Sommaire
Biography of
Clemens Maria Franz
Von Boenninghausen
Presented by Dr R. Séror
(Dr.)
Boenninghausen, CLEMENS MARIA FRANZ VON. (1785-1864)
In the
A. H. Z.
vol. 68, p. 56,
appears the following note :
” As we send our journal to the press, we receive the very sad
news that on the 26th of January,
1864,
our C. von Boenninghausen
succumbed, in his seventy-ninth year, to n stroke of apoplexy.
Under the first impression of this news, which will find among all our
colleagues an equally sad echo, we are only able to exclaim to day a
farewell to the noble departed.
Our science has lost in him one of its first leaders, our journal one
of its best co-laborers, the
Society
of the Physicians of the Rhineland and Westphalia
its head and its pillar, our Central
Society a much
honored member, and we, personally – a faithful friend and loving teacher.
May the earth rest light upon hint !”
And in the following number this biography :
Our sense of fervent gratitude and high esteem for our departed friend
and colleague C. von
Boenninghausen,
the constant and esteemed contributor to our journal, lays upon us the sad
duty of accompanying his bier with a few words of love and acknowledgment,
and to set him a monument which no one who has come to know and comprehend
his efforts and labors may pass without feeling the deepest sadness and
the greatest respect.
We would gladly – for a long time yet have escaped this painful duty,
but the
Parces
consult not the wishes and desires of men, and Atropos
cuts the thread of life with relentless hand.
Happy for us, if she do not approach the spinning
Clotho
with premature swiftness with her sharp steel.
And the departed seems, indeed, to have been an especial favorite of
the
Goddesses
of fate, for he reached an age such as is granted by Providence
only to few of the sons of earth.
And if we view this life and consider with what excellent qualities and
virtues it was equipped, the constant activity in the endeavor to benefit
his fellow men and posterity, surely, the all-consuming death cannot wipe
out this life, for it will live in the history of our science, it will
continue to be a glorious example for our young men, who will he able to
kindle the torch of their courage and vigor at his activity even in his
old age.
Let us not delay, therefore, to bring before our readers this life,
faithfully and truly, as the deceased himself described it to us about two
years ago.
Clemens Maria Franz von Boenninghausen
,
Doctor of Laws and of Medicine, was born on the 12th of March, 1785,
at Heringhaven,
an estate belonging to his parents in Overyssel,
a province of the Netherlands.
His father, Ludwig Ernst von
Boenninghausen,
lieutenant colonel and chamberlain of the Prince
of Münster, Knight of a Dutch Order, van de Unie,
died as early as May 5th, 1812
; his mother, Theresia,
née baroness of Weichs
on the Wenne,
died April 7th, 1828.
Of his five sisters and brothers, among whom there was only one older,
one a half brother, all have preceded him for several years.
His ancestors whose name and coat of arms are found even in the
thirteenth century, and one of whorl as an
Austrian
General Field Marshal
was raised by Emperor Ferdinand,
by a diploma dated May 20th, 1632,
to the estate of imperial baronet, belong to the oldest nobility of Westphalia
and the Rhineland.
Since nearly all the
Boenninghausens
in the last 300 years had devoted themselves to the military career, their
possessions were only of moderate extent.
The first years of his youth
Boenninghausen
constantly lived in the country, where his body, indeed, was well
developed by riding, swimming, hunting and similar bodily exercises, but
his mind was only sparingly developed by his tutor.
When he, therefore, in his twelfth year came to the gymnasium (
High
School) in Münster
he received a place very near the bottom of the class, but he worked his
way up even in the first term, so as to rise to the first bench, a place
which he continued to hold.
After attending the gymnasium at
Münster
for six years, he entered the Dutch
University of Groningen,
where he spent three years, attending not only the judicial lectures but
with especial predilection the more important lectures in natural history
and medicine.
On the 30 th of August,
1806,
he defended his inaugural dissertation, De
Jure venandi, and
received the diploma of Doctor
utrinsque juris.
On the 1st of October of the same year he was appointed lawyer at
the
Supreme Court at Deventer,
and thus entered on his judicial career, which was, however, a brief one.
In the autumn of
1807
he accompanied his father to Utrecht,
whither his father was deputed as the representative of the
Electoral Committee of Oberyssel to Louis Napoléon,
who was then King of Holland
and residing at Utrecht.
The son was admitted to the audience as the speaker, he being better
acquainted with the
French
language.
A consequence of this was the undesired nomination of
Auditor
of the Privy Counsel :
this nomination arrived afterwards very unexpectedly.
His career at the
Dutch
Court from that time on
took a very unusually rapid course. Leaping over his colleagues who were
in part older, he was within a year nominated to be Auditor
to the King,
and hardly fourteen days afterwards as General
Secretary des requétes.
In this position, influential but very laborious, which was rendered
more burdensome during his last half year through his function as
Royal
Librarian and Chief
of the Topographical Bureau,
as well as by the treasurership
des secours.
Boenninghausen remained
until the resignation of the King
of Holland,
on the 1 st of July, 1810.
When
Boenninghausen
through this act which caused him the severest grief, hard lost his
extremely kind and benevolent master, he refused all further employment in
the Dutch Civil Service,
and in September, 1810,
he returned to the paternal hearth, to devote himself to the study of
agriculture and of the sciences more closely connected therewith, and
especially to botany, which gradually became his favorite study.
Having married in the autumn of
1812,
he in the spring of 1814
removed to his hereditary estate of Darup,
to develop its resources, and he gradually entered on correspondence with
the most prominent agriculturists of Germany,
especially with Thaer
and Schwerz.
This gave occasion to several contributors to the “
Macglin
sche Annalen,”
among which his article on “the
Culture of Rye according to Twent,”
seems to call for especial mention, as Thaer
caused a separate edition of it to be printed (Berlin,
A. Ruecker, 1820) ; by
his counsel and example, he continued to labor for the improvement of
agriculture in Westphalia.
Among
these works we would mention the establishment of the
Agricultural
Society for the
District of Muenster.
This was the first society in the western part of our kingdom and in an
enlarged form it is still in existence.
Its first meeting took place on the 3d of May,
1819,
in the capital of the district of Coesfeld,
then under his charge.
