Physicians And Medical Societies.

Dr. John T. M. Cardesa and his son, Dr. John D. M. Cardesa, well-known.physicians, residing at Claymont, Del., have a large practice in Delaware County. Dr. Anna M. Broomall, daughter of Hon. John M. Broomall, of this county, is a graduate of the Woman's Medical College, Philadelphia, located in that city, and has a large and growing practice. All of these last-named doctors are adherents of the allopathic school.

Dr. Cyrus S. Poley kept a drug-store in Chester in 1870, and removed therefrom after 1876, for in that year Governor Hartranft appointed him surgeon of the Eleventh Regiment Pennsylvania Militia, comprising the troops in this military district.

A Brief History of Homeopathy in Delaware County.¹ - Delaware County has the honor of being the birthplace of those veteran homeopathic practitioners, Drs. Walter Williamson, Richard Gardiner, and Gideon Humphreys, all espousing the cause at nearly the same time, and last, but not least, of being the residence of Dr. A. E. Small, at the time of his conversion to homeopathy.

Dr. Walter Williamson introduced homoeopathy into the county in the year 1836. He graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1833, and immediately settled in Marple. He moved to Newtown in 1835, and in the spring of 1836 his attention was directed to the new system of medical practice. At the earliest opportunity he obtained all the books and pamphlets then published in the English language which had any bearing upon the subject, commenced the study of its doctrines, and began to practice it in the vicinity, where not even the name itself had ever been heard, except by one family, John Thomas, of Upper Providence. He rapidly gained a large practice, but in 1839 he moved to Philadelphia, owing to seriously-impaired health. He was one of the founders of the Homeopathic College of Pennsylvania, the first institution in the country to teach this system of practice, and from 1848 until his death in 1879 he filled one of the professorships in the college. Dr. Williamson was born in Delaware County, July 4, 1811.

The second practitioner to unfurl the standard of homeopathy in Delaware County was Dr. M. B. Roche. He settled near Darby in 1839, and continued the practice there for three years. In 1842 he was succeeded by Dr. Alvan E. Small, a native of the State of Maine, and a graduate of the Medical Department of Pennsylvania College. He practiced in Upper Darby as an allopathic physician in 1840, and became a homeopathic in 1842. Dr. Small continued to practice in the county until he moved to Philadelphia, in 1845.

Dr. James E. Gross, a native of New England, graduated at the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1850, and soon afterwards settled in Darby to practice, but remained there only a few months, and then moved to Lowell, Mass.

Dr. Stacy Jones, student of H. N. Gurnsey, M.D., graduated at the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania in March, 1853, and settled in Upper Darby. He remained in his first location for three years, and then moved into the borough of Darby, where he continues to practice.

Dr. Charles V. Dare, a native of New Jersey, graduated at the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania in March, 1854, and very soon afterwards settled in the borough of Chester. Dr. Dare was the first homeopathic physician in Chester. He continued to practice there until he sold his practice to Dr. Coates Preston, in March, 1858.

Dr. Coates Preston, a native of Pennsylvania, graduated at the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania in March, 1853, and first settled at Sculltown, N. J. In the spring of 1824 he moved to Woodstown, N. J., where he continued to practice until he moved to Chester, succeeding Dr. Dare. In the course of a few years he built up quite a large practice in Chester and the surrounding neighborhood. On account of a serious illness in the winter of 1865, and the consequent feebleness of health which continued through the following spring months, Dr. Preston was induced to take into partnership Dr. H. W. Farrington, but after a few months' trial of the new relationship the connection was dissolved. Dr. Preston continued his practice, and Dr. Farrington took an office at another place in Chester, but