My wifes family name was Van Kemper. They kept my son in their care for some years, later lost their money, and I brought the boy North at an age when he needed schooling. Feb. 10, 1873. Sunday afternoon in the back office. Present Dr. Opelt and Dr. Boericke. Apples. Pocket Cases. Opelt presents some apples to Hering who, standing between the two visitors, says: Here I approach immortality through the kingdom of apples But what becomes of the honour due me for the invention of the first pocket cases?
May be this was intended for a mild rebuke to Boericke, who had appropriated the invention
A Quack. Peter Frank, in Vienna, had a student who had failed repeatedly to pass examinations, but finally got his diploma on condition that he would leave the country to practice elsewhere. After a year or two he returned and managed to acquire one of the largest practices in Vienna. After bungling a case badly he called his preceptor in consultation. Dr. Frank did not speak to the family about the terrible blunder that had been made. The former student expressed his appreciation of the kindness shown him. He called Dr. Frank to the window to look out upon the street and the many passers by. He asked the older man: How many of the people that pass are wise, how many fools?’ Oh,’ the answer, came, Nearly all are fools’ Well,’ said the quack, The fools want doctoring as well as the wise’
Providence. Nothing should ever be done without the thought: Thy kingdom come.’
It was my friend Kummer who advised Arsenicum. I did not wish to lose my right hand, which I needed for drawing, writing and anatomical work, and for future use as a surgeon. I could not see the sense in taking the Arsenic inwardly. Kummer made me give him my left hand, the well one, and solemnly swear that I would take the medicine, as directed, which I did and in three days I was out of danger. For some time my finger remained weak. Once a certain person scoffed at homoeopathy and called me a fool. I went to the window, opened it and held my finger out long enough to see it turn blue, then was ready to challenge the man to fight a duel. I became an enthusiast for the cause, a true fanatic. I mounted tables in public places from which to harangue the people, and barely escaped arrest. Gradually I returned to a calmer state of mind and said to myself: After all there is provision made which keeps trees from growing into heaven. Feb. 17, 1873. Family. From the location of the battle field of Sadowa can be seen the castle in which dwelt my ancestor who was put to the torture. He told his three sons to depart from there and followed the river Elbe until they came to Saxony. It was after the battle of Sadowa that the German army formed a semicircle and sang, Nun danket alle Gott’ (Now thanks be given to God). Feb. 19, 1873. Life. All stages in my life were sharply marked. The first sign I had of growing old was when I noticed that I could not turn the leaves of a book with the accustomed ease and celerity. I always had considerable facility in the use of my fingers, which came mainly from making drawings. Feb. 27, 1873. To Dr. Farrington. History. Let Providence rule. We cannot make history. We must work. Our little bit of wisdom is but like motes in the sun, no more.
Practice. I will not grumble about the low dilutionists. They are the bark to the tree. We, the splint, are protected by the bark.
Jahr. Mental Symptoms. Boenninghausen. Jahr murdered the mental symptoms; Boenninghausen neglected them.
Natural History. To Mrs. Pope, Sr. It was a specimen of the Sphynx Atropos which put its head out of the ground, and made a squeaking noise, that brought me, then a mere boy, to the study of natural history. I went to the woods and collected all sorts of insects. When I had learned to distinguish these I turned my attention to botany and mineralogy. I now think that to be able to cure a man with toothache is worth more than all the animals in creation.
Hydrophobia. A man came to my office and said: I am crazy. I know it. I am rich and have no cause for complaint. I walk the floor every night until my wife comes, with tears in her eyes, and implores me to lie down. I fear that I shall die with hydrophobia. I have read all the books on the subject and know I shall die from the disease. It is very clear to me Why dont you promise to cure me?’ Well,’ I said: We do cure horses, and they do not imagine things.’ You do cure horses?’ Yes.’ Well, have you had any cases to treat like mine?’ Yes, similar ones. We will try.’ He promised to take the medicine and I gave him a single dose in a high potency, of Hydrophobin (Lyssin). Later he returned once more to say that he had not missed a night of sleep, but thought that imagination had made him well.
