This beautiful exhibition of womans tenderness and devotion, so often unappreciated by ordinary husbands, who too late discover the worth of those who have loved and cherished them when on earth, now left to grieve and wonder why they could have been so cruel, with only the hope left them of a reunion in a better world, which should lead every man toward heaven, all of which made a deep impression upon my sick mind.
It was Fanny Ellser, the woman, faithful to her nationality, the charming talented artist, who with her inimitable interpretation of the fairy tale, brought back health and reason to me, the bereaved physician. In earlier days I had disapproved of the ballet; could see neither art nor reason in its artificiality as I then considered it.
In his youth Hering had seen dancing in Amsterdam which affected him adversely. He wrote about this in a letter before departing for South America. It was six years after the loss of Marianna, who was his second wife, before he could make up his mind to marry again a third time, Therese Bucheim, daughter of an old school physician, in Germany. Religion. Gaertner. Creed.
What would this great work of the Creator be if there were no hereafter? I do not know what will become of my children if I should die, but I know there is a God who will take care of them. I cannot see how men can be unbelievers. My friend, Carl Gaertner, musician, does not believe. I try to help him to believe and already he begins to think there might be a heaven.
My simple creed is short and to the point-To love the truth because it is true, the good because it is good, and to shun evil because it is evil. Christianity consists in leading useful lives, for the good of the race, and from unselfish motives. In spite of there being natural laws, to man is given a free will to act according to the dictates of his conscience.
The following statement, A Confession of Faith, written in German and addressed to his sons, was but lately discovered by me among Herings papers, translated and printed for distribution among friends. It is a record in brief of a practical belief, to which no one can take exception:
It is great good fortune for a man to believe in a God. Fervently, with all his heart, will all his mind, with all his soul, constantly and enduringly. It should be quite impossible for him to think that this great truth could be an error; he knows it is to be true. All of us have come forth from God. He cares for us all. He does not care more for one than for another. He cares for all alike. He gives to everyone as much, or as little, as he is willing to receive. He will show to everyone his way according to his understanding. He always gives the right, always the best, and always what is most beneficial.
In spite of the many unaccountable happenings, shortcomings, and undeniable incongruities, also the very many follies man has committed, and the mistakes he diligently continues to make, the world still remains a pleasant pleasure place to live in. Aside from the circumstance that after all we have to take the world as it is, we must acknowledge the ingenious arrangement, as it might be called, by which everyone is given full freedom to act, and to choose, according to his lights.
May 21, 1869. Pow-Wowing. We should not condemn pow-wowing, for we have no reason for so doing; we must neither accept nor condemn a thing without a reason.
Physiology. Nerve Currents. I believe, with Swedenborg, that the nerves contain a gaseous substance which circulates from the periphery to the centre, through the sensory nerves, and from the centre, to the periphery through the motor nerves. In sleep this current is reversed. Medicines placed upon the tongue are there changed to a nerve-gas which is transmitted to diseased parts.
Would this explain the lightning-like cures as mentioned by P.P. Wells (See Eulogies,) also observed by others. Hering wonders if the metals contained in a battery are dissolved, disintegrated and thus pass on through the wires and says: Now we have only the effects from copper and zinc. Other metals might come into use.
May 22, 1869. Ice and Ice-Water. Charcoal. Americans cannot realize their rapid progress as a nation. They will not readily believe that it is only a short time since such a thing as ice was introduced. Ice came into general use in 1833. I had a patient by the name of Geisse, a lay homoeopath (who had sat at the table with Hahnemann), at whose house I met a Frenchman by the name of Moliere, who spoke about introducing ice into Philadelphia. He secured a farm near the Schuylkill River, on which he led the water he built a tank the size of a city block into which he led the water from a spring and allowed it to freeze, cut the ice and built an ice-house, the first on the American continent. This was in 1833-34.
Hering tells how his first glass of ice-water made him ill and how Carbo vegetabilis cured him. Hence the characteristic bad effects from cold drinks, so often since verified in practice.
