Edward Cronin (1 February 1801 – 1 February 1882) was a pioneer of

homeopathy Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths or homeopathic physicians, believe that a substance that ...

in England and one of the founders of the

Plymouth Brethren The Plymouth Brethren or Assemblies of Brethren are a low church and Nonconformist (Protestantism), Nonconformist Christian movement whose history can be traced back to Dublin, Ireland, in the mid to late 1820s, where it originated from Anglica ...

movement.

Life

Cronin was born in 1801 in Cork, Ireland, before moving to

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

for health reasons in about 1826. In Dublin, he studied medicine at the

Meath Hospital The Meath Hospital () was a general hospital in the Earl of Meath's Liberty in Dublin, Ireland. It was absorbed into the Tallaght Hospital in June 1998. History The hospital was opened to serve the sick and poor in the crowded area of the Li ...

, and later utilised his medical ability on

Anthony Norris Groves Anthony Norris Groves (1 February 1795 – 20 May 1853) was an English Protestant missionary, who has been called the "father of faith missions". He launched the first Protestant mission to Arabic-speaking Muslims, and settled in Baghdad, Otto ...

' pioneering

mission Mission (from Latin 'the act of sending out'), Missions or The Mission may refer to: Geography Australia *Mission River (Queensland) Canada *Mission, British Columbia, a district municipality * Mission, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * ...

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

– after the death of his first wife in 1829, Cronin went with Groves to administer medical support including dealing with an outbreak of plague. While in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

and later India, he also dealt with

cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...

and

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposu ...

using homeopathic principles. Cronin returned to England in 1836, where, as a medical practitioner, he became an early adopter of homeopathy in the UK – Cronin is estimated to be the fifth such practitioner to introduce homeopathy. He was a member of the English Homeopathic Association, and in 1858 he became the last man to become a Lambeth MD before the

Medical Act 1858 The Medical Act ( 21 & 22 Vict. c. 90), ''An Act to Regulate the Qualifications of Practitioners in Medicine and Surgery'', also referred to as the Medical Act 1858, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which created the General ...

abolished this particular qualification. Cronin remarried and settled in

Brixton Brixton is an area of South London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th century ...

where he lived until his death in 1882. Cronin's eldest son Eugene Francis Cronin also took up homeopathic practice, and another of his sons, Augustus Cronin became an honorary dentist to the

London Homeopathic Hospital The Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine (formerly the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital) is a specialist alternative medicine hospital located in London, England and a part of University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. ...

Faith

Originally a Roman Catholic, when Cronin moved to Dublin he sought membership with various dissenting churches in the area but was only admitted as a visitor. He began meeting with other Christians including

John Gifford Bellett John Gifford Bellett (19 July 1795 – 10 October 1864) was an Irish Christian writer and theologian, and was influential in the beginning of the Plymouth Brethren movement. Life Bellett was born in Dublin, Ireland. He was educated first at the g ...

and

John Nelson Darby John Nelson Darby (18 November 1800 – 29 April 1882) was an Anglo-Irish Bible teacher, one of the influential figures among the original Plymouth Brethren and the founder of the Exclusive Brethren. He is considered to be the father of modern ...

, whose conviction that the ordination of clergy was unnecessary and unscriptural, as well as his

dispensationalist Dispensationalism is a theological framework for interpreting the Bible which maintains that history is divided into multiple ages called "dispensations" in which God interacts with his chosen people in different ways. It is often distinguish ...

and

premillennialist Premillennialism, in Christian eschatology, is the belief that Jesus will physically return to the Earth (the Second Coming) before the Millennium, heralding a literal thousand-year messianic age of peace. Premillennialism is based upon a liter ...

theology later became principal tenets of the Plymouth Brethren movement. He remained faithful to this movement all his life, but one of his last actions was to precipitate a split in the already fractured movement. When a number of members of a failing assembly at

Ryde Ryde is an English seaside town and civil parish on the north-east coast of the Isle of Wight. The built-up area had a population of 24,096 according to the 2021 Census. Its growth as a seaside resort came after the villages of Upper Ryde and ...

had stopped attending the meeting, he travelled down and met with some of them and celebrated the

Lord's Supper The Eucharist ( ; from , ), also called Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament or the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite, considered a sacrament in most churches and an ordinance in others. Christians believe that the rite was instituted by J ...

. A furious row erupted with different assemblies disagreeing about which side was right and therefore to be supported, with Darby, who had privately sympathised with him, attacking him in the strongest terms. The row escalated but was not resolved.

References

External links

Biography by Dr Thomas Lindsey Bradford, from ''Pioneers of Homeopathy'', 1898
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cronin, Edward 1801 births 1882 deaths 19th-century evangelicals British expatriates in Iran British expatriates in the Ottoman Empire British homeopaths British people in colonial India British Plymouth Brethren Former Roman Catholics Holders of a Lambeth degree Irish Plymouth Brethren Health professionals from Cork (city)