William MacLeod M.D. F.R.C.P. (c. 1820 – 25 January 1875) was a Scottish-born physician who converted to homeopathy. In 1853, MacLeod became a member of the Hahnemann Publishing Society.

Macleod later became a proponent of hydrotherapy and was appointed senior physician at Ben Rhydding Hydro near Ilkley, Yorkshire. He was assisted there by junior physician Thomas Scott M.D.

William Macleod was a St Andrews graduate of 1843 and became F.R.C.P.E. the same year. He was a lecturer in the institutes of medicine at the Extra-academical School in Argyll Square, Edinburgh and a physician to the Royal Public Dispensary.

Later he practised in Yorkshire, and as a homeopathist crossed swords with James Young Simpson during the controversies of the 1850s…

Later, the Edinburgh Medico Chirurgical Society approved a motion (proposed by Professor Syme and seconded by James Young Simpson) ‘that William Henderson’s name be deleted from the list of members’. At the same meeting, in a night of the long knives, Dr MacDonald, Dr MacLeod and Charles Ransford were also expelled.

In 1845, MacLeod was a subscriber to the fund for the monument of Samuel Hahnemann in Meissen, Germany.

In August, 1853, Macleod attended the fourth Congress of Homeopathic Practitioners, held at the Albion Hotel in Manchester.

MacLeod married India-born Helen (c. 1829 – 1894). They had several children.

William MacLeod died on 25 January 1875. He was interred in Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh.


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Of Interest:

Colonel Kenneth MacLeod [no evident relation] of the Bengal Medical Service was a student of William Henderson.

George MacLeod (McLeod) M.R.C.V.S. D.V.S.M. Vet.MFHom (30 October 1912 – September 1995) [no evident relation] was an homeopathic veterinarian, founder and President of The British Association of Homeopathic Veterinary Surgeons, and Veterinary Consultant to The Homeopathic Development Foundation.