The Life and Letters
of Dr Samuel Hahnemann
By Thomas Lindsley Bradford,
M.D.
Presented by Dr Robert SérorChapter 31.
Public trials of Homoeopathy
Hering’s
conversion
Letters to Hering
Accuracy of Hahnemann
His faith in the spread of
HomeopathyUp to the year 1835 there were six public and formal trials, undertaken
by order of governments, made of Homoeopathic practice :
- At
Vienna,
in 1828, conducted by Dr. Marenzeller.At Tulzyn,
Russia, in 1827.At St. Petersburg,
in 1829-30, by Dr. Hermann.At Munich,
in 1830-31, by Dr. Attomyr.At Paris,
in 1834, by Dr. Andral,
Jr.At Naples,
in 1835, by order of the King, by a mixed commission in the Hospital of
La Trinité.These were all made by Allopathic physicians and were not considered by
members of the Homoeopathic school as fairly conducted.
Public trials of Homoeopathy Dr.
Tessier,
in 1849-51, made tests at Hospital
Ste. Marguerite,
deciding in favor of the Homoeopathic system.When he presented his report to the
Paris
Academy he aroused a storm of protest for his fairness in admitting – that
there was good in Homoeopathy. (See
Hom. Examiner, Vol. I., p. 20 (1840). Rosenstein’s “Theory and
Practice of Homoeopathy,” p. 267. Brit. Jour. of Hom., Vol. II., p.
49 ; Vol. XI., p. 133 ; Vol. XIV., p. 308.)It is worthy of mention that the Preface, ”
Nota
Bene,” quoted in
the last chapter was the cause of Dr. Constantine Hering
becoming interested in Homoeopathy. (U.
S. Med. and Surg. Jour., Vol. III., p. 116.)C.
Baumgartner,
the founder of a publishing house in Leipsic,
wanted a book written against Homoeopathy. This was about the time that
Hahnemann was driven from Leipsic,
and it was then supposed that such a book would quite finish the system.
Hering’s conversion Dr.
J. H.Robbi,
Hering’s
preceptor, was asked to write the book but refused and – recommended his
student, Hering,
at that time twenty years of age. The contract was made and the book,
written during the winter of 1821-22, was nearly completed, when, for the
sake of making quotations, Hering
was provided with Hahnemann’s
works.In the third volume of the “
Materia
Medica Pura ” he
discovered this ” Nota
Bene for My Critics.”
It induced him to make experiments.The book was discontinued ;
Hering
now endeavored to separate the true from the false that he yet thought
must be in this new and peculiar system. Against the advice of friends,
patrons, and teachers he continued his investigations. In two years he
became convinced of the truth of Hahnemann’s
discovery, He now suffered persecutions, want, hunger, and was obliged to
postpone his examination for his degree.In 1825 a younger brother offered to loan him money, and while
inquiring at which of Germany’s thirty universities he could get his
degree the cheapest, he saw some notes taken from the lectures of the
celebrated pathologist,Schoenlein,
of Wurzburg.He was so pleased that he took up his bundle and walked into
Franconia
to sit at the feet of Schoenlein.He would not deny his allegiance to
Hahnemann,
and therefore was obliged to pass a most rigorous examination. He defended
his thesis -.”De
Medicina Futura”-
in which he acknowledged the Homeopathic doctrines, on March 23, 1826. He
had been in correspondence with Hahnemann
long before this time.The following letters written to him by
Hahnemann
when he was yet a student of medicine, (Some
time previous to 1860, Dr. Hering
sent to Dr. J. Rutherford Russell,
of England, careful copies of thirty-five letters written by Hahnemann
to himself and to Dr. Stapf.
It was Dr. Russell’s
intention to publish a life of the master, and Dr. Hering
thus assisted him.The life was not
written, but Dr. Russell
translated and published the letters in vols. i, ii, iii, iv of the
“Annals and Transactions of the British Homoeopathic Society, and of
the London Homeopathic Hospital,” 1860-66.He also, used some of
them in his “History and Heroes of
Medicine.” Dr. Dudgeon must have had
access to these letters in 1889″ as among the fifty-one letters of Hahnemann
he translated and published in the Homoeopathic World, the most of these
thirty-five are to be found.The above letters to
Hering are among the number letters of Hahnemann
he translated and published in the Homeopathic
World, the most of these thirty-five are to
be found. The above letters to Hering are among the
number.) show
the kindly regard for the new convert, whom be had never seen.
It may be not amiss to mention that, though Hahnemann
and Hering
were friends from this time until the death of the former, yet they never
met. Hering
almost at once after his graduation went
to South America and from thence sailed for Philadelphia,
Hering
did not receive his degree as doctor of medicine from the University of Wurzburg
until March 23, 1826, although he had for some years been a believer in
the doctrines of Hahnemann.