Besides several other pamphlets in this department, we would mention
”
Statistics of
Westphalia Agriculture in 1828 (242 pages, 8 vol.),
” published at Munich
in 1829.
At the reorganization of the
Prussian
Provinces, Rhineland and Westphalia,
he was offered, in the year 1816,
the position of President
of the Provincial Court
of Justice for the Westphalia district,
in Coesfeld,
where his estate of Darup
was situated ; he accepted the position and retained it till 1822.
During this period the necessity of registering the surveyed lands in
the provinces of
Rhineland
and Westphalia
was recognized, and Boenninghausen
as the sole judicial President
was called to the conferences held about it at Godesberg
near Bonn,
so as to give in his opinion, as a practical and theoretically cultivated
agriculturist, with respect to the technical part of the valuations.
In consequence,
Boenninghausen
and Mr. Bolshausen
were appointed General
Commissaries for the
registration for these provinces.
This new office caused almost continual travels in the communities to
be registered, but at the same time an increased opportunity of
investigating the
Flora
of these provinces, which was diligently made use of and enabled Boenninghausen
to publish as the first fruits a “Prodromus
Florae Monasteriensis,”
concerning the abundant floral riches of these provinces.
This contained much that was new and showed the similarity of our
Flora
to that of England.
About this time the direction of the
Botanical
Gardens at Münster
was transferred to him ; this he conducted for a number of years and it
brought him into communication with many of the first botanists of Europe.
His agricultural and botanical writings found sufficient applause, to
cause him to be honored not only with the diplomas of many learned
societies, but to receive also the highest botanical distinction, as C.
Sprengel
(Syst. veg.
III, p. 245), and Reichenbach
(Uebers des
Gewaechsreichs, p. 197),
each named a genus of plants after him.
A serious derangement of his health, hitherto so firm, took place in
the fall of
1827
; this was declared by two of the most celebrated physicians to be the
purulent tuberculosis
and became even more desperate in the spring of 1828
; this was the first occasion of his becoming acquainted with Homoeopathy.
For when all hope for his recovery was given up, he wrote a farewell
letter to his old and never forgotten botanical friend A.
Weihe,
M. D., at Herford,
who was the first homoeopathic physician in the whole of the provinces of Rhineland
and Westphalia,
though Boenninghausen
was ignorant of it, since their frequent correspondence had only touched
botanical subjects.
Weihe,
deeply moved by the news, answered at once and requested an exact and
detailed description of the disease and its concomitants and expressed the
hope that he might he enabled by the newly discovered curative method to
save a friend whom he valued so highly.
Boenninghausen
of
course followed most conscientiously the kindly advice given hint and
received medicine from Weihe
and gradually recovered, so that at the expiration of the summer he could
be considered as cured.
From this time onward
Boenninghausen
was not only a firm believer, but also an active promoter of Homoeopathy.
After exhorting and attempting in vain to create an interest among the
physicians of
Münster,
with whom he came into frequent contact as being himself a member and one
of the founders of the Medical
Society, he himself put
his hand to the work, refreshing with industry and zeal the half forgotten
medical lore acquired at the University
of Groningen, and had
the pleasure of becoming of use to many a one who sought his aid.
Only
two of the most aged of the physicians, Drs. Lutterbeck
and Tuisting,
whose attention had become fixed on Homoeopathy, owing to some surprising
cures of their own patients, who eventually had turned to Boenninghausen
for aid, because converted to Homoeopathy, continually sought counsel and
instruction from Boenninghausen,
and remained faithful to the newly-found truth even till their death.
Some foreign physicians of
France,
Holland, America, etc.,
were also attracted by Boenninghausen’s
growing fame, and were gained for the new doctrine.
But not being an approved physician, and, therefore, not entitled to a
medical practice, he had to fear great trouble and obstruction in his
career; he, therefore, during his first year directed his activity chiefly
to literary work by which he endeavored to make more easy and thus to
further the practice of Homoeopathy ; finally, however, by a royal order
of
King Friedrich
Wilhelm IV., dated July
11 th, 1843,
he was empowered to practice without any restraint.
Most of the works of
Boenninghausen
date from this first period, works which were then in the hands of all German
Homoeopaths and were used exclusively even by Hahnemann
till his death, and which have found many imitators, translators and
plagiarists.
For he soon recognized the fact that the foundation of all true healing
rests on an exact knowledge of the virtues of the medicines ; he,
therefore, made it his chief aim to discover the characteristics of the
remedies and to place these side by side so that the investigator could
without great loss of time either refresh his memory or find in the
original sources what was need.
Boenninghausen
, in
the beginning devoted to this work his winter months when he was more at
leisure, but after completing the registry of the surveys and having
requested and received his dismissal from Civil
Service, he devoted all
his leisure to these literary works and to his homoeopathic practice.
This is fully proved by his independent works, as well as by his
communications in the
Archiv
and in the Zeitung
and in the L’Homoeopathe
Belge.
As
Boenninghausen
had formerly corresponded with Thaer
and Schwerz
and later with Sprengel,
Koch, Link, Decandolle,
etc., so since 1830.
Boenninghausen
regularly and constantly corresponded with Hahnemann
himself and with Stapf,
Gross, Muhlenbein, Weihe,
etc., till their death.
After the decease of the venerable founder of our school and of the
”
Veterans of the
Old Guard,” he
continued his correspondence with the celebrities of this science both in
his native land and in foreign parts.
In the year
1848,
he instituted a yearly assembly of the homoeopathic physicians in Rhineland
and Westphalia
; this continues to the present time.
In consequence he was elected member of most of the homoeopathic
societies still in existence, as well as of the few that have already
passed away ; the
Homoeopathic
Medical College at Cleveland
(North America)
made him Medicinae
Doctoris by a
diploma dated March 1st, 1854,
and the Emperor
of France
appointed him a knight of the Legion
of Honor, April 20,
1861.
Photo mise à disposition par Peter
Morrell
courtesy Jay Yasgur
– ‘Wilbur Price Armstrong – A pioneering
American Physician’
The Homeopath, volume 73, April
99 pages 38-41
In spite of his having already entered on his 78th year, his health,
thanks to Homoeopathy, leaves nothing to be wished for, and his mental as
well as his physical flowers permit his constant activity in a science to
which he has dedicated the remainder of his life of continued action.
