June 27, 1869
Hahnemann’s son, Frederick. Humphreys.
Hering speaking to Dr. H.M. Smitha from New York The first opponent to Hahnemann was Hecker. A bad fellow; malicious, feared, hated and despised. Hahnemann took no notice of him. Hecker was crazy because Hahnemann printed the Organon. Wished to see him dead. Hecker had a son. Hahnemann’s son Fredrick, was injured, had his back broken, when the wagon upset with the family in one of the many movings from one place to another; the daughters were unhurt. Frederick, a hunchback, became a painful sight in the eyes of his father, which the son sensed. He wanted more money than the father had to give him, so left home and with what money he had saved bought an apothecary-shop somewhere in Saxony.
The father had no great luck with his children. He was a strict man, a bit pedantic. Being a friend of liberty he hated Napoleon.
The son began to thrive, had a good run of customers from the better classes. the market-place, in front of his apothecary- shop, was regularly lined with carriages. He cured a girl who had been blind from birth. He asked the girl to look straight into the sun until she could see. She saw the sun and later her father. Frederick was a low dilutionist. He used Mercurius and Sulphur in the first, second and third dilutions, but went up to the sixth and twelfth because he got symptoms from the lower preparations.
The multitude hurrahed and hosanned. I know this from an eye witness. He did not sell drugs; only had the right to dispense; apothecary rights. A law had been passed taking from doctors the privilege of keeping an apothecary shop. Suit was brought and there was the case of the State against Frederick Hahnemann. Friends wrote to his father to come and defend his disorderly son. The son said: let them go to the devil.’ or words to that effect, made his personal property over to his wife, left his shop to the state and departed for Scotland. Orders had been issued to arrest him for contempt of court. Hahnemann said: Poor Frederick, he will go insane.’ These were the last words he ever again spoke of his son. While in Scottland there was a bust make of Frederick which I tired to recover, but it had been lost or broken. He had left Scotland for parts unknown. It is almost certain that he came to America. For this I had the word of my old friend, William Wesselhoeft.
Frederick Hahnemann had been traced to some mines in the far West. He may have been here, in the East. A farmer, somewhere near the Jersey border, described him so accurately that there could scarcely have been left a doubt. A small man, a hunchback, little pills, very precise in making his prescriptions, for bidding things that are injurious to homoeopathic treatment, saying: If you don’t do so-and-so, as I tell you, I will not come near you again Gruffly spoken. It must have been Frederick Hahnemann.
Again I read somewhere that while the cholera was ra ging in the Mississippi valley, a man dressed in a long Turkish garment, wuch as Frederick was known to wear comae out of lead-mine, put a few small globules from a small vial, on people’s tongues and cured many of the cholera. To those who offered to pay he told them not to give money but to follow him to help nurse and cure the afflicted. He was reported as being small, with a hump on his back and a long beard, such as he had dared to wear when it was against the custom in Germany, and on account of which his father had not allowed him to appear before him. He had a habit of spitting almost continually, which, on account of his short stature, and by having to raise his face to people when speaking to them, made him a nuisance.
Humphreys, whom I disliked on account of his quackery and morals, also had heard of Frederick Hahnemann from speaking with a man who had described him to a T. Humphreys also knew about his having been in Scotland, and of the words of the father: Poor Frederick will go crazy.’ and that he ceased to speak of his son.
Shrks. Jurisprudence. While I lived in Paramaribo, Surianm, a human head was washed ashore. It had been torn from the body and its muscles and ligaments were terribly lacerated A coroner’s inquest was held, to which I was invited to make a post mortem examination. I was asked to give my opinion in court. My evidence was somewhat tantalizing for I mentioned all sorts of possibilities that might have happened. Could the man have been killed and his body thrown overboard? There were no signs of a deadly instrument having been used. Could the victim have been caught in the sheels of machinery? Unlikely, judging from the appearance of the head. Could this, or any other fatality have occurred? The answer was always No. The head showed several wounds, similar to those made by sharp teeth. The pupils were dilated.
I concluded that the man had fallen overboard from some vessel, perhaps while intoxicated, and that sharks had mangled him as soon as he had struck the water; that the head had been severed from the trunk and washed ashore while the body of the man had been swallowed pieced-meal by the hungry sharks. The animal with several rows of sharp teeth pointing inward, forming a saw, has a small gullet no wider than an ordinary teacup at its widest end; consequently he could not make away with the head.
The shark, with belly turned up, attacks, his prey by shaking it sideways, to and fro, with incredible rapidity until it is sufficiently mangled to be swallowed.
It is dangerous to bathe in tropical waters. White men take negroes with them to ward off the sharks. The negroes are stationed put in advance of the bathers, as guards. As soon as a shark approaches and stares at the negro, with small but terrible eyes, the negro, quick as lighting, strikes the water a resounding blow with the flat of his hand. This frightens the cowardly merauder who turns and darts away. The negro makes for the shore. He knows that the shark prefers dark meat; which statement I have heard corroborated.
The shark not only turns on his back to do his deadly work, but the negroes say he revolves so rapidly as to complete a circle at each turn. all done quick as lightning which deceives the eye. I have observed the black men when they go out in a boat to feed the sharks, which come up to snatch the bait and disappear like a flash.
The case here related belongs in a book on Medical Jurisudence, but has been steadily refused as evidence coming from a homeopath’ The incident marked a great triumph for me in Paramaribo. A set of saw-teeth from a shark was brought into court and fitted to the wounds on the mutilated head. The man who lent the specimens brought an armful of them.
Balling. Portrait. Balling, a portrait painter from New York a friend of Dr.Fincke, came to Philadelphia on a commission to paint some portraits, and while here as guest, offered to paint Hering’s portrait. The result was a rather bricky-looking sketch which was relegated to the garret, whence later it disappeared. It has been intended for the Fair, where better pictures of Hering were exhibited. Balling played on the cello. He had made a sketch of a log cabin, which for a time hung on the wall in the office. This also disappeared.
Portrait of Hahnemann, painted by Madame Hahnemann. The history of this splendid portrait of the father of homoeopathy which hung on the wall of the doctor’s reception room, and is now in my possession, is told by Dr. Hering.
Dr. Wesselhoeft of Boston, had for a patient an artist by the name of Miller. Being unable to pay for his treatment the artist offered to do something for his benefactor. He was about to leave for Paris. Wesselhoeft said: Bring me back a portrait of Hahnemann.’ Miller promised faithfully, and soon after he arrived in Paris, sought the house of Hahnemann. He there met Madame Hahnemann to whom, he made his request. She said her husband could not be put to the trouble of sitting. Miller said: But I have promised to bring back a portrait of him to my physician, and I must keep my promise.’ Madame Hahnemann. herself an artist of great ability, showed him a portrait she had painted of her good papa’ as she called him. Miller said: why the little black cap on his head?’ That,’ said the lady: is intended to hide the high forehead which draws everyone’s attention away from his kindly face.’ She must have possessed both talent and genius. The painting is the best of all known portraits of Hahnemann.
On condition that the painter would follow her idea she permitted him to see Hahnemann, and paint his picture with the little black velvet cap on the forehead as suggested by Madame, which impresses all who look at the portrait. When Miller had finished the painting and was about to send it on its journey to America, the thought came to him-what if the picture should be lost on the way? I must paint a duplicate. So he made a second copy from the original and sent one of the portraits by way of England, the other direct to Boston. The one sent direct got there first; soon after, the second one arrived. Wesselhoeft was puzzled. He said: Is the man gone crazy?
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,