Ernst Ferdinand Rueckert (1795-1843) – Pioneers of homeopathy by T. L. Bradford

Pioneers
of homeopathy

by Dr Thomas
Lindsey Bradford

Presented by Dr Robert Séror

Ernst
Ferdinand Rueckert (1795-1843)

Photo not available

Dr. ERNST
FERDINAND RUECKERT. (1795-1843)

Dr.

Rueckert’s brother thus writes of him : (All. Hom. Zeitung., Vol. XXXVIII,
p. 81. (Nov. 26, 1849).)

I have been requested by several parties to write something to serve as
a memorial of my deceased brother, who left this world six years ago ; and
since no one else has been found who would wreathe with laurels the grave
of this roving wanderer I undertake this solemn duty.

Nevertheless I do this with a heavy heart, well convinced that the
biography of a physician who has become well known, even to the more
general public through his numerous writings, would have been more
fittingly composed by the open of a person not related to him, than by his
own younger brother.

I must, therefore, in advance, ask the indulgence of the reader if in
some things I may not appear sufficiently impartial, or too diffuse, and
if I mention also the failings of my brother as a man, contrasting these
with his goodness.

Our eldest brother,

Ernst
Ferdinand Rueckert, was
born in Grosshennersdorf, near Herrnhut, March, 3, 1795 ^;
he was instructed there till the year 1807 by
my father himself, who was pastor.

He learned very easily, so that he also made good progress in the high
school at

Niesky, near Goerlitz, where he remained
until the year 1812.

He had an especial facility for learning the languages and quickly
advanced in his classes.

His intention was originally to study theology : he therefore entered,
on the 2 th of June,

1812, into the school of the gymnasium
at Zittau, and received on the 27th of
September of the same year, in his eighteenth year, the Testimonium maturitatis and went to the University of Leipsic.

Now the time had come when the leading traits of his character could
show them selves freely and openly.

His fellow-students who are still alive may testify whether I judge
rightly of my brother when I say that he was extremely good-natured, very
cheerful in company, and entertaining by his witty notions.

Whatever he undertook he seized with a mighty zeal, aye, he was
enthusiastic and depicted its consequences in the future in the brightest
colors ; but he was lacking in endurance and firmness, therefore he could
easily be turned away again from his first intentions and be led off to
others. This was his misfortune and it followed him through life.

In good company and tinder a good leader he was a most solid man, while
giddy company easily led him astray. The beginning of his unsteady life
was made already in

1813, when he renounced his first
intention of studying theology and changed to medicine. After the great
battle of Leipsic he effected the change and
continued his studies until 1810.

He was then already acquainted with Homoeopathy and he was one of the
first of

Hahnemann’s pupils, together with Dr. Hartmann and Dr. Hornburg.
We find his name as prover of several remedies : Dulcamara, Aconite, Rheum, Rhus,
Bryonia, Hellebore, Digitalis.

From 1816 to 1817 he visited the Medico-Chirurgical Academy in

Dresden. He received his doctor’s diploma at Jena in 1819,
and had his Colloquium upon the same year in Leipsic, as he had chosen Grimma for his resting place in order to begin there his
practical career.

But his unsteady spirit drove him away from there in a short time. He
was lacking in the firmness necessary to overcome the first obstacles,
which every practical physician must meet when he commences, and already
the following year he thought that he recognized in the town of

Mutchen the goal of his sanguine hope, and he exchanged
this little town again in 1819
for Bernstadt in the Upper Lausitz.

He soon found more to do here than in the two former places, and
several years after he had left

Bernstadt I still heard families, where he had made successful
cures, speak of him gratefully.

But misfortune here also followed the poor man. Soon after his arrival
another physician, an Allopath, settled in the little town, who, although
not hostile to him, nevertheless by his winning personality soon gained
the whole practice.

Highly discouraged by this the vacillating man thought to cheer himself
by company, and then lost the proper position, so that he found it best to
change to

Loebau.

But even here he was not yet destined to find a lasting position, since
his relations with his colleagues made his rising in practice difficult,
so that he determined to give up the medical career entirely and to
endeavor to make his living as a teacher.