Of his seven sons two have followed the example of their father. The
older (
Carl,
born November 5, 1826,)
has now for several years been living at Paris,
and, indeed, in the most prosperous surroundings, having married the
amiable adopted daughter of the highly respected widow of Hahnemann
with whom he lives, and by his access to the library legacy of this
celebrated man he will soon be able to communicate to his colleagues much
of interest from the manuscripts and diaries left behind.
The younger son (
Friedrich,
born April 14, 1828,)
had first entered the judicial career, and after completing his studies at
the University, he had passed with honor through the first two
examinations, first for the Auscultatur
and then for the Referendariat
; when he determined to devote himself to the medical career.
He accordingly passed through the required university course in this
department and through the official examination. As is right and proper he
desired first to see with his own eyes the success achieved by both
schools before he will decide for the one or the other.
The result is even now, however, no more a question, and
Boenninghausen
may confidently count on having two thorough and faithful successors in
Homoeopathy, as he also, from his other five sons, has only joy, such as
is rarely the portion of a father of so large a family.
This is the image of the long and rich life of our excellent
Boenninghausen,
is he himself sketched it down, full of thankfulness to fate which
preserved him from external misfortune, and full of the highest reverence
to our teacher and master to whose grand creation he consecrated half his
life.
From the moment when he saw his shattered health restored by means of
the then little known Homoeopathy, he vowed to himself that he would study
the new curative method, in order to be able to work for its diffusion.
And how well he fulfilled this vow ! Surely not in the manner of most
men, but with au unselfishness and strength of character such as is found
but rarely nowadays among men.
Having received a truly classic education, intimately familiar with the
natural sciences, he found no difficulty in spite of his advanced age in
acquiring the necessary medical knowledge to successfully begin the study
of Homoeopathy.
Soon he had received its principles ”
in
succum et sanguinem“,
and with the clearness of his insight, he had felt that the Materia
Medica of Hahnemann
forms the basis and most important element of the whole of Homoeopathy. In
consequence he made this domain the almost exclusive subject of his
studies.
With what zeal and with what success he devoted himself to it is shown
by his extensive, exceedingly successful practice, as well as by his many
literary works and labors.
His knowledge of the effects of the remedies became ever more enlarged
and deep, so that after the death of
Hahnemann
there was no one who could vie with him in this knowledge.
Very often in our extended correspondence with the deceased we had
occasion to admire, yea, to be amazed at his mastery in this respect.
Distinguishing clearly, even to a hair’s breadth, was his diagnosis of
the remedies, and this was not based on mere external and secondary
symptoms, but it seized upon the internal and the totality of the effects
of the remedies.
A
brilliant example of this he gave, in his parallel between Causticum
and Calcarea,
contributed to this journal.
He was well aware of the fact, that a number of those Homoeopaths, who
by all means wish to reform Homoeopathy, without possessing the knowledge
and the true comprehension of the subject necessary thereto, were opposed
to his endeavors, and in many ways defamed him ; but neither revilings nor
sarcasm were able to turn him from the path after he once had seen it to
be the right one.
From the beginning of his activity for Homoeopathy he stepped in the
footsteps of
Hahnemann,
and he followed the same path most strictly and conscientiously to his
last breath.
But he did not follow the maxims and doctrines of the master blindly or
without free determination.
Honoring him above all and protecting him from every defamation, he,
nevertheless, did not consider him infallible in every point, while be
recognized his great discovery as without blemish and perfect.
Therefore all his endeavors were expended toward making the practical
side of Homoeopathy perfect and to facilitate its practice at the
sick-bed.
The greater number of his independent works, as well as his more
numerous articles and treatises, with which he furnished especially
Stapf’s
Archiv and our journal,
especially aim at this one point.
As the first and highest commandment in the successful homoeopathic
treatment of a patient, he with
Hahnemann
considered the strict and exact individualization ; the accurate
examination of patients and the detailed sketching of the image of the
disease, which he shortly before his death warmly recommended to all
the younger physicians
in a special treatise.
Even in the last years of his life he published a second edition of his
Therapy of
Intermittent Fever,
the first part of which has just now appeared in a totally revised and
augmented forth.
Thus our departed friend labored for half a century with restless
activity for our Homoeopathy with an energy which belongs to a man who has
devoted his life to a holy truth.
As such he considered the doctrine of
Hahnemann,
as a precious inalienable jewel, which must be carefully cherished and
guarded from every impure admixture.
Ever more glorious, so he wrote us in one of his letters, will
Homoeopathy unfold its banner, ever more brightly will it beans in the
firmament of science, ever more full of curative virtue she will show her
wonderful powers, if she is not decked with any false finery, nor
disfigured with any borrowed attire or ornaments.
Homoeopathy is a natural growth and independent in its nature, and
every alien admixture is but to her detriment.
The germ of its development lies in her own nature, and it, therefore,
only needs an intelligent gardener, who will give it the necessary and
correct culture, and also faithful watchmen, who will relentlessly destroy
every parasitical plant that would approach it.
And as he thought and spoke, so he also faithfully acted. He would not
deviate an inch front the doctrine and rules of Homoeopathy, and only
within it and through it he thought and found the way for its development
and perfection.
As such a rule he also viewed the minimizing of the dose and its rare
repetition. In consequence, during his last decennium he used only the
high potencies, usually the
200
th, prepared by Lehrmann
in Schoeningen.
He did not endeavor to theoretically explain the efficacy of these
minimized closes, but he endeavored to prove it by brilliant successes.
We would here only mention the cures of animals communicated by him
in the last volume of this journal ; these he told in the most
unassuming manner, but they indubitably prove anew the excellent efficacy
of these high potencies
He combatted the principle laid down by many Homoeopaths, that acute
diseases called for stronger doses than chronic diseases, and showed the
inconclusiveness of this assertion by his many cures of croup with these
same high potencies ; the same fact has also been lately demonstrated in
many cases by practice.
This operation with such very small doses is not a matter for everybody
to indulge in, for it requires a special and exact knowledge of remedies,
such as the deceased possessed and such as not everybody else has at his
disposal.
We are far from desiring to enkindle again the vexed dispute about
doses, but we think we ought to declare that the deceased, by his
consistent and successful practice, proved that the homoeopathic principle
of the minimum dose is an indisputable truth, and belongs as much to the
totality of Homoeopathy, as its first principle, the law of similia.
