Dr. Douglas Borland was someone who influenced Homoeopathy in Britain a great deal. He was one of the followers of Dr. J.T. Kent who brought Kentian Homoeopathy back to Britain. He was of Scottish origin and was born in the year 1885 in Glasgow. His father was a well-known lawyer. Dr. Borland was primarily educated at Glasgow in the Academy and University of Glasgow.
A young Douglas Borland was undecided whether to go to Church or study medicine.
Dr. Borland qualified MB, ChB from Glasgow University, Scotland, in 1909. The MB, ChB is a clinical degree in medicine awarded by medical schools in the United Kingdom and is equivalent to the regular medicine degrees awarded elsewhere. Glasgow University remains one of the most prestigious universities in the world. After his graduation, Dr. Borland was posted to various hospitals as a practising physician.
By the year 1908, Dr. Borland decided to go to Chicago, USA, to study under Dr. Kent. He went there with three other interested students- Drs. John Weir, Fergie Woods and Percy Purdom, under a scholarship from Dr. Margaret Tyler’s family that sent students to study Homoeopathy under Dr. Kent. Here, Dr. Borland spent a year and returned to England with the teachings of Dr. Kent. Dr. Percy Purdom published various articles in different journals including the Homoeopathic World and wrote Diseases of Children published in the British Homoeopathic Journal, in 1913. The rest of the students, including Dr. Borland, became famous homoeopaths beyond Great Britain. Dr. Borland had gone to Chicago as a cynic but being open to constructive criticism, he returned as an astonishingly ardent and confident Homoeopath.
After having returned from Chicago as a convinced Homoeopath, he took up service at the London Homoeopathic Hospital as a consultant physician in 1913. He then immediately joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1914 when World War I broke out, as a homoeopathic physician. After the war ended, he resumed his engagement by actively serving at the London Homoeopathic Hospital as a consultant physician and staff chairman. During World War II, he joined the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital, which was founded by Dr. Quin. He remained the consultant paediatrician at the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital, London, where he was involved in imparting comprehensive training to budding homoeopaths on the principles of homoeopathy and their practical application in the treatment of patients. Dr. Borland was “always interested in the whole man, body, mind and spirit”.
He served as President of the Homoeopathic Society for about 2 years, but with minimum intervention, he was able to control it and enhance its functionality well.
Dr. Borland gave a first impression of an indifferent fellow with his calmness and unhurried walk. He wore spotless suits and had a specific but amusing American accent. This drawl had been called ‘the veiled touch of mild and kindly sarcasm’ in his talk. He was the picture of a suave and composed man. He was known to have a poised, generous and charming personality. He had an absorbing, intuitive stare. Each patient left his clinic satisfied that he/she was the one Dr. Borland was really interested in and understood everything about his/her complaint. Those patients who would not open up to the residents and were taken to Dr. Borland in despair, readily narrated their symptoms on being questioned by him. His handling of the patients and sympathetically asking them their history was thus a learning in itself. As one of his students mentioned about him, “Dr. Borland covered his nature of being inherently shy with aloofness. Students, if they were too anxious to learn, could often never overcome the barrier much to their loss”.
Dr. Borland was a source of inspiration for many homoeopaths in England, especially those trained at the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital. He convinced many physicians, like Dr. F. H. Bodman, about homoeopathic medicines and their marvellous work on the sick. He was a teacher to Drs. Margery Grace Blackie and Kathleen Gordon Priestman. Dr. Margery Grace Blackie was the niece of Dr. James Compton Burnett. Dr. Borland lectured alongside Dr. Charles Edwin Wheeler and was a famous teacher amongst his students.
As per his student Dr. Margery Blackie, “He was a born-doctor”, as he always seemed to be calm instead of being in a hurry with plenty of time to listen to the complaints of his patients with a sympathetic concentration. Dr. Borland was also a dependable colleague, senior and teacher to many who consulted him for advice and help. The “weight of clinical experience behind his lectures” was always appreciated by his colleagues and students alike. He put due emphasis on the essentials of prescribing a remedy. He had an enriched knowledge about Materia medica and knew his drugs “as few others have ever known them”.
He never shied away from teaching and spending time with a resident who was eager to learn. He was always ready and took endless pains to teach. He had an amazing knowledge about drugs in homoeopathic pharmacopoeia. His knowledge was gained not only directly from literature but also from his experiences in clinics. Students were taught practical signs such as “China colour” or “the typical Podophyllum look” during rounds in the children’s ward.
Dr. Borland was an awe-inspiring author. His works included books and a collection of essays.
Being a dedicated writer, Dr. Borland has many acclaimed works to his name. Some of his class lectures were also compiled and published by his students. A few of them are the following:
- Children’s Types (1939)
- Homoeopathic Treatment of Influenzas (1939)
- Pneumonias (1939)
- Digestive Drugs
- Homoeopathy for Mother and Infant (1950)
- Homoeopathy in Practice (1981) – edited by Dr. Kathleen Priestman.
- Homoeopathy in Theory and Practice
- Homoeopathic Paediatrics and Acute Prescribing
- Post-graduate Correspondence Course in Homoeopathy written with Drs. Margaret Lucy Tyler and John Weir.
His articles like Some Emergencies of General Practice (1947), The Treatment of Certain Heart Conditions by Homoeopathy (1948), Value of Symptoms in Children’s Disease (1923), Some Points in Prescribing in Acute Disease, (1925) and A Comparison of Calcarea carb, Lycopodium and Silica (1921) are also worth a read for homoeopathic clinicians. Some Emergencies of General Practice was a lecture given by Dr. Borland in the year 1946 and was published in print 1 year later, where he discussed how to deal with attacks of anginas, earaches, neuralgia, general cardiac failure, acute colic etc.
His laborious devotion to his work took an inevitable toll on his health. He was going through his old lectures as many young homoeopaths had requested him to get them printed when Dr. Borland suddenly became ill on 15th November 1960 before he passed away in 1960 on 29th November. Unfortunately, those old lectures could not be printed at the time. He lived till the age of 75 years completing a life dedicated fully to homoeopathy.
Prof. (Dr.) Subhas Singh1, Dr. Rumsha Tamkeen2, Dr. Vaishnavi Achrekar2, Dr. Binay Pratap Singh2, Dr. Vignesh K2
- Director, National Institute of Homoeopathy, Kolkata
- PGT, National Institute of Homoeopathy, Kolkata
