In the Fall of 1867 I came from my home, near Allentown, Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia to attend Hahnemann College, which was then entering upon its first year under reorganization and amalgamation with the older Homoeopathic College of Pennsylvania, with a new faculty, of which Dr. Hering was dean.
Dr. Hering’s name had become a household word, owing to his affiliation, at the Allentown Academy, with my great uncle, the Rev. John Helfrich, I was warmly received with a handshake and the greeting: Welcome, descendent of my old friend. I was invited to call at the house where occasionally I spent an evening, or made a visit on a Sunday afternoon, during my winter’s course at the College.
Shortly after my graduation, in 1869, I made my home with the family to fill the position of assistant to the venerable doctor, who had, for a time, been without such help.
Realizing that the years, in which I was to sit at the feet of the Master, were to be years of golden opportunity from which to gather precious knowledge, such as nowhere else could be obtained, I thought this might afford an opportunity, to share at some future time, with others of my profession among coming generations, the advantages so enjoyed. I resolved, from the beginning, to record in a diary the conversations of the great teacher, his tabletalk, the daily incidents that occurred in the home life, and his interviews with other physicians who came to consult, or to be instructed and entertained, by the sage so widely known and respected.
I believe that now, at an advanced age, near the dawn of another life is the time to share with the profession these notes, held in sacred keeping so many years-more than fifty; I have in mind, particularly the younger generation of homoeopaths who have come too late to enjoy personally the intimacy and inspiration of the great teacher.
I feel it, not only to be a privilege, but a great and pleasant duty to share with the profession, and also the laity, including the few remaining ones who, at one time or another, have benefited by his personal treatment, as well as the many with whom Hering’s Domestic Physician is still a household word, a friend and a help at home to those who needing first aid live remote from a homoeopathic physician.
From the day of my return from Europe in 1873 the notes in my diary were resumed, at intervals, not always dated, and were continued to the time of Dr. Hering’s death, in July of 1880. Soon after, almost before the ink had dried on the page of Vol.4 of the Master’s lifework, his Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica, a ten volume book, it fell to my lot assisted in part by Doctors Raue and Mohr, to prepare for the press this monumental work, from the mass of material accumulated through years of labor by Constantine Hering.
If, by publishing these notes, I have, in a small way, contributed to the edification and instruction of my colleagues, and especially to the many who will come after me, my pleasant duty will have been accomplished.
These records, religiously kept for a number of years, eleven in all, were made openly, by permission and approval of the Master, on tablets in longhand, and regularly copied into a book which grew to a fair sized volume, from which these pages are transcribed.
After graduation from Hahnemann Medical College in the spring of 1869, there followed two years of uninterrupted application to an extensive practice under Dr.Hering, together with arduous labor at literary work, which helped to break down my health, none too robust. I was called the pale student. Realizing that I began to suffer under the strain of trying to keep up with the man of iron constitution, who never seemed to tire, or to need time for rest and recreation, a vacation was planned for the duration of a year, in which to go abroad, a part of which time was to be spent in travel and sightseeing and later, with health restored, to attend lectures and to take some special courses in medicine in the hospitals abroad.
I left in my place Dr. Claude R.Norton, a recent graduate from the New York Homoeopathic College, a bright and able young man.
After several months in Germany, spent in visiting friends and relatives of the Hering family, there followed some special courses of study at the University in Berlin, under Helmholtz, who taught physics, and Dubois Reymond, noted physiologist. There was also a short course in Archaeology describing the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii, places to be visited later on a tour through Italy.
During a winter course at the hospital in Vienna I attended the clinics of Schroeder and Stoerck, throat and lung specialists, and some lectures on anatomy by the venerable Hyrtl, also some on skin diseases by Hebra and Skoda.
The rest of my stay on the continent was devoted to sightseeing with occasional visits to some of the eminent early homoeopaths, prominent among whom were Rueckert in Herrnhut, Aegidi near Berlin, Hartlaub in Thuringia, and Heermann in Paris. To all of these intimate friends of Dr. Hering I had letters of introduction.
When in Leipzig, for a short stay, I called upon the widow Moosdorff, eldest daughter of Hahnemann, practicing in her father’s house in Coethen, near Leipzig. From this gracious lady I received some interesting relics which included pellets of Aconite from a vial used by her father. She had nothing kindly to say of Melanie, the second wife who lured her father to Paris and separated him from his family and home ties to be exploited in a lucrative practice in the great metropolis.
I spent a week or two in Salzburg, ancient city in Bavaria, which had been the home of Theophrastus von Hohenheim, better known by the name of Paracelsus, in whose life and labors Dr. Hering was deeply interested, to the extend of accumulating what is probably the largest collection of books, by and on Hohenheim, in the country; which library, after Hering’s demise, was placed in a fireproof vault in the Hahnemann College of Philadelphia together with souvenirs carefully catalogued and kept under glass.
My efforts to obtain admittance to the museum in Salzburg were made successful through the courtesy of the curator of that institution and I was allowed the privilege of making photographic copies of portraits of Hohenheim, including a picture of the fractured skull exhumed from St. Peter’s graveyard, in Salzburg, by the German anatomist, Soemmering, confirming the legend that Hohenheim was killed by enemies by being thrown from a cliff at the foot of the castle, on a hill, late one night when returning home from a banquet.
After Salzburg came Vienna, the hospitals, and later a trip to Italy, in company with two young American doctors, one of them my friend, Dr. Charles M.Thomas from Philadelphia, skilful surgeon and oculist who later became dean of Hahnemann College. After a visit to Paris and Dr. Charles Heermann, by whom my friend and I were hospitably received and entertained, and seeing some of the sights, and making a fruitless search for the burial place of Hahnemann, in Montmartre cemetery, we sailed for England. We spent a few days in London and went on to Edinburgh, Scotland, where three more months were profitably spent in reading the medical books we had accumulated, and in visiting historic places of interest in the vicinity of Edinburgh, and in the Highlands.
In the summer of 1873, with renewed health and vigor and a deeper rooted belief in the principles of homoeopathy, I returned to my place by the side of Dr. Hering, where, soon after, I became united in marriage to his daughter Melitta, to whom I had become engaged before leaving for Europe the previous year. This happy union lasted for fifty-three years, blessed by three sons and a daughter.
It is my fervent wish that the seeds of wisdom gathered and thus disseminated may fall upon fertile ground and bear a rich harvest in the years to come; in the time, when we hope, that homoeopathy will have become the dominating School of Medicine.
I wish to thank the members of the Hering family for their kind offices in helping to make the publication of this book possible; and all others who have assisted in any way.
By CALVIN B.KNERR.
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,