In this manner
Boenninghausen,
following in the footsteps of the Master,
has benefited Homoeopathy by confirming and perfecting it ; and by this
means he has contributed not a little to the more general reception of the
homoeopathic doctrine.
For this, as well as for all his great services to Homoeopathy, the
fervent gratefulness and most faithful love of all his loyal colleagues
attends him to his grave, into which he took with himself the fair
consciousness of the most honest fulfilment of his duties and of his
useful activity.
He could depart in peace, for he had faithfully and conscientiously
used the time granted him and finished his work. His spirit never sought
for rest, for new work was to him a new recreation.
Seldom, therefore, have the leisure hours of a learned man given birth
to a fairer work than the one left us by the deceased, namely :
“Notes
to the Aphorisms of Hippocrates.”
This forms a treasury of his learning and classic culture, and a
testimony to his unassuming modesty.
These qualities, indeed, were the ornament of his whole life and
activity. He never desired to impose with the fullness of his knowledge,
nor to impose to others his convictions, no matter how fully he was
permeated by them.
He bore no ill will to his adversaries and opponents, who did not
always oppose him with the respect he deserved, nor did he pay them back
in their own coin ; if they did not appear worthy of a reply he
left them unnoticed ; or, in the other case, he endeavored to convince
them of their errors in a scientific manner.
Never an expression or a word flowed from his pen which in any way
violated social propriety or the respect due to a colleague.
Chivalrous in the true sense of the word, he hated all discord, and he
early accustomed himself to honor the merits even of his opponents.
As in science so in general, he loved truth above all things ; this
shining pearl of his life was encircled by a rare honesty and
gratefulness, amiability, and goodness of heart.
And, as if heaven desired to reward these virtues already here, it
granted him a long life, free from care, a sturdy health, and a vigor
enduring even to an advanced age, and it also granted his desire for a
brief and painless death-bed.
” It was only since the beginning of the last winter,” as his
son,
Dr. Friedrich v.
Boenninghausen, writes
us, ” that my dear father suffered from phlegm on the chest, causing
from time to time an increased cough, and during the expectoration, which
was loosened with difficulty, asthma.
About
New Year,
owing to a cold, caused by the prevailing cold north-east wind, there was
an aggravation, causing some apprehension.
But owing to the excellent effect of the rightly chosen remedy, his
health improved from day to day, so that he could again without trouble
take up his, customary occupation and manner of living.
On
Friday, the 23 d
of January, he seemed
vigorous and complained of nothing. His appetite was good, his walk had
agreed with him, and he could attend to his work and his correspondence
without any exertion or fatigue.
The greater was my surprise and grief when I was called next morning to
my dear father and found that he had had a stroke. Even the first
examination yielded a sad prognosis.
He was completely paralyzed on his left side, and the whole left side
of the body was without sensation or motion.
More distressing yet was the state of the lungs ; also no action could
he perceived on the left side, so that the respiration was continued but
with difficulty and weakly by the right lung. The pupil of the left eye
was very much contracted and insensible to the light.
Despite the congestion to the head, the sensory was almost undisturbed,
so that he himself, with his customary acute distinction of symptoms,
emphasizing clearly and correctly the characteristic signs, took part in
the selection of the remedies and in his own treatment.
Though the selected medicines very soon manifested their favorable
action, and improved the paralytic symptoms, causing a beneficient warm
perspiration, the state of the lungs did not allow us to entertain any
serious hopes.
The energy of the respiratory organs steadily .diminished,
the oedema gradually spread over a larger extent of the lungs, the
rattling and the stertorous breathing rose up higher and became louder.
Notwithstanding there remained a pretty near consciousness even to his
dissolution, which took place almost imperceptibly after a steadily
progressive diminution of the respiration, in a quiet and gentle manner,
at
3.46 A. M., on
January 26th.
” Thus the dearly beloved head was taken from the midst of his
family, the head around which all the members had gathered in joy and love
; thus the aged champion of the only true method of curing, to which for
half a century he had devoted almost all his powers, and who a few days
before had still been so sturdy and endowed with youthful vigor of spirit,
suddenly and unexpectedly lay before us a corpse.
What feelings and thoughts surged within me as I again and again, and
finally viewed the face of my good father, still so kindly and tranquil,
even in death, for he had not only been my father but also a grand teacher
and master. Both his science and his family have lost in him their most
noble father !”
But this noble father will never be forgotten, we proclaim to the
mourning family, to lamenting science.
Even though his body may have returned to dust, his spirit will
continue to live in his works, the memory of his life will be an
encouraging example for all of us, and we all should determine to work
just as sedulously, as honestly and as faithfully on this great creation
of
Hahnemann.
May many such be found, so that the loss we have suffered may not be
felt too keenly !
And so receive, O, dear one, once more our heartfelt thanks for your
faithfulness, your loyalty and your self-sacrifice – and from us
personally our thanks for your affection which in your great love you
granted us. We knew how to value it and were proud of it.
Rest in peace. –
Meyer.
In the
Allg. hom
Zeitung (vol. 68, p. 133)
is the following :
Pulsatilla
was the
remedy through which the late Boenninghausen
was cured from a severe pulmonic disease, and which converted him to
Homoeopathy. — Dr Gross.
The undersigned is especially personally grateful to
Boenninghausen,
for through his labors alone was he enabled to establish the
distinguishing characteristics of the remedies of our Materia Medica which
are akin in their actions in comparative diagnoses. – Dr. H. Gross.
Dr.
Dunham,
who was a great friend of Boenninghausen
published the following in the American
Homoeopathic Review for April, 1864 :
With deep sorrow we record the death of this distinguished physician.
For many years he was a warm personal friend of
Hahnemann.
He was associated with Hahnemann’s
immediate pupils, Stapf,
Gross, Muhlenbein, Hartmann
and Rückert,
in those early labors which placed Homoeopathy on an immoveable foundation
as a practical method, he survived an indefatigable laborer in the good
cause, long after Hahnemann
and his pupils had all passed away.
To the day of his death he was in constant intercourse by
correspondence or through the journals, with all the earnest hard working
younger homoeopathic practitioners.
He was, therefore, the link connecting the past generation of the
Master, and the active generation of to day, at once the venerable relic
of the former and a trusted leader of the latter.