He soon succeeded in finding a position as a tutor in a noble family in

Livonia, and he cheerfully left his native
land in 1822 and arrived, after a stormy voyage,
without having become seasick, in Riga.

The happiest time of his life he now spent in

Livonia, until the year 1829.
Living part of the tune as a tutor in various families, the other part in
educational institutions, he was esteemed and loved by all.

The study of the languages, which had always been so easy to him, was
revived and cultivated now in his leisure hours, and he had soon advanced
enough to be able to translate historical works from

Russian into German.

But not valuing his success sufficiently he desired to see again his
native land, and he arrived in

Hahnemann’s house in Coethen
soon after his jubilee celebration of August, 1829, and was received kindly by Hahnemann and worked for him till Easter, 1830.

Introduced anew to the art by the master, my brother began practicing
as a physician a second time, first in

Bautzen,
where he remained a year ; then he moved to Camenz, where he remained several years ; lastly he found his
asylum at Konigsbrueck under the particular protection of
the Count von
Hohenthal.

His domestic life was also rich in experience during these last years,
as he married twice, having lost his first wife by death.

He bore patiently every severe affliction, owing partly to his cheerful
temperament which enabled him soon. again to see the rays of the still
even through the thickest fog, and partly owing to his firm faith in

Christ of which the germ had been laid even in his
tender youth.

Finally as a weary wanderer after a journey full of thorns and
thistles, after a lung disease had first undermined his strong health, he
fell asleep in the eternal rest in the year

1843 at the age of forty-eight years.

With great zeal, industry and perseverance he made use of all his
leisure time during his last twelve years to be active for Homoeopathy,
and especially to facilitate as far as possible the difficult task of
finding the proper remedy in any given case.

The most excellent of
his works which even at this day has its classic value, and will retain
it, is the ” Systematic
Presentation of all the Homoeopathic Medicines known to this Time,” a work which in a short time
(1835) had its second edition, and is
even at this day found in the hands of innumerable physicians, and will
continue to be so, for the symptoms are there given just as they are found
in the provings.

Would that such names as

Atriplex
(By Atriplex the writer means Fickel a rascal of whom mention will he made further on. [ED.] ) could mot be found in it, as they remind us of am
author who by his fabrications will remain a disgrace in the history of
Homoeopathy.

A second, larger work, which also in token of its usefulness rose to a
second edition, is : “

A Brief Survey of the Effects of Homoeopathic Medicines on
the Human Body,”
in which also, unfortunately, some sham remedies are found; this appeared
in 1834.

The third and last larger work is : ”

Sketch of a Future Special Homoeopathic
Therapy,” 1837, a
work which in its time filled a gap not unimportant in Homeopathic
literature, although its tendency was questioned by Griesselich, who has also departed to his eternal home.

Many an observation might indeed yet be struck out in this work, and in
my opinion, at least, the effect of the remedies might be given a little
more in detail, even though briefly.

During the twelve years that have passed since the appearance of the
work the published cures wrought by means of the various remedies have
been greatly augmented, and I myself have for some time been occupied in
collating them and at the request of several of my colleagues, as has been
stated in the previous volume of the

Allgemeine Zeitung, I shall as a trial make a beginning in printing some
parts of this work arranged in a somewhat different order.

The fourth, smaller work from his pen is :

“The Effects of Homoeopathic Medicines under
Certain Conditions represented in a Tabular Manner,” 1833.

The fifth work is ”

Cutaneous Diseases.”

The sixth work is a translation from the English of

Jacob James’ ” Practical Experiences in the Domain of
Homoeopathy,” 1842.

The seventh,

”
Knowledge and Cure of the most Important Diseases of the Horse, etc.,
Description of the Diseases of Cattle, Sheep, Hogs, Goats and Dogs.”

The eighth, ”

Description
of the most frequent Herbs and Ferns, both the wild and the cultivated, so
also of some official Mosses and Mushrooms of Saxony, etc., with Statement
of their injurious Properties.”

Without giving any further judgment as to these works, we may see from
them that he was willing to do everything possible to assist in the
development of our art and science.

