Biological Sketch of Hahnemann


The histories of many men who have risen to eminence in some particular branch of science teach us that they have done so under the most unfavourable circumstances. Hahnemann belonged to this class of great men….


Difficulty of forming a correct estimate of him

– His birth and parentage

– Pursuit of knowledge under difficulties

-School days- Student’s life in Leipzic and Vienna

-Removal to Hermannstadt- Graduates in Erlangen

-Practises in Hettstadt, then in Dessau, then in Gommern

-His first marriage-Removes to Dresden-Chemical labours

-Berzelius’s opinion

-Goes to Leipzic

-Discovery of the homoeopathic principle

– Res angusta domi

-Accepts the charge of a lunatic asylum-Introduces the principle of moral restraint

– Removes to Walschleben, Pyrmont, Brunswick, Wolfenbuttel, and Konigslutter

-Works written during this period-Enunciation of the homoeopathic principle

-Persecution of the apothecaries-Discovery of the prophylactic for scarlet fever

-Tardy acknowledgment of his discovery

-Forced to leave Konigslutter

-Accidents on the journey

– Arrives at Hamburg

-Removes to Altona, Mollen, Eulenburg, Machern, Dessau

-Works written during this period

-Hostility of his colleagues

-Chemical mistake

-Removes to Torgau

-Writes for a literary journal

-Returns to Leipzic

-Attacks upon him

-His thesis to enable him to lecture

-Commences lecturing

-Literary labour

– Treatment of Prince Schwarzenberg

-Persecution of the apothecaries

– Driven from Leipzic

-Settles in Coethen

-Works written during this period

-Foundation of the Central Homoeopathic Society

-(Secret history of Hahnemann’s statue)

– Indicates the remedies for cholera

– Death of his first wife-Second marriage

– Removal to Paris-Death and burial

-Characteristics of Hahnemann’s mind

-His perseverance

– His intolerance

-His unsociableness

-His conscientiousness

-His industry

– His generosity

– Anecdote of his high estimate of the medical profession

-His humility

-Compared to Luther

-Estimate of his character.


“HAHNEMANN, dieser seltene Doppelkopf von Philosophie und Gelehrsamkeit-dessen System am Ende den Ruin der gemeinen Receptirkopfe nach sich ziehen muss, aber noel, wenig von den Praktikern angenommen and mehr verabscheut als untersuchtist.”- JEAN PAUL RICHTER, Zerstreute Blatter, II. Band, S. 292.

ALTHOUGH it would perhaps be out of place to preface a course of lectures upon the ordinary Practice of Physic with an account of the Personal history of Aesculapius or Hippocrates, of Galen or Sydenham, as the representative men of old Physic, the case is altered when we have to discourse of that thorough reformation of the art of Medicine commonly called Homoeopathy; for Homoeopathy is so intimately associated with the name of Hahnemann, and a study of his history and a due appreciation of his character are so essential for enabling us to comprehend the various developments and phases of this complete and remarkable Reformation, that it would be almost as unpardonable for the teacher of Homoeopathy to omit attempting to estimate the character of its Founder, as it would be for the historian of the great religious Reformation of the sixteenth century to omit the study of life and character of Martin Luther.

But nine years have elapsed since Hahnemann entered the domain of history, and in confirmation of the saying that a hero is not appreciated till he has passed away from among us, we observe that these nine years have witnessed an extension of homoeopathy unequalled since its promulgation fifty years ago; and its Founder, who could at the period of his decease only reckon his disciples by hundreds, is now acknowledged as their master by thousands of educated medical men scattered all over the globe; and the very town whence he was driven by the enmity of his colleagues only twenty years ago, a few months since saw a costly monument of bronze erected to his memory by the united efforts of his admirers of all nations.

The biographer who has not enjoyed the friendship and acquaintance of his hero cannot indeed have such an exact idea of his minuter traits of character and peculiarities as he who has had this advantage; but on the other hand he may be able to form a juster estimate of his general characteristics and genius, by an unbiased study of his works and of the impressions produced upon those who were familiar with him; just as the spectator placed upon a hill may be able to form a more correct idea of the general features and capabilities of a town, than one of its inhabitants who may be familiar with every house, but not with its aspect from beyond its walls.

Hahnemann has not been dead long enough to enable us to assign to him his true place among the world’s worthies. The veneration of some might perhaps induce them to give him too high a rank in the Walhalla of immortality, whilst others, to whose remembrance the petty foibles incident to humanity, of which our Hahnemann had his share, recur too vividly, might be apt to under estimate him.