And now this link is broken. The last ”
Veteran
of the Old Guard”
has gone to his rest. The genial voice is hushed forever. The clear,
serene and holiest eye is closed. The sagacious judgment which so rarely
erred, the ever active brain have ceased from their labors on earth. The
kindly heart, whose even beat no selfish impulse ever quickened. pulsates
no longer.
For us remain, for those who were his personal friends, a deep and
abiding sense of a great loss, for the profession in general, the ripe
fruits of his experience and scholarship in his published works, and the
bright example of his busy life.
Clemens Maria Franz, Baron von Boenninghausen
,
Doctor of Civil and Criminal Laws and of Medicine, was born March
12, 1785, on the
ancestral estate of Heringhaven
in Overyssel,
a province of the Netherlands.
His ancestors. whose names and arms may be traced back into the
thirteenth century and one of whom was made an
Austrian
Field Marshal by Ferdinand
II., in 1632,
belonged to the oldest nobility of Westphalia
and the Rhine.
Inasmuch, however, as for three hundred years past, they had devoted
themselves exclusively to the profession of arms, their property always
remained quite moderate in amount.
Von Boenninghausen’s
early youth was passed in the country, where his bodily vigor was fostered
by riding, swimming, hunting and other manly exercises, while his mental
faculties were but
sparingly cultivated.
When, therefore, in his twelfth year he entered the high school in
Münster
he found his place at the foot of his classes. But his diligence during
the first half year was so great that, at the end of that period he had
reached the head, a position he always retained.
After remaining six years at this school,
von
Boenninghausen went to
the University of Groningen,
where he spent three years, devoting himself not only to the studies
proper to the profession of law, to which he intended to devote himself
but also, and with great zest, to the study of Natural
History and of Medicine.
On the 30th of August,
1806,
he received the degree of Doctor
of Civil and Criminal Laws,
and about the 1st of October in the same year he began his career as
advocate.
This career was destined to be brief. In August,
1807,
von Boenninghausen
accompanied his father to Utrecht,
whither the latter was sent as delegate from the Electoral
Committee of Overyssel
to the then king of Holland,
Louis Bonaparte (father
of Napoleon III)
who at that time. resided at Utrecht.
Being more familiar with the
French
language than his companions, the young von Boenninghausen
was admitted to the audience to act as interpreter. In consequence of this
circumstance he soon received the quite unexpected appointment of Auditor
to the State Council.
From this time on, his career at the
Court
of Holland was a
remarkably rapid one.
Within a year he was promoted over the heads of some colleagues much
older than himself, to the post of
Auditor
to the King, and a
fortnight afterwards to that of Secrétaire
général des requêtes.
This laborious but influential office, to which were subsequently added
the duties of royal librarian and chief of the topographical bureau, he
continued to hold until the abdication of the
King
of Holland, July 1, 1810.
After the loss of his very kind and benevolent chief, of whose council
he was the youngest member, under circumstances so very painful to him,
von
Boenninghausen
declined every position that was offered him in the service of Holland,
and returned in 1810
to the paternal estate to devote himself to the study of agriculture and
of the auxiliary sciences, especially that of botany, which gradually
became his favorite pursuit.
He married in
1812,
and in 1814
removed to his inherited estate of Darop.
Here he gradually entered into correspondence with the most prominent
agriculturists of
Germany,
especially with Thaer
and Schwerz.
Several essays from his pen appeared in the Moglischen
Annalen.
He endeavored by advice and example to improve the agriculture of
Westphalia.
Among his efforts of this kind was the founding of the Agricultural
Society for the
district of Munster,
which still exists in a more extended form and which was the first
association of the kind in the western part of the Prussian
Monarchy.
On the organization of the
Prussian
provinces of the Rhine
and Westphalia
in 1816,
the position of Landrath
for circle of Coesfeld,
in which his estate of Darop
lies, was offered to von Boenninghausen.
He accepted it and filled it until
1822.
During this period the necessity of an appraisement of the two above-named
provinces of the Rhine
and Westphalia
was recognized, and von Boenninghausen
being the only Landrath,
was summoned to the conferences held on the subject at Godesburg,
near Bonn,
in order that he might testify, as both a theoretically and practically
educated agriculturist, on the technology of the appraisements.
He was subsequently, in
1822,
appointed General
Commissioner of Appraisements
for the two provinces.
This new office involved almost constant traveling about in these
provinces ; but this, again, gave him increased opportunities for the
study of their flora.
He published in
1824
a ” Prodromus
Forae Monasteriensis,
” which
contained much that was new, and which showed tile similarity between the Westphalian
flora and the English.
At this time also was entrusted to him the direction of the
Royal
Botanical Gardens at Münster,
which he conducted for many years and through which he came into relations
with many of’ the first botanists of Europe.
In consequence of his agricultural and botanical writings, he received
many diplomas from learned societies, and C.
Sprugel
(Syst. veg,, III., 245),
and Reichenbach
(Uebers, des Gewachsreich, 197),
awarded him the highest honor known to a botanist, by each naming a genus
of plants after him.
In the autumn of
1827,
his health, which lead hitherto been very robust, became seriously
impaired and his disease, which was pronounced by two most distinguished
physicians to be purulent consumption, grew so rapidly worse that in the
spring of 1828,
all hope of his recovery was abandoned.
This was the first occasion of his acquiring a knowledge of
Homoeopathy. Having given up all hope of recovery, he wrote a farewell
letter to his old and cherished botanical friend Dr. A.
Weihe,
of Herford,
who was a homoeopathic physician, the first in the whole of Westphalia
and the Rhine,
a fact, however, of which Boenninghausen
was not aware, inasmuch as their frequent correspondence had treated only
of botanical subjects.
Weihe
, much
concerned at the intelligence of Boenninghausen’s
illness, requested an accurate description of the case, expressing the
hope that he might be the means of saving his valuable friend through the
aid of the newly discovered method of cure.
Boenninghausen
complied with his request, followed implicitly the directions he received,
and gradually recovered, so that, by the end of the summer, he was
regarded as cured.
From this period, he was not only a decided adherent but an active and
earnest advocate of Homoeopathy.
