H. Fergie Woods
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1883
H. Fergie Woods | |
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| Born | Harold Fergie Woods 1883 |
| Died | 15 January 1961 (aged 77–78) |
| Occupations | Physician, writer |
Harold Fergie Woods LRCP MRCS (1883 – 15 January 1961) was an English physician, homeopath and anti-vivisection activist.
Woods qualified L.R.C.P. and M.R.C.S. from Middlesex Hospital in 1908.[1][2] After he qualified, he went to the United States with John Weir to study homeopathy under James Tyler Kent.[3] Woods had a long career at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital where he was Resident Medical Officer, Physician for Diseases of Children and a Consulting Physician.[2][3] In 1925, he co-founded the International Homoeopathic League.[3]
Woods was a staunch opponent of vaccination and vivisection. He was a member of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection and gave speeches at anti-vivisection meetings. He stated that animal experimentation is scientifically useless and unethical as the animals are kept in mutilated and suffering conditions for considerable periods.[4] Woods concluded that abolition of vivisection is the only way to protect animals.[5][6] He was a Vice-President of the National Anti-Vaccination League. In 1945, Woods signed a petition for the formation of a group of homeopathy within the British Medical Association.[7]
Woods was a germ theory denialist who held the view that germs were the result, not the cause of disease.[4] He was an elected medical member of Douglas Macmillan's Society for the Prevention and Relief of Cancer, an anti-vivisection cancer organization.[8]
Woods died on 15 January 1961.[9]