The case brought me one dollar in fees, at fifty cents each, but I would not have missed the cure for a thousand
My son Max was bitten by a mad dog. He took the Lyssin and no bad consequences followed the bite.
The treatment has been verified many times since in cases of dog bite, with or without rabies.
The mad dog from which I took the saliva belonged to a baker, here in Philadelphia. I put the saliva in alcohol, potentized it, and at once began the proving. I had to desist when I had become almost crazy with mental forebodings and anxiety. A chemical substance in the saliva gives it its poisonous quality. After evaporating this substance on a watch glass I could observe tiny crystals. Sulpho cyanic acid is a normal constituent in the human saliva. The test is made by adding muriatic acid which reddens the saliva of persons in health. Sheep always have it. Something similar must be contained in the saliva of the snake which kills by causing fermentation in the blood. I have always reasoned from analogy, and experimented mathematically and philosophically. In Surinam dogs are not subject to rabies. In smallpox the sulpho cyanides leave the saliva and are found in the pustules.
Smallpox. Sulpho Cyanates. A black man came to me, here in Philadelphia, saying that he had dyspepsia. I had frequently tested the saliva of dyspeptics. I examined this mans saliva and found the sulpho cyanates absent. Next day he had a fever and on the day following, smallpox developed. Dr. Raue who took charge of the patient, applied the muriatic test to the contents of the pustules and found the sulpho cyanogen had migrated there.
See Sinapis nigra, (black mustard) as a remedy in Smallpox.
Psorinum. When in Surinam, I examined a strong, healthy looking negro with the itch, a tailor by trade. I looked for the acarus but could not find it. I know that the bug accompanies the disease, but it may be a product caused by disease, and there may be itch without the acarus. I took the pus and poured alcohol over it. It coagulated. I put some of it on a watch glass where crystals formed. I swallowed the potentized preparation. If I ever was sick in my life it was then. The effect was shocking.
We homoeopaths are called pariahs but we are a hundred years ahead of the times. I dislike making experiments upon patients, but myself am willing to prove any substance, when in health. We could find out by the use of the spectroscope what chemical elements are produced by the salivary glands.
A Nostrum. Calcarea Phosphorica. Soon after the English took possession in the East Indies there appeared there a quack who made Dr. Jones’ Powders for Fevers,’ which became an article of export. The East India Company sent thousands of pounds sterling to the Indies for it. Jones made his recipe public. Another Company worked a mine from which they got a great quantity of Phosphate of Lime which enabled them to put the powder on the market at half price. Because the article manufactured from this phosphate did not have the same curative effect, the powders were sent back, and a lawsuit for infringement of a patent was instituted against the rival company. English, French and German chemists were consulted, all of whom stated that the ingredients were ordinary phosphate of lime, with crude antimony. There was a clever chap in New York, publisher of an agricultural paper, who learned from this trial that phosphate of lime, made from bones, is different; also that it makes a better fertilizer because being animalized it is more readily absorbed by vegetable organisms.
Sinapis Nigra. Smallpox. Sulfo cyanide obtained from black mustard seed, being a natural product, was found to be a more effective prophylactic, and remedy in smallpox than the chemical preparation, although this used in silverplating establishments during an epidemic of smallpox in Philadelphia had immunized the workers, and proved a useful disinfectant in the sickroom. I came to find out about the healing virtues of mustard in a strange way. My friend Raue came to congratulate me on first of January, my birthday, and called to mind the case of Gross who, when ill and expecting to die, had bid farewell to his friends. Remembering that mustard had cured paralysis of nerves, the same as were affected in his case, he asked his wife to give him the mustard, and got well. A Mrs.Raue, one of my patients, failed to recover from a severe case of smallpox, accompanied by hemorrhages from the lungs, possibly caused, certainly aggravated by a sachet of carbolic acid worn on her chest for a preventive. The patient had as I remembered, all the symptoms of mustard but I found this out too late. Thereafter we began to use the potentized Sinapis nigra, both as a prophylactic and a curative of smallpox, with excellent results.
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,