After ineffectual endeavors to arouse an interest on the subject among
the physicians of
Munster
with whom he came into frequent intercourse as member and one of the
founders of the Medical
Society, he put his own
hand to the work, revived the half-forgotten knowledge of medicine
acquired at the University
of Groningen,
and had the good fortune to be of service to ninny who sought his aid.
He had not, however, a license to practice as a physician, a fact which
might have subjected him to many impediments and disamenities had he
undertaken to engage in a general medical practice.
For this reason, for a few years he expended his energies to a great
extent upon literary labors which had for their object to study thoroughly
the practical part of Homoeopathy and to facilitate and extend its
application.
At length so generally were his learning and success acknowledged that,
by a cabinet order of His
Majesty
King Wilhelm IV, dated
July 11th, 1843,
all the rights and immunities of a practising physician were bestowed upon
him.
It was during the former period, from
1828
to 1843,
that most of the systematic works, for which we are indebted to Boenninghausen,
were composed and published.
These were of a practical nature, designed to aid the student of
materia medica and the physician at the bed-side. They were cordially
received, were preferred by
Hahnemann
to all others, and were used by him to the time of his death.
They have served as models, originals, or points of departure for most
of the manuals, guides and repertories that have been published.
During this period too,
Boenninghausen
was a constant and prolific contributor to the of the new series of which,
the Neues Archiv,
he became associate editor along with Stapf,
after the death of Gross
to the Allgemeine
homoeopathische Zeitung
and to the Homoeopathe
Belge.
In these labors and in the discharge of his functions as a
practitioner, his days were filled with honorable toil. His fame as a
successful practitioner and as the acknowledged master of our Materia
Medica, brought him many visitors from among professional men. These his
genial cordiality converted into warm and steadfast friends.
Advancing years dealt with him tenderly and death has at last overtaken
him at his post of duty, still earnest in his labors, warm in his
friendships and at peace with
God
and man.
Boenninghausen
was
in constant correspondence with Hahnemann
from 1830
till the death of the old master and he more than once permitted the
writer to examine a large volume of letters from Hahnemann
the last of which was written six weeks before Hahnemann’s
death.
In
1848
he founded the Society
of the Homoeopathic Physicians of Westphalia and the Rhine,
the yearly meetings of which still continue.
Almost every homoeopathic society has elected him a member. The
Homoeopathic
Medical College of Cleveland,
in 1854,
conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine, and, on the
20th of April. 1861,
the Emperor of the
French, Napoleon III,
whom, when a boy, Boenninghausen
their, Councilor to
Louis of Holland, had
known, made him Knight
of the Legion of Honor.
Of
Boenninghausen’s
seven sons two have chosen the profession of medicine. The elder (Karl,
born November 5th. 1826.)
after practising for a year or more in Westphalia,
in his father’s neighborhood, where his success in treating a severe
epidemic of typhus demonstrated his possession of rare endowments and
great knowledge, is now settled in Paris
under most fortunate circumstances.
He married the amiable adopted daughter of
Hahnemann’s
venerable widow. He resides with Madame
Hahnemann and has
access to the literary relics of our illustrious master.
From these we may hope that, ”
in
the fullness of time,”
much that is most valuable and interesting will be made public.
The second son
Frederick
(born April I4 th, 1828,)
had at first determined to study law, and had actually made considerable
progress therein.
The example of his brother, however, induced him to abandon this
profession for that of medicine. He repaired to the
University
of Berlin, where after
the usual period of study, he graduated as his brother had done, with
great distinction, and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine with a
license to practice.
Having up to this time paid little or no attention to Homœopathy, he
now returned to the paternal roof for the purpose of watching the result
of his father’s practice, and of comparing these results with those with
which he had become familiar in the allopathic hospitals in
Berlin.
He proposed, after sufficient comparative observations of this kind, to
make his choice between Homoeopathy and Allopathy.
The nature of this choice could not be doubtful. His unqualified and
enthusiastic preference was given to Homoeopathy. After one year of
careful study he engaged in general practice near
Münster,
where, we believe, he still resides.
It will be perceived, front the above sketch, that the life of our
friend and colleague was full of a diversified activity. In his official
employments, as well as in his agricultural and botanical studies, he lead
always in view some well defined practical object, and this was generally
something of a beneficent character.
And when he began to labor in the field of homoeopathic medicine, his
energies were exerted in a corresponding direction. Although deeply
learned in ancient and modern philosophy, his mind was essentially of a
practical turn.
Those subjects had most attractions for him which presented the problem
of definite labor for definite results. The theories and speculations and
system-making, which have charms for many Homoeopathists, seemed to
Boenninghausen
to have but a secondary importance.
He perceived that the matter of prime necessity was such a study of the
materia medica as should bring out into bold relief the characteristic
peculiarities of each individual remedy, so that the practitioner might
easily and surely single out that remedy which might be most similar in
its symptoms to the disease under treatment. To such a study he devoted
himself.
The success of his practice is the measure of the success of these
studies as well as an indication of
Boenninghausen’s
sagacity in selecting this as the most important subject of study.
As a result of these studies he published a small work containing the
”
Characteristics of Homoeopathic Remedies ”
and also a “Concordance
of the Relations of the Remedies to each Other.”
About the same time he published his “
‘Therapeutic
Pocket Book, or Manual for the Student of the Materia Medica and for the
Physician at the Bed side,”
a work designed chiefly to aid the student of the Materia Medica in
following the course which Boenninghausen
had found so successful.
He published also a ”
Repertory
of the Materia Medica,”
and which is on the whole the best yet constructed.
In these works
Boenninghausen
brings prominently into view, the great importance of the characteristic
symptoms and the value of the conditions and concomitants of the symptoms,
as marks of individualization.
Figure 2 Dr. Hempel.
Photo mise à disposition par le Dr A. Kotok, avec
nos remerciements confraternels.
It may be remarked that the work on ”
Characteristics
” has never been translated into English,
a similar but immeasurably inferior look of Jahr’s
having been unhappily preferred by the publishers.
The “
Therapeutic
Pocket Book” was
translated into French
and into English.
But Boenninghausen
pointed out to the writer the fact that the French
translation was so carelessly made that the lists of remedies in several
cases are placed under different headings from those under which they
properly belong, thus making the work a false guide.
This was done by Dr.