The host reward of these labors is when many a patient through the
easier finding of the fitting remedy has found relief from his sufferings.

TH. J. RUECKERT,

Practising Physician in Herrnhut.

Hartmann

says of him : (N. W. Jour. Hom., Vol. IV., p. 188. Med. Couns., Vol. XI., P. 242. Kleinert’s ”
Geschichte der Homöopathie.”)

Rueckert

was an
original man, but unsteady in all he undertook, wavering, with no
perseverance, and yet very well informed ; he rather skimmed over the
surface of the sciences, and never attained any profound knowledge of them
because he the more easily overcame the difficulties which the entrance to
any science presents than the slighter ones that he met in his further
progress ; add to this the fluctuation which prevailed throughout his
whole life, and which he might earlier in life have gotten rid of,
perhaps, under the guidance of a more serious and steadfast nature, and we
can understand his extensive but superficial knowledge.

But notwithstanding all this inconstancy, one could not but love him
for his captivating manner, his sparkling wit, his courteousness.

On the other hand, it was difficult to gain his friendship, since he
was ever distrustful of others, from which distrust lie never could free
himself, even when lie was fully convinced of its unreasonableness.

He was a kind of necromancer : he interested himself much in
supernatural things and would sit by the hour together staring at a speck,
and quite forgetting everything about him ; hence he preferred to be alone
and hired a summer house to which he might resort for solitude.

Here I have often seen him, for my windows were directly opposite to
his residence and I often worked at night, walking backwards and forwards,
in summer and winter, by day and by night, with huge strides ; frequently
he delivered philosophic discourses from his window to the cats, who paid
their respects to him in his garden.

Rueckert

was quick
at seizing anything, but the ties of order and regularity sat heavily upon
him ; he soon flagged in his good resolutions, and carelessly threw away
what he had just undertaken to seek some new phantom.

It was thus with his drug provings ; the

Materia Medica Pura owes him but little, and the symptoms that are
marked – Rueckert – were not reported by him, but by
a namesake of whom my recollection is but indistinct.

Lorbacher

says : (*Brit. Jour. Hom., Vol.
XXXII., p. 457.)

Ernst P. Rueckert

,
whom Hartmann confounds with a younger brother,
co-operated in proving medicines under Hahnemann’s direction.

He published some original works on Homoeopathy, and along with

Lux may be considered the founder of Homoeopathic
veterinary medicine.

WRITINGS.

Systematic Presentation of all Homoeopathic Medicines known hitherto,
including the Antipsorics in their pure Effects on the healthy Human Body.
3 Vols. Leipsic : L. Schumann.

1831-33.
2d Edition, 2 Vols. Leipsic.
1835.

Brief Survey of the Effects of Homoeopathic Medicines on the Healthy
Human Body, with Hints as to their use in various Forms of Disease. 2
Vols. Leipsic : Schumann.

1831-32.
2d edition. Leipsic : Melzer 1834-35.

The effects of Homoeopathic Medicines under certain conditions,
presented in Tabular Form. Leipsic. Melzer.

1833.

Cutaneous Diseases, or Systematic Presentation of the various
Eruptions. Elaborated in the Homoeopathic Manner. Leipsic : Melzer.

1833.

Principles of a Future Special Homoeopathic Therapie. Leipsic : Andra.

1837. With new title. Leipsic : Hunger. 1841. Trans. by Hempel. New York : Radde. 1846.

Diagnosis and Care of the Most Important Diseases of the Horse,
elaborated according to Homoeopathic Principles, for Agriculturists.
Meissen : Klinkicht.

1839.

Description of the Diseases of Cattle, Sheep, Swine, Goats, and Dogs,
with Directions as to their Cure according to Allopathic and Homoeopathic
Principles. For Agriculturists. Leipsic : Friedlein and Hirsch.

1841.

---

This biography is extracted from the book of Doctor Thomas Lindsley

Bradford (1847 – 1918) : ” The Pioneers of Homeopathy” 678 pages,
Boericke Tafel (Philadelphia, 1897).

Pages 103 to 108.

Numérisation,
vérification, mise en page,