Dr. Dunham graduated from Columbia University with honours in 1847. In 1850 he received M.D. degree at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York.

While in Dublin, he received a dissecting wound that nearly killed him, but with the aid of homoeopathy he cured himself with Lachesis. He visited various homoeopathic hospitals in Europe and then went to Munster where he stayed with Dr. Boenninghausen and studied the methods of that great master.

He was a voluminous writer. For twenty-five years, he regularly contributed articles. Among his works are 'Lectures on Materia Medica' and 'Homoeopathy - Science of Therapeutics. Whatever subject he touched he treated it with the best of his ability and revealed his thorough grasp of the fundamental principles.

Under the stress of his large practice he developed rheumatic carditis. The old school specialists gave up but once again homoeopathy saved him. His friend Dr. Hering prescribed Lithium carb. which cured him. He then set out to organize the "World Homoeopathic Convention" which had been his dream of many years. The convention was a resounding success, but it exhausted him. He took to bed in December 1876 and passed away on February 18, 1877 in his 49th year.

Dunham Remedies

A visit at Bönninghausen’s in Münster in 1851 inspired the American Dr. Caroll Dunham to deal with high potencies. In order to test the medicinal efficacy of 200th potencies Dunham developed an apparatus in 1851 with which he could manufacture high potencies quickly and effectively. He was particularly interested in the question whether the powerful mechanical energy used for manufacturing would change the efficacy and/or whether the energy of the potentizing person would be of prime importance to the efficacy of a remedy. (13)

In a letter to Dr. Lippe he described the apparatus:

"A disused oil mill powered by water was used for potentizing. It consisted of 4 striking pins, each of them 20cm square, 2.5cm high and weighing more than 500kg. They were lifted 45cm and then dropped with each stroke. Close around the plunger a solid holding device made of oak was mounted for holding 120 vials. For each potency level the remedies were shaken 125 times as described. It was difficult to find a vial which was resistant enough to withstand this rough treatment. I used one vial for each remedy. After having been emptied each vial still contained approximately 2 drops of liquid. I added 198 drops of ethanol and shook it again..."
Later Dunham said that he was helped with his work by his father. The washing of the vials already took more than one week. (14)

After these experiments he noted that no „magnetism“ of the potentizing person was essential for the medicinal efficacy because otherwise his remedies could not be so highly effective. His remedies were used up to the 40ties of our century and were regarded with great esteem.

1 J. Winston, The Faces Of Homoeopathy, 1999