The biographies that have hitherto been published of Hahnemann are meagre and contradictory, and the time has not yet come for the publication of those letters and documents which we know to exist in the custody of his family and friends, and from the careful study of which we should be able to gain a clear insight into the motives and reasons for various actions of his eventful life, which at present we can only conjecture.

The histories of many men who have risen to eminence in some particular branch of science teach us that they have done so under the most unfavourable circumstances, and in spite of the greatest obstacles thrown in their way by fortune and by their own natural guardians. Hahnemann belonged to this class of great men.

His father, an industrious but fortuneless painter on porcelain in the celebrated manufactory at Meissen, as charming little town on the banks of the Elbe, near Dresden, discouraged all his endeavors to qualify himself for a calling superior to that he himself pursued, though he seems in other respects to have had a great influence on the character of his son by his exhortations to him to exercise his independent judgment in all cases, and not to take anything on trust, but in every case to act as reflection told him was for the best. “Prove all things, hold fast that is good,” was the substance of his advice. By this advice Hahnemann profited, and, notwithstanding his father’s prohibition to study, he pursued his strong inclination to do so in spite of all opposition, and on many an occasion when it was thought he was sound asleep, he was consuming the midnight oil over his books, in a lamp which he had himself constructed out of clay, as he was apprehensive of being discovered had he used one of the household candlesticks. This little incident I have thought worth mentioning, as it exhibits his perseverance and indomitable steadfastness of purpose even at that early age. His aptitude for study excited the admiration of his schoolmaster, with whom he became a favourite, and who undertook to direct his studies, and encouraged him to a higher order to study than that which constituted the usual curriculum of a Grammar School. This did not please his father, who several times removed him from the school and set him to some less intellectual work, but at length restore him to his favorite studies at the earnest request of his teacher, who, to meet the pecuniary difficulty, instructed the young Samuel until his twentieth year without remuneration.

On leaving school it was the custom to write an essay on some subject, and Hahnemann selected the somewhat unusual one of ” the wonderful structure of the human hand,” a theme which has in our own time been so beautifully discovered upon by Sir Charles Bell, in his Bridge-water Treatise. Who would not like to see how the boy Hahnemann treated this subject, his selection of which shows a strong bias towards natural science?

Twenty thalers (about L3 sterling the only patrimony he ever received) and his father’s blessing, were all he carried with him from Meissen to Leipzic, where it was his intention to study medicine. He was allowed free access to the various classes, and managed to support himself by teaching French and German, and by translating books from the English. From Leipzic be journeyed, to Vienna, in order to witness the practice of medicine in the hospitals there, and had the good fortune to secure the friendship or Dr. von Quarin, who treated him like a son, and took great pains to teach him the art of medicine. By some roguery or other, however, he lost the greater part of his money here, and so, after a sojourn in Vienna of only three quarters of a year, he found himself forced to accept the situation of family physician and librarian to the Governor of Transylvania, with whom he resided in Hermannstadt two years, and whence he removed to graduate in Erlangen, in 1779.

“The longing of a Swiss for his rugged Alps.” he says, in an autobiographical fragment he has left behind him, “cannot be more irresistible than that of a Saxon for his fatherland.” Accordingly to fatherland he went, and settled down to practice in a small town named Hettstadt, but as there was no field for practice here, he removed, after three quarters of a year’s

R.E. Dudgeon
Robert Ellis Dudgeon 1820 – 1904 Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh in 1839, Robert Ellis Dudgeon studied in Paris and Vienna before graduating as a doctor. Robert Ellis Dudgeon then became the editor of the British Journal of Homeopathy and he held this post for forty years.
Robert Ellis Dudgeon practiced at the London Homeopathic Hospital and specialised in Optics.
Robert Ellis Dudgeon wrote Pathogenetic Cyclopaedia 1839, Cure of Pannus by Innoculation, London and Edinburgh Journal of Medical Science 1844, Hahnemann’s Organon, 1849, Lectures on the Theory & Practice of Homeopathy, 1853, Homeopathic Treatment and Prevention of Asiatic Cholera 1847, Hahnemann’s Therapeutic Hints 1847, On Subaqueous Vision, Philosophical Magazine, 1871, The Influence of Homeopathy on General Medical Practice Since the Death of Hahnemann 1874, Repertory of the Homeopathic Materia Medica, 2 vols 1878-81, The Human Eye Its Optical Construction, 1878, Hahnemann’s Materia Medica Pura, 1880, The Sphygmograph, 1882, Materia Medica: Physiological and Applied 1884, Hahnemann the Founder of Scientific Therapeutics 1882, Hahnemann’s Organon 1893 5th Edition, Prolongation of Life 1900, Hahnemann’s Lesser Writing.