Roth,
the same who in his studies of materia medica is now making such charges
of inaccuracy and carelessness against Hahnemann,
and whom Dr. Hering
has just convicted of grossly careless misquotation in his remarks upon Sabadilla.
The English translation by Dr.
Laurie
has the same faults, having been translated from the ” improved
French”
translation, and not from the original German.
In
America,
two translations have appeared by Dr. Hempel and Dr. Okie.
Boenninghausen
published also a little pamphlet on the “Treatment
of Intermittent Fever,”
which was translated by Dr. Hempel.
In the last letter which the writer received from him, dated November
9th,
1863,
he says :
” I have now in press, at
Leipzig,
a treatise (as complete as possible) on the ‘Treatment
of Fevers,’ a new
edition of my pamphlet on this subject published in 1833,
but not only considerably enlarged, but better arranged.”
It is believed that he had nearly completed a work on the ”
Treatment
of Epilepsy,” as
well as a new and enlarged edition of his ” Repertory.”
An essay on the treatment of ”
Whooping
Cough ” was
published in 1856.
An English translation with additions is now in the hands of the
publisher.
The crowning literary work of his life, however, was that which
appeared early in
1863,
the “Aphorisms of
Hippocrates, with the Glosses of a Homoeopathist,”
a large octavo volume so full of learning and of sagacious observation as
to have won enthusiastic commendation from the entire allopathic press.
A
French
translation will soon appear at Brussels.
Boenninghausen was
anxious that the English
translation should be made and published in America,
where he believed that Homoeopathy had made greater and sounder progress
than in England,
and, but for the disturbances in business occasioned by the existing war,
it is probable the translation would already have appeared.
He desired that it should be preceded by a biographical sketch of the
author, and it is from materials furnished him for the compilation of this
sketch that the writer has derived the data for the foregoing hasty
memoir.
The
English
translation will be adorned by a finely engraved portrait, from a painting
by Roting
in the possession of the writer.
Boenninghausen
began
to practice Homoeopathy according to the practical rules laid down by Hahnemann.
When the high potencies were first introduced, he, at the instigation
of
Gross,
began very cautiously to make experiments with them, first upon domestic
animals and afterwards, when encouraged by the results, very cautiously
upon his patients.
Seven years was devoted to these experiments, the results of which were
always recorded and carefully collated.
Finally he became convinced of the superiority of the higher over the
lower potencies and for twenty-two years, up to the time of his death, he
used only the high potencies, at last exclusively the 200th in all cases.
It was his custom to record every case for which he prescribed. In
1862,
he informed the writer that he had just begun the 112th volume of his
” Clinical Record.”
Of these
112
volumes, it is safe to estimate that at least eighty contain records of
cases treated almost exclusively with high potencies. A rich mine of
experience for the conscientious and intelligent explorer !
Boenninghausen
adhered closely to Hahnemann’s
practical rules in prescribing. He was careful never to repeat the remedy
until the effects of the close already given were exhausted.
Dr Lutze
He thoroughly disapproved of alternation of remedies.
In a work on “Domestic Practice” by
Lutze,
Boenninghausen
has been referred to as recommending a combination of remedies. This is
utterly false.
The writer has in his possession, and will are long publish, a letter
in which he utterly denies any such recommendation, expresses most hearty
reprobation of the practice and gives a history of the origin of the
proposition to combine two or more remedies in a single prescription.
On resigning the offices which he held under the
Prussian
Government, Boenninghausen
removed to Münster,
where he built the house in which he lived when the writer visited him and
in which he died.
In this house it was his custom to receive patients daily from 9 A. M.
to 2 P.M. From 2 to 5 P.M., he spent in diversion, generally in walking
about the suburbs, or along the beautiful promenade which surround, the
city, occupying the site of the former ramparts, or else in the
Botanical
Garden attached to the Ducal
Residence.
It was in these flours of relaxation that his genial social qualities,
his wit and his full and varied knowledge were seen to best advantage.
The writer will ever remember how, in course of one of these walks,
Boenninghausen,
having gently rallied him on some evidences of home sickness which he
thought he had detected, gravely told him that he would take him to see a
compatriot who resided in Münster.
He accordingly led the way to the
Botanical
Garden, and them, with
charming courtly ceremony, presented the writer to a stately tulip tree (Liriodendron
tulipifera), which he
said he had imported from America
forty years ago, and which he said he believed was the only immigrant from
the United States
in Westphalia.
His interest in the history and progress of Homoeopathy in all parts of
the world was very great. Especially was he interested in its development
in
America,
a country from which he had received many tokens of esteem and admiration.
On receiving a copy of the volume of ”
Transactions
of the Homoeopathic Medical Society of the State of New Pork,”
published in 1863
by the Legislature of
the State, he expressed
great pleasure, using the following language :
” I have been very agreeably surprised by the progress of
Homoeopathy in your country. Your
Government,
indeed, does not cease to favor everything which is truly salutary to man
kind.
In truth it may well serve as a model for all other
Governments.
Its merit is all the greater, in that the calamity of war does not hinder
it from extending a protecting hand over the public weal.”
Thus, active, earnest in every good work, filling with honor positions
of high public trust, but devoting his faculties with equally
conscientious fidelity to the cure of peasant and noble, indifferent to
nothing that concerns the welfare of mankind, ever ready to point out to
the seeker after knowledge the paths which he had himself so successfully
trodden, thus lived, trusted, honored and beloved this distinguished
physician and
Christian
gentleman who has now gone to his rest.– D.
In the same copy of the Review Dr.
Lippe
writes of his friend :
Dr. von Boenninghausen. by – AD. Lippe, M. D.
Philadelphia, PA.
The sad news has reached us that again one of the veterans of
Homoeopathy has left. On the 26th day of February, the good and noble
Baron
Clemens Maria Franz von Boenninghausen,
died at Münster,
at the age of 79 years. How can we prepare a merited monument to our
departed colleague ?
Dr Ad. Lippe
Boenninghausen
leaves as a legacy to posterity his manifold writings and elaborate works.
Among these he has given us, before closing his earthly career, a lasting
evidence of his vast learning and acquirements, of his very thorough
appreciation and understanding of Homoeopathy, in his last and great gift,
his “Aphorisms of
Hippocrates,” with
notes by a Homoeopathist.
So overwhelming was the effusion of his learning throughout this work
that even the medical journals of the opposition found themselves
compelled to praise his profound abilities.
