Burnett was born in 1840, the son of a landowner in Scotland. He studied medicine in Vienna, later in Glasgow. He was an outstanding student. His anatomy professor attempted to dissuade him from becoming a homeopath and warned him of the lack of career prospects. Burnett replied that he could “not buy worldly honours at the cost of my conscience.” He ran one of the largest practices in London for 23 years.
Burnett frequently launched frontal attacks on conventional medicine, since it contradicted his notion of reality. He wrote: “We all tend to set aside the normal rules of scientific method when we feel a deep wish that something is not true.“
Burnett was a pragmatist and never shied away from experiments. In this regard, he was as unimpressed by the doctrines of orthodox homeopathy as by those of conventional medicine.
Main works: 1. Fifty Reasons for Being a Homeopath 2. Gold as a Remedy in Disease 3. Vaccinosis and Its Cure by Thuja 4. Fevers and Blood Poisoning
James Compton Burnett 
