The success of homoeopathy, which now began to spread beyond the limits of Germany, and to make its way in other countries of Europe and in America, increased the bitterness and ferocity of the attacks of the partisans of the old school. They at length roused even the forbearance of Hahnemann. who published a pamphlet against his foes, entitled Allopathy; a Warning to all Sick Persons, (Lesser Writings, p. 827), which though doubtfully a gross caricature of the system he turns into ridicule, has, like all good caricatures, an unmistakable though ludicrous likeness to the original in every feature, which must have rendered its sting all the more pungent.
The same year, 1831, the cholera invaded Germany from the East, and on its approach, Hahnemann, guided by the unerring therapeutic rule he had discovered, at once fixed upon the remedies which should prove specifics for it, and caused directions (Ibid., p 845), to be printed, and distributed over the country by thousands, so that on its actual invasion the
Homoeopathists and those who had received Hahnemann’s directions were fully prepared for its treatment and prophylaxis, and thus there is no doubt many lives were saved, and many victims rescued from the pestilence. On all sides statements were published, testifying to the immense comparative success that had attended the employment of the means recommended by Hahnemann, before he had seen or treated a single case. This one fact speaks more for homoeopathy and the truth of the law of nature on which the system is founded, than almost any other I could offer, viz., that Hahnemann, from merely reading a description of one of the most appallingly rapid and fatal diseases, could confidently and dogmatically say, such and such a medicine will do good in this stage of the disease; such and such other medicine at that; and that the united experience of hundreds of practitioners in all parts of Europe should bear practical testimony to the accuracy of Hahnemann’s conclusions.
In 1830 Hahnemann lost his wife, the mother of his numerous family, and the sharer of all the vicissitudes of his eventual life. It has been stated that this good lady had not the sweetest of tempers, and that she was somewhat of a Xantippe to our Socrates; but, as far as I can learn, there is no ground for this accusation. There is no doubt that she was a most affectionate wife and mother; but at the same time a strict disciplinarian, who asserted her supremacy over the domestic affairs and over her husband, in as far as he was part and parcel of the household; that Hahnemann loved and highly esteemed her we have ample evidence, from many passages in his letters, and from the testimony of his friends.
The death of his partner did not alter in any respect Hahnemann’s mode of life; and two of his daughters, who had now attained the years of discretion, assumed the office of domestic supervision, vice Mrs. Hahnemann deceased.
In 1835 Mlle. Melanie d’ Hervilly came to Coethen, succeeded in captivating Hahnemann, then in his eightieth year, by the charms of her youth and beauty, and carried him off in triumph to Paris, (Pretty fables are related of the difficulty Hahnemann experienced to get out of Coethen, in consequence of the extreme affection of the respectable Coetheners, whose love is said to have taken a physical-force direction, and to have rendered it necessary for Hahnemann to make his escape from the ardour of their embrace under the protecting veil of night. This, I may observe, is a mere romance. Hahnemann drove away from Coethen, accompanied by his wife and family, in broad daylight, amid the respectful salutations and heartily-expressed good-wishes of the honest burghers of Coethen, whose town he benefited much during his life, by the afflux of patients to seek his advice, and to which his great name still lends a halo of glory, which the erection of magnificent gambling -house to supply his loss has not altogether obscured), where, by her influence with M.Guizot, she obtained for him the authorization to practise.
This second marriage, which took all his friends by surprise, is certainly a very unexpected denoucement in the last act of Hahnemann’s life- drama. We trace with interest the progress of the man of science through his childhood’s innocence, his youth studious hours, his manhood’s struggles with adversity, and indefatigable of the aged philosopher. We note his habits of study, contemplation, and observation of nature; his retired, almost unsocial life; his devotion to the one great aim of his existence. We see him thus engaged up to a period of life exceeding the term of ordinary old age — when suddenly he takes a gay Parisian damsel to write; the monotonous life of the dull country town and the accustomed seclusion of domestic retirement delight him no longer; and he hurries off to the capital of the beau monde with his youthful and elegant bride.
This marriage, which comes upon us so abruptly, produced a total revolution in Hahnemann’s habits and tastes. In Paris we find him entertaining company and accepting invitations; frequenting the opera, and partaking moderately of the dissipations of the gay capital, and no longer confining his medical practice to the consultations at his own house, but visiting patients at their residence, like any other practitioner, which he had not done in Germany for more than twenty years previously. He seems to have entered on this novel course of life with great zest; and his new wife, to judge from his letters and the testimony of observers, rendered the later years of his life extremely happy.
Notwithstanding this extreme change in his habits and occupations, he found time to make many and important additions to his great work on chronic diseases, of which he brought out a second edition after his removal to Paris, and it is said he preparing for the press sundry other works of great importance to homoeopathy, which he was dissuaded from publishing by his wife. There is a tradition current among homoeopathists, that Mme. Hahnemann retains under lock and key, for her own private study doubtless, untold treasures of provings, cases, practical remarks, and new and revised editions of his works which it would delight the hearts of all his disciples to see given to the world.
Hahnemann survived his migration to Paris eight years, and died there full of years and of honour, at the age of eighty-nine, on the 2nd July,1843.
He was buried in the cemetery of Montmartre, and his body was attended to the grave by only four of his nearest relatives. We might have wished that a man, who had acted such an important part in the world’s history, had had a less meagre attendance to his last resting-place.
Such a brief outline of the life and labours of Hahnemann, whose name, even by the admission of those most wildly opposed to his doctrines, must henceforth form an epoch in the history of medicine, as the founder of a school which has gained more adherents and roused up more assailants, written more books, and exercised a more important influence on the art of medicine, than any school or sect since the days of Galen.
The homoeopathic principle, as a law of therapeutics, is an immutable law of nature; and is altogether independent of any individual; but the homoeopathic system, or the doctrines and technicalities that have been agglomerated round that principle, bears the impress of the personality — the individuality of its author.
While, then, the principles bears the closest inspection, and gains ever more and more upon our belief and conviction the more searchingly we examine it, the system may naturally be expected to derive some of its characteristics from the peculiar mental constitution of the man who originated it; and hence it is that
we find the homoeopathic school, as it is termed, while they bow unhesitatingly to the principle and to the logical deductions that flow from it, disputing with Hahnemann inch by inch the doctrines, tenets, and technicalities which he has accumulated round this principle.
To facilitate our inquiries as to what parts of the system promulgated by Hahnemann belong to the domain of the unerring laws of nature, what derive a colouring n and a bias from the individuality of the author, I think it is of great importance to endeavor to form a just estimate of his character and mental organization, and as I believe the circumstances of his life have exercised a considerable influence on his doctrines and precepts, and have contributed powerfully to the formation of his very remarkable character, I have not hesitated, at the risk of fatiguing you, to employ the time allotted for this first lecture in laying before you the sketch of his life just read, and I shall now with your leave, turn to a consideration of the character and mental constitution of the man.
The most striking peculiarity of Hahnemann’s mind was his indomitable perseverance in following out the line of conduct he believed to be the true one, notwithstanding every difficulty and discouragement. Thus we have seen him as a boy persisting in devoting himself to study in spite of the opposition of his father, and pouring over his books by the light of his contraband oil, in the primitive lamp of his own construction. In later years we find him eking out the means of his support whilst studying medicine, by teaching others his surreptitiously acquired knowledge, and translating books from various languages, with the contents of many of which he could have had little or no sympathy. It is related of him that he sat up every alternate night, and, in order to enable himself to do so, acquired that inveterate habit of smoking tobacco, which he continued to indulge into the last. The means he took to chase away his slumbers in his youth thus became in after years the only luxury in which he indulged.
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.