With thanks to the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine:
Comparative evaluation of homeopathy and allopathy within the Parisian hospital system, 1849–1851 by Michael Dean, Department of Health Sciences, University of York, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 2010;103:34-36, © 2010 Royal Society of Medicine,
Over a 15 year period and involving many thousands of patients, Jean Paul Tessier conducted an open trial comparing homeopathy with allopathy in the Sainte Marguerite Hospital, the Beaujon Hospital and the Enfants Malades Hospital, which ultimately proved so clearly in favour of homeopathy, it spread rapidly throughout Europe.
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At the request of his mentor Francois Magendie, Jean Paul Tessier conducted clinical trials into homeopathy at the St. Marguerite Hospital in Beaujohn in Paris, successfully treating pneumonia and cholera.
Initially over a three year period between 1849 – 1851, Jean Paul Tessier set aside two homeopathic wards (100 beds) and two allopathic wards (99 beds), with 1 in 5 patients individually assigned by both allopathic and homeopathic doctors, with the great majority of patients being assigned independently, with patients assigned to the first vacant bed, regardless of the ward.
8000 patients were studied in this first 3 year period, and the initial finding was of a greater throughput, a lower mortality and a greatly reduced cost of treatment per patient from the homeopathic wards. Indeed, the hospital’s costs for the homeopathic wards were only 1% of those required by the allopathic wards.
Jean Paul Tessier had become so convinced of the efficacy of homeopathy during these trials, he converted to homeopathy.
The initial trials were only planned for a six month period, but Jean Paul Tessier continued the trials eventually for a three year period.
Jean Paul Tessier originally chose to study pneumonia and cholera, diseases with clear diagnosis and prognosis, he asked two allopathic doctors to make all the observations and write the reports to counter any bias from him reporting the effects of his own treatments.
The results from the first three year trial were so intriguing, the results so clearly favoured homeopathy, that Jean Paul Tessier planned a much larger study to compare homeopathy and allopathy, this time not restricted to any specific disease, and to include all of the patients admitted to the Sainte Marguerite Hospital.
A similar study in St. Petersberg began at this time, no doubt influenced by Jean Paul Tessier’s Paris research, the results of which were published in 1852.
Alerted by the publication of Jean Paul Tessier’s results, John Ozanne travelled from his native Guernsey to observe the Paris trials, diseminating his observations throughout Britain, and ultimately to America.
Despite outraged opposition from the orthodox medical establishment, the hospital administrators, no doubt influenced by the massive reduction in cost, authorised Jean Paul Tessier to continue with his research.
Eventually, Jean Paul Tessier’s trial lasted 15 years across three hospitals, the results clearly favoured homeopathy. Enraged allopathic opposition immediately set up a National Competition to establish the rate of recovery in pneumonia patients who received only nursing care, and Jean Paul Tessier’s student Pierre Jousset reported that homeopathic treatment revealed a mortality rate of 3 out of 41 consecutive patients, whereas untreated or traditionally treated patients had a mortality rate of 30%.
Jean Paul Tessier’s committment to unbiased, empirical research, ‘unhampered’ by either ‘homeopathic or allopathic dogma’, must surely set the standard for medical scientific research, and bears favourable comparison to the trials conducted between 1828 – 1829 in Naples by Cosmo Maria De Horatiis, who conducted clinical trials into homeopathy in Naples, at the Military Hospital of the Trinity.
When Cosmo Maria De Horatiis published the results of these trials, they caused a great sensation in Naples, causing many orthodox physicians to immediately convert to homeopathy, including Comte Sebastien Gaeten Salvador Maxime Des Guidi who became the first homeopath in France. The astonishing behaviour of the allopaths (who attempted to poison patients on the trial by means of poisoned figs) eventually enabled homeopathy to triumph in Naples, and in France, and across Europe.
The results of these clinical trials in Paris were clearly in favour of homeopathy, the mortality rate under homeopathy dropped dramatically from 33% to 7.6%,
Spiteful reaction and backlash from the allopathic community was to be expected, and in 1856, the Societe Anatomique voted unanimously to expel Jean Paul Tessier from its ranks, and shortly thereafter he was passed over for promotion to the Head of the Hotel Dieu, despite his obvious seniority. Jean Paul Tessier was immediately vilified by his allopathic colleagues, who blocked him from further promotion and progression in his chosen profession. Horribly, his clinical assistants were also blocked from admission to the Allopathic Medical Faculty, and no allopathic medical journal would publish results so favourable to homeopathy.
The vitriolic attacks of the allopaths that resulted from the publication of these successful clinical trials into homeopathy were so atrocious they caused Pope Pius IX to come to Jean Paul Tessier’s defense. In 1852, appalled by the ‘materialism reigning in medicine’ and by the dogma hidden behind a ‘misty and barbarous phraseology’ concealing a ‘most destructive doctrine’, Pope Pius IX granted the 
Order of St. Gregory the Great to Jean Paul Tessier for his efforts.