Robert MacLimont M.D. M.R.C.S L.M. (c.1823 – 8 February 1865) was a Scottish-born orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy. In his early career MacLimont was physician to the New York Dispensary and Physician Accoucheur to the New York Lying-in Hospital. He was also house surgeon to the London Hospital for Women.

MacLimont later practiced in Guernsey, where he entered into partnership with John Ozanne. After several years of travel abroad in Rome, Nice and Madeira, he settled in Bath, where he was appointed Physician at the Bath Homeopathic Hospital.

MacLimont was a colleague of George Newman, Charles Henry Marston, John Ozanne, among others.

Robert MacLimont was born and educated in Glasgow but, owing to his delicate health, was sent overseas to Madeira and the Mediterranean. He later went to Quebec where he began his medical studies.

In 1849 MacLimont graduated from the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. By March, 1850, Maclimont was still residing in Maryland, and he was recorded as being an honorary graduate of the Philadelphia College of Medicine.

In 1852 Maclimont received his M.D. from New York University. The same year, while still residing in New York, he became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons.

Robert MacLimont’s movements over the next few years are unclear but by 1855 MacLimont was surgeon at the Hospital for Women in Soho Square, London, where he was a colleague of prolific medical author and gynecological specialist, Dr. Thomas Hawkes Tanner (1824 – 1871).

That year, 1855, he was reported to have converted to homeopathy.

In October 1856, MacLimont was practicing at Gloucester Terrace in London. That month he married Anna Ingate, daughter of merchant Charles Colville Ingate.

In December 1857 MacLimont received his Licentiate in Midwifery from the Royal College of Surgeons. That same month he and his wife, now in Guernsey, had a son, Charles Ingate MacLimont.

In Guernsey, Maclimont entered into practice with Dr. John Ozanne. However, the two fell into disagreement over MacLimont’s use of allopathic methods and the partnership was terminated in 1858. An altercation in print provided an unseemly epitaph to their professional relationship.

By 1860 MacLimont had moved to the neighboring Channel Island of Jersey where he practiced at St Helier.

Later in 1860, Robert MacLimont relocated to 34 Pulteney Street in Bath, and became a physician at the Bath Homoeopathic Hospital. There he came into conflict with Dr. George Newman, founder of the Hospital, who accused MacLimont of mixing allopathic and homeopathic practice, an observation previously noted in Guernsey by John Ozanne. Newman initiated a debate over what constituted homeopathic practice in which the preponderance of homeopaths, on both sides of the Atlantic, sided with MacLimont.

MacLimont was possibly a student of John Pattison, a noted British orthodox physician and cancer specialist, affiliated with New York University, who converted to homeopathy. MacLimont was at the centre of yet another controversy when he and another of Pattison students, Charles Henry Marston, published a report on Pattison‘s cancer research,Cancer, and the New Mode of Treating it (1863). Back in 1852, John Pattison had been the first person to use Hydrastis in the treatment of cancer (both William Bayes and Pattison had been working with this new remedy). Pattison had been happy to instruct homeopaths as to the use of his ‘paste,’ Hydrastis mixed with chloride of lime. However, in 1866 Pattison publicly castigated MacLimont and Charles Henry Marston for not acknowledging Pattison’s pioneering work in this area sufficiently. A follow up article in the homeopathic press apologised for this oversight.

Although not a prolific writer, MacLimont submitted cases and articles to various homeopathic publications.

Robert MacLimont died at home at 15 Catharine Place, Bath, in February, 1865, after a short four day bout of Scarlet fever caught from a patient. He was just 42 years of age and was buried in Lansdown Cemetery, Bath.

Select Publications: