A Caller. A certain doctor, living not far from Hering’s house, a man not of very good repute in the neighborhood, called at a late hour to see Dr. Hering, who had retired to his room on the second floor. The visitor gave the bell a violent pull. When the servant had admitted the gentleman I stepped into the vestibule and there met a man of middle age, who grasped my hand, squeezed it, almost lifting it to his face. His eyes were blue and twinkling, holding one firmly while he bowed low. Dr. Hering has retired, I told him, but he will send you a note in the morning. Oh no I will call again. I am not going to Europe before the first to June. Another bow, as I opened the front door; two more bows, as I opened the front door; two more bows, and he was gone.
The Fair. Dr.Martin. A ring at the door. In came Dr. Martin. Professor what makes you come so late, the doctor has retired. He sits down. I had business, he said. It is getting so that I can’t see the doctor any more.
Do you wish to leave a note, Dr. Martin? No; it is nothing in particular.
I explained that Dr. Hering had been up until half after twelve the evening before and was tired. Prof. Martin asked. Who was here? Doctors Morgan, Williamson and Gause were here, talking about the Fair.
Oh, that’s the way things are done Well the whole thing will go to ruin. The dragon’s teeth were sown today. There were things done today that will ruin the whole undertaking, perhaps break up the College, too. Many ladies who were present thought so, too.Why, Professor, don’t be downhearted; I thought a good deal was accomplished at the meeting. The Professor gets up and walks to the table. Ah yes, you have no experience in such matters. Dr. Martin said: Well, good night, and walked off in a hasty manner, as if out of humor. The object of the Ladies’ meeting, called for today, was to organize for work to be done for the Fair. The meeting opened at four o’clock. Professor Gause made a short address. The constitution and by-laws were read and discussed; some of the ladies requested that several articles should be changed, or omitted therefrom, after which the constitution and by-laws were adopted. The ladies had brought some men-friends with them who acted as spokesmen and all were enthusiastic over the prospects. About seventy ladies signed their names for membership in the Association.
Student Days. In the evening, Dr. Farrington present, Hering related the history of his early student days in Leipzig, when he was poor, and struggling to maintain a living. On account of leaving the ranks of the allopaths, in which school I had graduated at the University of Wuerzburg, and joining the homoeopaths, I was in sore straits. I occupied a room but poorly furnished, for which I paid twenty-five cents per week; a cold place, where, without fuel, I almost froze on bitter cold days. I was invited to meals at a students’ free eating-house (a kind of soup house), but only at such times when other boarders had skipped their meals because they did not think them good enough. Here the bread was good, whatever might be said of the rest of the food. Often I took home with me scraps of rye bread, which, stale and dry, I soaked in weak broth, or ate them, hard as they were, which made my gums bleed, but in this way I thought I obtained some organic matter for my system One day a student friend told me of a woman who kept a boarding house, a believer in homoeopathy and in need of treatment.
My friend coaxed me to go with him to see the woman, who needed Ignatia; she invited me to stay to supper. The kind woman soon learned of my condition. She provided me with some spare pieces of wood for a fire and some milk. One day, when she came to my room, she noticed some of the dry bread heaped up on my desk, and wished to know what I intended to do with it. I told her I was saving it for sustenance. She asked me if I had a mind to exchange some of it for milk; that she had some cows and pigs for whom stale bread was very good food. She took some of the hardest pieces. Later, in exchange for treatment, she boarded me until better times came. Shall not one, in remembrance of all this, be enthusiastic for homoeopathy?
All this is nothing compared to the sufferings Hahnemann experienced when living in Leipzig, persecuted by the old school doctors and apothecaries. His wife up braided him daily for not doing like other doctors, whose equal he was in learning, and who made money with which to keep their families from starving.
Hahnemann’s son Frederick had become a hunchback in consequence of a wagon overturning with him when a child, on one of the many movings, from place to place, the father was forced to make. Also my hand, my right hand, I owe to Hahnemann. Why should not I be grateful and enthusiastic for homoeopathy?
Should we not be kicked, I (Dr. Knerr) said to Farrington, if we open our mouths to complain?
