symptom groups in his A Synoptic Key of the Materia Medica.

Dr. Boger was a member of the West Virginia Homeopathic Society, in which he served as president, and also a member of the International Hahnemannian Association, being elected vice-president of the Niagara Falls division.

Today his textbooks are used by many homeopathy students and practitioners. Among many published articles and journals, here is a short list of his famous publications:

  • Boenninghausen’s Characteristics and Repertory
  • Boenninghausen’s Antipsorics
  • A Synoptic Key of the Materia Medica
  • General Analysis with Card Index
  • Boger’s Diphtheria

He passed away on September 2nd 1935, at age 74 from food-poisoning, after eating a can of home-preserved tomatoes.

We salute Dr. Boger’s great efforts and contributions. In his honor, here is a quote from him:

“All sicknesses presents two classes of manifestations; those by which they are determined or named, i. e., the diagnostic symptoms and those peculiar to individuals and cases, often seemingly having no bearing upon the illness, hence called idiosyncratic symptoms.”

About the author

Iman Navab

Iman Navab is a certified classical Homeopath and doctor of alternative medicine from Canada. He is the President of the Applied Research in Homeopathy Foundation of Canada (www.ARHFC.ca). He is the author of 'Miasma of Cancer', and is a historian of Homeopathy. Iman teaches History and Philosophy of Homeopathy at the Canadian College of Holistic Health. Navab gives lectures and seminars to raise awareness about the rich history of Homeopathy.

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