- Letters to Hering
The letters are as follows : (
Hom.
World, Vol. XXIV., p. 247. “Annals Brit. Hom. Society,” Vol. II,
p. 242.)
“Dear Mr.
Hering,
” Your active zeal for the beneficent art delights me, and I
believe that every one who desires to render valuable services to it must
be animated by equal enthusiasm.
The preparation you kindly sent me is, I perceive, pure iron in a form
divested of solidity and the metallic character, modern chemists would
probably call it
Hydrure
de fer.
Dissolve a drachm of pure sulphate of iron in pure water, and
precipitate it with
spiritus
salis ammoniaci vinosus,
wash the sediment
several times with pure water and dry it in blotting paper, and then see
if you do not obtain the same iron powder. It is a fine discovery, and the
Ostriz
man deserves praise. It may be used with advantage.
“I regret that when your esteemed letter arrived the manuscript of
the second edition of the second volume of my
‘Materia
Medica Pura’ had
already been sent to press ; I was consequently unable to introduce the
preparation of iron or to avail myself of your offer to make trials of it.
But I intend ere long to take advantage of your kind offer for other
substances.
You make mention of your sister, is she with you in
Leipsic
? Do you also come from Oberlausitz
? What led you to study medicine ?
“I would like to become better acquainted with you, and I pray you
to continue to be a right, genuine, good man, as it is impossible without
virtue to be a true physician, a godlike helper of his fellow creatures in
their distress.
“Yours very truly,
” Samuel Hahnemann.”
“Coethen, July 9, 1824.”
And in December of the same year he writes :
(Hom. World,
Vol. XXIV., p. 247. “Annals Brit. Hom. Society,” Vol. II, p.
242.)
Dear Mr.
Hering
:
“I have your letter of the 24th of November before me, an earlier
answer I was prevented from giving by the multitude of my occupations.
“As you wish to procure a master’s degree in the old system of
medicine next spring, I beg and counsel you not to allow your Homoeopathic
opinions to be known by the Allopathic physicians of Leipsic, least of all
by that most implacable of all Allopaths,
Clarus,
if you do not wish to be grievously tormented at your examination or even
rejected. * * *
” Yet, when you have got your degree, and have pitched upon the
place of your future practice, then fear nothing more from the obstacles
which the corporation of apothecaries will be able to put in your way.
Some escape will open by which you will be able to put the good method
into practice.
“I have confidence in you and am not afraid of being wrong in
regarding you as one of the few of my followers, who, in a higher sense
than the common (inspired only by desire of gain and reputation), will
practice the divine art among your afflicted fellow-men under the eye of
the
Omnipresent,
then, while you will not miss obtaining the so-called temporal gain, you
will also secure the approval of your conscience, without which kingdoms
cannot give happiness.
” If you wish to become a physician in this nobler sense (that is
a pure benefactor of men), standing on earth a representative of
God,
our highest benefactor, and to be a right good man, then will you be one
of the few, a truly happy, joyful man. This I wish and hope for you.
“Only he who is good can be sure of the support of
God,
without whom we can accomplish nothing, from whom everything comes which
contributes to the cure of his beloved family of man.
“From your offer to make experiments with medicines upon yourself,
assisted by your sister, I will make use when you are in a place and
position to practice your art.
“Yours most obediently,
Samuel Hahnemann.
“
Coethen
31st of December, 1824.”
Among
the many visitors to
Hahnemann
at this busy period was Dr. F. F. Quin,
of England, who in 1826, went to Coethen
for the purpose of studying Homoeopathy under its founder.
He had, as early as 1823, become interested in it. Dr.
Quin
returned to England in 1827, and at once commenced the practice of
Homoeopathy, having the honor of introducing it into that country.
(Annals Brit. Hom. Society,” Vol. I., p. 5 ; also Appendix Report,
II.)
Hahnemann
Exception has at times been taken by some members of the Homoeopathic
school to certain of the symptoms collected previously and at this time,
and published in the ”
Materia
Medica Pura ” by Hahnemann.
Hahnemann’s
excessive carefulness in the matter of expressing his exact meaning is
well illustrated in this letter to Gross,
dated December 26, 1825 : (Hom. World, Vol. XXIV., p. 312.)
” The terminology should be settled from the first.
We will not make any change in what I decided respecting the difference
betwixt
lancinans
and pungens.
Beyer’s
pressorie-pulsatorius
is certainly better
Latin than pressorio-pulsatorius,
and in future I
wish that the first adjective of such composite terms should be changed
into the adverbial form in the same way as pressarie,
instead of pressorio.
When I find something better than my own I adopt it willingly. Kindly see
this done.
“But not
pressorius
and pulsatorius,
for that does not
convey the idea of a sensation compounded of the two, but implies that it
was sometimes pressure, sometimes throbbing ; in short, both sensations
singly side by side. This must not be used instead of pressorio
pulvatorius.”