At Raue’s House. In the evening I called for Mrs. Hering, who was visiting at the house of Dr. and Mrs. Raue, on Tenth Street. I there met Dr. Starkey and Mrs. Peltzer, the wife of a student at Hahnemann. Mrs. Raue entertained us by playing exquisitely on the piano. How well these dear German people know how to enjoy themselves We had wine and cake, laughed and sang, and there were good nights and good-night kisses, at parting, with invitations soon to come again.
Berridge. Hering wrote a letter to Mc Clatchey, editor of the Hahnemann Monthly magazine, calling attention to Dr. Berridge’s repertory, which he thinks is the clearest and best, so far. As many of us, he says, as do not wish to eat what others have chewed, ought to get the book
Motion. There are four kinds of motion: (1) Up and down; (2) From side to side; (3) Forward and backward-the motion of the rocking chair, and (4) the swing. The first is the motion of health, enjoyed by babies. The baby-jumper is an excellent invention for the nursery. The second is not health, but not quite as bad as the third, which is most detrimental to women and children, causing all manner of diseases with them. No person can stand a rocking chair in the long run. A fourth motion, that of swinging around in a circle, is the worst of all motions.
The Fair. An old lady suggested that Dr. Hering get some oak wood from the old Lutheran Church at Fourth and Cherry Streets, where reconstruction is going on, and make relics out of it to be sold at the Fair. I went to a Mr. W. and bespoke a load of the wood to be used for this purpose, from which were fashioned brackets, paper knives, etc., which brought a good price at the Fair.
In the evening Dr. Gause brought printed copies of an Appeal to Homoeopathic Physicians for Aid for the Fair. The word Similia was misspelled, and one thousand copies had to be corrected
Raue. We went again to Dr. Raue’s house to celebrate his wife’s birthday. It happened to be a rather dry affair and Dr. Hering slept through the better part of the evening. We could not get warmed up, on this occasion.
May 6, 1869. Hampel. Arsenic. Aconite. Lippe. Hempel posed as a scholar in Materia medica. He was extremely ignorant in general practice and scarcely knew the difference between two medicines. He did a lot of translating and brought out a huge volume on Materia medica. At a meeting of the Institute, held in St. Louis, he boasted that he had studied the subject considerably When he was Professor of Materia medica, in Philadelphia, he wrote a New Organon, in which he defended free love. There were but a limited number of copies printed, some twenty or forty, which later went for waste paper.
In Canada there was a certain married man by the name of King, who fell in love with another woman and gave his wife powders for the ostensible purpose of making a proving. The woman died from arsenical poisoning. The man was arrested and put on trail. Hempel was subpoenaed to give testimony in the case. He went to Canada for this purpose, and appeared in court where he was to give his opinion. He was asked: What constitutes an allopathic dose of arsenic?’ He mentioned some mistaken quantity and an authority, quoted at random, and obscure names, which disgusted the jury. He was asked whether large doses of the poison were permitted under homoeopathic treatment, and whether patients ever died from them. Hempel answered: ‘Oh we try not to kill them The witness was removed from the trial in disgust and the jury unanimously found King guilty of murdering his wife, whose body had been exhumed and found full of arsenic. The murderer was hung. Hempel’s testimony was not mentioned in the Judge’s summary. His own lawyers were disappointed in their witness.
In the Michigan University there was to be instituted a chair for homoeopathic Materia medica. A lady living in the town, who had been a patient of Dr. Lippe, in Philadelphia, was appointed to look for a genuine homoeopath to fill the vacancy. She was taken ill and sent for a young physician in the town, a homoeopath, who came to see her. The patient asked for tumblers in which to prepare the medicine. The young doctor said: ‘I will have no use for the tumblers’ ‘Why not?’ ‘Because I wish to treat my patients, as Hahnemann did, with powders. ‘You are the right one,’ said the lady. She then wrote an account of this to Dr. Lippe, who on learning that Hempel was trying for the professorship at Michigan, promptly consulted Dr. Hering in the matter, who then showed to Lippe the papers from Canada, containing an account of the trial of King, revealing the ignorance and disgrace of Hempel. Lippe sent the papers to the lady, whose husband was influential in politics. Hempel’s standing was investigated by the physicians who attended the wife, also through correspondence with Lippe, which brought down the wrath of Hempel upon his head.
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,