Cleave’s
Biographical Cyclopædia of
Homœopathic Physicians and Surgeons
By Egbert Cleave
Presented by Sylvain Cazalet
EMPEL,
CHARLES J., M. D., of Grand Rapids, Mich., was born in Solingen,
Prussia, September 5th, 1811. On the completion of his collegiate
education, he availed himself of the privilege accorded to young men who
had passed a successful examination, of postponing his entrance upon the
military service of Prussia until the close of his twenty-third year,
and visited Paris to attend the lectures of the distinguished men who
then filled the chairs in the University and College de France. He there
made the acquaintance of the celebrated Michelet, successor of Guizot in
the Chair of History, and assisted him in the publication of his
“History of France.” He considers his six months’ residence in
the Professor’s family as one of the most profitable and agreeable
periods of his life. While attending lectures he became acquainted with
many American families resident in Paris, who induced him to emigrate to
America. Landing in New York on September 5th, 1835 -the twenty-fourth
anniversary of his birthday- he at once applied himself to a thorough
acquisition of the English language ; reading the English and
American classics with a passionate enthusiasm equaled only by that
which he devoted to the Italian language and literature. Residing for
two years in the family of Signor Marancelli, the friend of Silvio
Pellico, he there imbibed an ardent love for music and Italian
literature, and for the ideas of liberty for which the members of the
Carbonari were remarkable, and for which they had been terribly
persecuted. He attended the medical lectures of the University of New
York, then recently organized, of which he became one of the earliest
graduates. He numbered among his valuable acquaintances some of the most
talented literary characters of the city. All of these were enthusiastic
advocates of homœopathy, a system of practice which had won his
sympathy and admiration even in his early boyhood. Drs. Gram, Claiming,
Gray, Hall, and Hering, and others, among the oldest homœopathic
practitioners in New York and Philadelphia, were his friends and
constant companions, to whose sympathy and counsel he considers himself
largely indebted. Soon after his graduation he commenced the translation
of the leading authorities of homœopathy. Among these translations and
original works the following are the most prominent :
“Hahmemann’s Materia Medica Pura,” in four volumes ;
“Hahnemann’s Chronic Diseases,” in five volumes ;
“Jahr’s Symptomen Codex,” in two volumes ;
“Repertory” to this last (original) ; “Hartmann’s
Acute and Chronic Diseases,” in four volumes ; Baer’s work on
the same subject ; “Jahr’s Clinical Guide,” one volume,
12mo. ; “Jahr’s Mental Diseases and their Homœopathic
Treatment,” one volume ; “Jahr’s Diseases of Women and
Children,” one volume, 8vo. ; “Jahr’s Venereal
Diseases,” one volume, 8vo. ; “Teste’s Materia
Medica ;” ” Small’s Domestic Physician ;”
“Hempel and Beakley’s Domestic Physician ;”
“Hempel’s Domestic Physician ;” “Homœopathic
Domestique ;” “Organon of Homœopathy ;”
“Rane’s Organon of Homœopathy,” and “Hempel’s System of
Materia Medica and Therapeutics.” In addition to these he has
translated all of Schiller’s writings not previously translated, and has
superintended the publication of a complete
edition of his
works in English, by Kœhler, in Philadelphia.While actively engaged
in the practice of homœopathy, he became acquainted with and married
his present wife, daughter of the late George Coggeshall, Esq., of Grand
Rapids, Mich., one of the founders of that beautiful and flourishing
city. He is thus allied with a thoroughly American family, his wife
being a lineal descendant of the Hon. William Bradford, first Governor
of the colony of Rhode Island, who came over in the
“Mayflower.”Soon after his marriage
he was called to fill the chair of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in
the Homœopathic Medical College of Philadelphia. There he labored with
his wonted zeal and energy in the cause of homœopathic science, and
published his valuable work on “Materia Medica and
Therapeutics.” The death of his father-in-law rendered it necessary
for him to remove with his family to Grand Rapids, in order to look
after the family estates. He was soon engaged in an extensive and
laborious practice, aided by his able young friend, Dr. Jacob Reed, Jr.,
of Philadelphia. Almost immediately after taking up his residence in
Grand Rapids, he was recommended by the physicians of Michigan to the
Regents of the University at Ann Arbor, as a proper person to fill the
chair of Homœopathy, created in the University by an Act of the
Legislature. The efforts of the homœopathists to have this chair filled
in accordance with the law provoked a bitter controversy with the
Regents, who have thus far succeeded in evading the law.Dr. Hempel’s health has
been failing for some years past. A visit to his fatherland, and to Rome
and Naples, where he spent the winter of 1872, did not result as
beneficially as he had anticipated. He has retired from active life. He
has written a work on the “Life of Christ” in the German
language, for the benefit of his German countrymen in America ; a
work on “The True Organization of the New Church,” and “A
New Grammar of the German Language.” Dr. Hempel is one of the
oldest honorary members of the British Homœopathic Society, and has
received the compliment of diplomas and certificates of membership from
many American medical colleges and associations.Source
: Cleave’s Biographical Cyclopædia of Homœopathic Physicians and
Surgeons By Egbert Cleave