Boenninghausen
devoted his whole life to Homoeopathy and the further development of the
science.
As a friend and pupil of
Hahnemann
his unbounded admiration increased daily by his intercourse with him, and
after the great Master’s
death he studied all his writings, and by these he became still more
penetrated by and convinced of the truth of Hahnemann’s
observations and the great work accomplished by him.
Following
Hahnemann’s
doctrines and guided by them he developed Homoeopathy. His intimate
knowledge of our Materia Medica is evident and indisputably proved in
every page of his “Relations,”
” Repertory,”
and ” Pocket Book.”
His great conscientious accuracy is admired by add who consult his
writings and valuable works, and those who, like myself, have had the
honor and happiness of a delightful intimacy with him will often recall
the charm of his ever instructive conversation. His unparalleled
simplicity of manner and the goodness of heart of this most excellent man.
While he leaves us add these gifts we may well ask ourselves what would
be the best mode of preparing the monument which this great man has
merited by the service he has rendered to progressive Homoeopathy, and
thereby to suffering humanity ?
Our departed colleague has pointed out how he had wished to prepare the
well deserved monument of our master –
Hahnemann
– and I here quote from one of his excellent articles, written soon after Hahnemann’s
death and translated for and published in the Homoeopathic
Examiner, for
1846,
Vol. IV.
His text is on ”
The
Three Precautionary Rules of Hahnemann.”
he says, “unless
the signs deceive me, we are note at the commencement of a new
epoch, marked by the death of our Master, whose genius hovers around us,
an epoch when the excrescences shall have been chopped off and the genuine
metal separated from the dross.
Let us, henceforth be more firmly united, add of us who desire the
good, but let us exclude from our ranks with unrelenting severity anyone
who sneers at the good cause, schismatics and add those who attempt
substantiating opinions and hypotheses for careful observations.
But let us at the same time honor the memory of the great reformer in
medicine, by subjecting his doctrines, results of fifty years’
observations to repeated and comprehensive examinations and trials, and by
candidly communicating our experience one to another.
This would be the best mode of preparing the monument which the great
man has merited by the services he has rendered to suffering
humanity.”
Boenninghausen
by
this illustrates and endorses the three precautionary rules of Hahnemann.
The happy epoch which he then anticipated has not yet come, the
conditions he points out by which this epoch may be ushered in with
certainity, “
the
chopping off of the excrescences, the separation of the genuine metal from
the dross with unrelenting severity,”
these have not yet been fulfilled, but unless the signs of the times
deceive me, this condition is note being consummated, and the desired
happy epoch must soon come.
The three precautionary rules of
Hahnemann,
the results of fifty years’ experience, and note also the rules of Boenninghausen,
would form a good basis for experiments to be subjected to repeated and
comprehensive examinations, and trials, and the results thereof candidly
communicated one to another ; by so doing we can prepare the best and
lasting monument to this great and good man, and thus by a desired and
decided union, meet his wishes and honor his memory by honoring the memory
of our great master.
Figure 5 Photo courtesy of Georg M.
Kissling
Puhlmann
says that Dr. Carl von
Boenninghausen (born 1777,
died 1862)
was a contemporary of Jahr.
He published, as early as 1832,
a ” Repertory of
Antipsoric Remedies,”
and later ” Homoeopathic
Therapeutics of Intermittent Fevers,” ” Homoeopathy, a Manual
for the Public,”
and other works.
His most important work (long out of print) is the –
Pocket-book for Homoeopathic Physicians, for Clinical Use and for the
Study of the Materia Medica Pura.”
He established, in
1846,
the Society of
Homoeopathic Physicians of Rhineland and Westphalia.
In
1860,
at the age of 83,
he issued his ” Aphorisms
of Hippocrates with Comments by a Homoeopathist.”
Like
Jahr,
he adhered to all of Hahnemann’s
dogmas, and especially to the theory of potentization. He prescribed
almost exclusively the tooth potency.
Boenninghausen.
1 – “The Cure of Cholera and its Preventatives,” according to
Hahnemann’s
latest communication to the author. 1831.
2 – ” Repertory of the Antipsoric Medicines,” with a preface
by
Hahnemann
with respect to the repetition of the dose of a remedy. 1832.
3 – ” Summary View of the Chief Sphere of Operation of the
Antipsoric Remedies and of their Characteristic Peculiarities, as an
Appendix to their Repertory.”
1833.
4 – ” An Attempt at a Homoeopathic Therapy of Intermittent
Fever.”
1833.
5 – ” Contributions to a Knowledge of the Peculiarities of
Homoeopathic Remedies.”
1833.
6 – ” Homoeopathic Diet and a Complete Image or a Disease.”
For the non-professional Public.
1833.
7 – ” Homoeopathy, a Manual for the Non – Medical Public.”
1834.
8 – ” Repertory of the Medicines which are not Anti-Psoric.”
1835.
9 – ” Attempt at Showing the Relative Kinship of Homoeopathic
Medicines.”
1836.
10 – “Therapeutic Manual for Homoeopathic Physicians.” for
use at the sickbed and in the study of the Materia Medica Pura.
1846.
11 – ” Brief Instruction for Non-Physicians as to the Prevention
and Cure of Cholera.”
1849.
12 – The Two Sides of the Human Body and Relationships.”
Homoeopathic Studies.
1853.
13 – ” The Hom. Domestic Physician in Brief Therapeutic
Diagnoses.” An attempt.
1853.
14 – “The Homoeopathic Treatment of Whooping Cough in its Various
Forms.”
1860.
15 – “The Aphorisms of Hippocrates, with Notes by a
Homoeopath”.
1863.
16 – “Attempt at a homoeopathic Therapy of Intermittent and Other
Fevers,” especially for would-be Homoeopaths. Second augmented and l
revised edition. Part 1. The Pyrexy.
1864.
(Brit. Jour. Hom., vol. 22, page 151.
Amer. Hom. Revew, volume 4, page 433.
World’s Con. vol. 2. page 36.
Kleinert, 314.
Lute’s Fl. Blatter, Feb. 21, 1864.
Med. Couns., vol. II p. 402.
All. hom. Zeit., vol. 68. pp. 56, 64, 133.
Rapou, vol. 2.)
Numérisation,
vérification, mise en page,