Pi Upsilon Rho

Pi Upsilon Rho (ΠΥΡ) was an American professional fraternity for homeopathy students. It was established at Hahnemann Medical College in Chicago in 1876 and had five active chapters by 1920. Now defunct, it has been credited as one of the United States' oldest medical fraternities.

Pi Upsilon Rho
ΠΥΡ
Founded	1876; 149 years ago (1876) Hahnemann Medical College
Type	Professional
Affiliation	Independent
Status	Defunct
Defunct date	c. 1944
Emphasis	Homeopathy; medical
Scope	National
Publication	The Torch
Chapters	7
Members	1,194 lifetime
Headquarters	United States

History

Pi Upsilon Rho was established as Ustion, a professional fraternity for homeopathy students, at Hahnemann Medical College in 1876.^[1] It has been credited as one of the United States' oldest medical fraternities.^[2]

A second chapter was added at Ohio State University in 1893.^[1] By 1906 it had five active chapters.^[1] It changed its name to Pi Upsilon Rho in 1909.^[3][1]

The fraternity's governing body, the Supreme Corpus, would meet annually at the convention of the American Institute of Homeopathy.^[1][4] The fraternity became defunct around 1944.

Symbols

The badge of the society is in the form of a diamond lozenge, with the Greek letters Π, Υ and Ρ 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.

Chapters were named "Vertebrae", and were designated by Latin numerals.

Officers were named:

• Encephalon (President)
• Medulla Oblongata (Vice-president)
• Calamus Scriptorius (Secretary)
• Optic Thalamus (Treasurer)
• Torcular Herophili (Inductor)

The fraternity's quarterly periodical of the fraternity was The Torch.

Chapters

The fraternity called its chapters "Vertebrae". In the following list, inactive chapters and institutions are in italics.^[1][3]

Chapter	Charter date and range	Institution	Location	Status	Reference
Prima	1876–c. 1922	Hahnemann Medical College	Chicago, Illinois	Inactive	[5][a]
Tertia	1893–19xx ?	Ohio State University	Columbus, Ohio	Inactive
Quarta	1901–after 1943	Hahnemann Medical College	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Inactive
Quinta	1902–1906	Denver Homeopathic Medical College	Denver, Colorado	Inactive
Sexta	1903–c. 1912	Detroit Homeopathic College	Detroit, Michigan	Consolidated	[b]
Septa	1905–19xx ?	New York Medical College	Valhalla, New York	Inactive	[c]
Octa	1906–19xx ?	University of Michigan	Ann Arbor, Michigan	Inactive

1. The college closed in 1922.
2. When the Detroit Homeopathic College closed in 1912, the chapter consolidated with Octa.
3. Chapter formed at the New York Homeopathic Medical College, now New York Medical College.

See also

• List of defunct medical schools in the United States
• Professional fraternities and sororities