Pi Upsilon Rho () was a United States-based
professional fraternity
Professional fraternities, in the North American fraternity system, are organizations whose primary purpose is to promote the interests of a particular profession and whose membership is restricted to students in that particular field of profess ...
for
homeopathy
Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a dis ...
students established at
Hahnemann Medical College
Drexel University College of Medicine is the medical school of Drexel University, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The medical school represents the consolidation of two medical schools: the first U.S. medical school ...
in 1876 under the name Ustion. It changed its name to Pi Upsilon Rho in 1909.
By 1920 it had five active chapters.
It has been credited as one of the United States' oldest medical fraternities. The fraternity's governing body, the Supreme Corpus, would meet annually at the convention of the
American Institute of Homeopathy
The American Institute of Homeopathy (AIH), established in 1844, is the oldest extant national physician’s organization in the United States.
The founding president of the AIH was Constantine Hering. Past AIH presidents include Royal S. Cope ...
.
Symbols and traditions
*The badge of the society is in the form of a diamond lozenge, with the Greek letters , and across the middle. Above this are three torches and below this are two crossed bones. An image of the badge is at the center of the Fraternity's crest.
*The quarterly periodical of the fraternity was the ''Torch''.
*Chapters were named "Vertebrae", and were designated by Latin numerals.
Officers were named thusly:
*Encephalon (President)
*Medulla Oblongata (Vice-president)
*Calamus Scriptorius (Secretary)
*Optic Thalamus (Treasurer)
*Torcular Herophili (Inductor)
Chapters
References
{{reflist
1876 establishments in Pennsylvania
Professional fraternities and sororities in the United States
Homeopathic organizations
Professional medical fraternities and sororities in the United States
Student organizations established in 1876