Again, writing to
Stapf,
September 1, 1825, he says : (Hom.
World, Vol. XXIV., p. 250.)
“One word more. In future volumes of the Latin translation of my
‘Materia Medica’ I hope you will be still more careful in the choice of
symptoms, especially those taken from Allopathic sources.
They were useful to me, as they served to gain for me the ear of the
profession, showing as they did that other physicians had observed
something similar, and that my observations should therefore not be
doubted. But you do not require this in your epitome, it is not necessary
to show this in your book.
” Yet another word. it is absolutely necessary that you give me
the numbers of the symptoms in the original German text which you
translate and condense, enclosed in brackets after each thus, (220,221). (
He
refers to the translation made by Stapf, Gross and Von Brunnow.
)
For how else can the reviser find them, or the foreigner who
understands a little German look them up in the original in order to get
further information about them ? Do this, therefore, in your manuscript.
“
Hartlaub’s
writings are well thought out and useful, and I think highly of them.
“Should you, in
Naumburg,
see a paper by me in the Morgenblatt
on the refusal to
allow Homoeopaths to dispense their own medicines, let me know. I have
exerted myself to procure for Homoeopaths this, their inalienable right.
He who allows the medicines to be made by another (the apothecary) is a
poor creature, he can’t do what he ought, he is no Homoeopath.
“Yours very truly,
” Sam. Hahnemann.”
“Coethen, September 1, 1825.”
Hahnemann
felt no
uncertainty as to the final fate of Homoeopathy. Two years before the
Preface “Nota
Bene,”
was written, Stapf
had expressed a wish that some distinguished Allopath should be converted
to a belief in Homeopathy, to which Hahnemann
made the following answer :
“That you will find a great man who will come over to our side is,
in the nature of things, impossible. If he be already a man of celebrity,
as you represent him, be can have become so only by means of the gross
empirical art which he contrived to support, after some new fashion, by
compiling in manuals the thousand times ruminated trash of common
medicine, or by hatching some unelaborated, unintelligible, fine-spun
system, or by processes and fooleries of the ordinary sort, which he
carried further than his colleagues, and raised himself above them only by
telling greater and more audacious falsehoods than they. Such an one has
long ago decided on the part he must play ; he can worship only the false
and sophistical system which raised him to his place of honor.
” Never would he be able to recognize from the wilderness of his
multifarious knowledge the dignity of simple, humbling truth ; and he
would be on his guard, if some helps did not reach him, to take them as
little as possible under his protection, inasmuch as they would expose the
falsehood of all his former knowledge, by which he had become so great,
and would leave nothing sound or entire about him, and destroy himself and
his knowledge.
“He
must tread under foot all his mock-consequence before he could even begin
to be our disciple ; and what would then remain of the great man who could
raise us by his countenance, since his infallibility must be laid in the
dust ; and the halo of universal knowledge, for which he was indebted to
his exalted station alone, must first be extinguished, by the study of a
new truth, before he will become a worthy scholar of ours.
How could he become our
protector
without first
receiving the truth we teach, that is, without having first entered our
school ?
And then must be thrown away all that rendered him great in the eyes of
the world ; and even to perform a moderate service in our cause he would
stand in need of
our
protection, not
we of his.
“Our art requires no political levers, no wordly decorations. At
present it grows with slow progress amid the abundance of weeds which
luxuriate about it ; it grows unobserved, from an unlikely acorn into a
little plant ; soon may its head be seen overtopping the rank weedy
herbage.
Only wait-it is striking deep its roots in the earth ; it is
strengthening itself unperceived, but all the more certainly ; and in its
own time it will increase, till it becomes an oak of
God,
whose arms, unmoved by the wildest storm, stretch in all directions, that
the suffering children of men may be revived under its beneficent
shadow.” (Stapf,
Archiv,” Vol. XXI., pt. 2, p. 129. Brit. Jour. of Hom., Vol. III., P.
197.)
This description of the so-called man of science applies very well to
our own times and to the present scientific craze for germs, microbes,
lymph-injections, bacilli and other short-lived discoveries.”
Dudgeon
says : (“Biography
of Hahnemann,” p. 46.)
“That
Hahnemann
felt, and felt deeply, the unjust calcumnies and unceasing persecution to
which he was subjected, we have ample evidence from various passages in
his works, from the year 1800 upwards.
Among the papers found at his death one bore the following inscription
intended as an epitaph on his tomb, which reads like the last sigh of a
martyr
‘Liber Tandem
Quiesco.'”
Hahnemann
could not
have been human had not this tempest of villification affected him. But
that his firm faith in the future of Homoeopathy was well founded is most
powerfully illustrated by the colleges, hospitals, dispensaries and
numberless followers of the school at the present day.