Castor Oil After Childbirth. Hering was the first to condemn the giving of castor oil on the third day after childbirth, which was almost universally done to produce a bowel movement with the lying in. Hering claims that the seventh day after childbirth is the natural time for a passage; if it does not come then, give a dose of Bryonia, or Nux Vomica. The old practice of purging has been largely abandoned and in consequence, together with better sanitary methods of delivery, there has been far less of puerperal fever and its fatal consequences.
Surinam. Climate. In Surinam the heat is more supportable than here. There are the breezes from the sea. People live near the coast. None in the interior. Between noon and four p.m. the people are in their houses and sleep. At four they dress and go out of doors.
Biography. Peppich. Lachesis. I was teacher in an institution in Dresden, under Blochmann, whence I was sent to Surinam, by way of Cayenne, for the purpose of making zoological and botanical researches, and collections for the museum of the King of Saxony. About the same time a man by the name of Peppich was sent there, on a similar errand, by some rich men from Philadelphia. Peppich was bitten by the serpent lachesis trigonocephalus, but was saved by applying radiate heat from a heated gold coin. We both remained in Surinam for six years. I made collections, with help of Weigel the botanist, for one year, then devoted myself to the practice of homoeopathy. Peppich made collections in all of that time.
May 24, 1869. A Boa Constrictor. Weigel. My friend, Weigel, the botanist, went one day into the jungle with his gun. He trod on a large boa-constrictor which lay concealed in the grass. He felt the huge snake moving under his feet. He bounded across it but left his gun behind him. He heard a fearful hissing. Growing faint he leaned against neighboring tree where he imagined himself safe from the monster. The hissing became louder and louder. He saw the snake drag its length through the grass, finally its tail. She was drawing herself into a coil ready for a spring. Although a courageous man, who had faced shot and shell, now his courage failed him, he grew faint. He rallied, and with a desperate bound he reached his gun. He now had a means of defense. The hissing ceased. Weigel thought discretion the better part of valor and made tracks for home. He arrived weak and faint, became ill, and had to keep his bed for seven days.
We went to the place where the snake had been seen and found a place as large as an ordinary sized room where the grass had been beaten down. I tied a live kid to a tree, hoping that the snake would swallow the bait, become helpless and so be dragged in by a rope, but though I kept watch for a long time, the python did not again appear. I think the kid was eaten by the natives.
When a boa sees her prey she fastens her tail to a fixed point, a stake or a small tree, from which she can shoot out her coils to envelope the animal and strangle it, which she could not accomplish otherwise. While she is preparing to attack she rapidly turns her head from side to side, keenly watching for the moment when her victim comes within reach. She opens wide her mouth; with her tail fastened to the tree, she darts her length forward and with her poisonless fangs fastened into the animal, her muscles contracting, she pulls it to the ground, where she wraps her coils around it, tightens them until the victims bones are crushed in her powerful strangle-hold. As soon as she thinks she has vanquished her prey, she glides her head forward to the mouth of the animal and listens. If she hears another gasp or breath, she tightens her coils like lightning and gives another squeeze to finish the victim, after which she opens her mouth wide to give one loud blowing sound, an expiration by which she completely empties her lung, a single sac, the other lung having become atrophied to leave room for the one which extends almost through the entire length of her body. When she has completely emptied the air she closes her mouth and begins to refill her single lung with fresh air. The air enters her nostril and fills her mouth. When the mouth is full she gives a gulp and swallows the air. This process is continued until the lung is filled. She does this because in the act of swallowing her prey, there is a pressure on her larynx which prevents more air from entering.
In 1878 and 1879 he published 2 editions of his book, Sunstroke and Its Homeopathic Treatment.
Upon Hering's death in 1880 Knerr became responsible for the completion of the 10-volume Guiding Symptoms.
Dr. Knerr wrote 2-volume Repertory to the Guiding Symptoms,