Since I have been in Paris not a single German physician has received personal tuition from me, nor has been authorized to visit patients for me or in my name.
Paris, April 17th, 1842.
To Mr. von Boenninghausen: Paris, March 24th, 1843.
added in another handwriting: ” April according to the postmark!”
The letter is dictated: another handwriting, feminine in character, as in previous letter, s probably the handwriting of his own wife; see also the introduction to the letter, partly faulty German, and the German characters are similar to Melanie’s French writing: Hahnemann’s signature is for the first time very8 shaky, showing obvious signs of senility.
Last letter of Hahnemann to Germany:
Dear Councillor and beloved Friend,
I have very little leisure for letter-writing on account of many hindrances. I have no other secretary apart form my dear wife who with a few exceptions keep all records of my patients, after every medicine prescribed ( for 17, 10 or 15 days).
A new patient takes one to one and a half hours of my time for the necessary examination by her and by me. For this purpose I have sixteen numbered quarto-folios so as to be able to find the notes of all patients who have been treated by me during these nine years in Paris — so that those who were here 2, 3,4,6 or 8 years ago, if they again require assistance can be easily found in a specially arranged alphabetical index. Even the circumstances and the remedies used for bedridden patients that I visited accompanied by my dear Melanie, are afterwards entered in a book at home. Those that can walk or drive are only treated by us if they come here during the five hours of the day, except Thursday and Sunday. I say, to us, because my dear wife takes part in all the consultations, as she has advanced so far in medical skill that she can compete in knowledge and practice with the best followers of our therapeutic system.
She attends forty to fifty poor patients alone from four o’clock onwards, and has done so for nine years. (Here the German spelling is faulty.) Her extraordinary memory does not need any written notes (except for disease which are difficult to treat): she only makes a note of the medicine by a sign on the paper wrapper of the powder given, and every patient has to bring this paper when he comes again, other wise he receives no more medicine.
Dr. Croserio of Paris, wrote to Dr. Neidhard of Philadelphia in 1840: (“Homoeopathic Examiner,” Vol.I, page346.).
Patients from the highest ranks of society come in a constant stream to Hahnemann’s house and in spite of the hot season, which drives all our aristocratic families into the country, his waiting-room is always filled. The patients have frequently to wait five to six hours for their turn, to enter the sanctuary of AEsculapius. His weekly reception which he holds on Mondays is frequented by physicians and celebrities from all parts of Europe. Hungary, Italy, Germany, England and the Islands are most frequently represented. Some come filled with the desire to gather valuable information from his long years of experience, others are attracted by the fame that Hahnemann enjoys in their country. All visitors alike are obviously touched by the benevolent attitude of the old gentleman and are mostly astonished and full of admiration for the great erudition and the wonderful store of knowledge of the venerable reformer.
Hahnemann retains his mental faculties up to a very advanced age.
Dr. A. G. Hull, an American, visited Hahnemann in 1840. In a detailed report, published in the first volume of the “Homoeopathic Examiner,” he gives his impressions of this visit. He says:
I had expected to find a gentleman in an enfeebled condition, and showing visible signs of advanced age. But such was not the case. Hahnemann’s firm figure, his great agility, his hearing unimpaired by age, and his normal range of vision, indicated excellent health and formed undoubtedly the best proof of the excellence of homoeopathic diet and mode of living which he has carefully followed for so many years. According to the judgment of those who have known him for a long time, his intellectual faculties appear to have been fully preserved as in earlier years. From the masterly criticism and forceful way of conducting arguments which I have heard from his own lips, I can in conclusion briefly sum up by saying that the apostle of Modern Germany has not fallen a victim to the usual ravages of time, and that his bodily vigour and his mental capacities are those of young veteran. I shall never forget the warm and hearty reception which the great master accorded to his American pupil.
Dr. Croserio of Paris, wrote to Dr. Neidhard of Philadelphia in 1841: (“Homoeopathic Examiner,” Vol. III, page 59.)
You will certainly be glad to hear that our revered master, in spite of his very advanced age, enjoys excellent health. His mind and body have preserved the power and energy of middle life. He is at the present time completely revising the sixth edition of the “Organon” which is done in the spare time he has left after seeing his large number of patients who constantly surround him.
A further witness, testifying that Hahnemann was in full possession of his mental faculties, is Dr. H.V. Malan, a personal pupil of Hahnemann (see Hahnemann’s letter of November 28th, 1840, page 375), who lived during 1841-2 in the vicinity of Paris, and frequented Hahnemann’s house regularly for a year and a half. He writes in a periodical, “Organon” (Vol.I, page 287.)
I should particularly like to point out that Hahnemann’s intellectual powers show no sign of senility. On the contrary, I have witnessed some remarkable cures successfully accomplished by the very age physician. He usually expounds his teaching with wonderful exactness and great erudition. He maintains throughout that pleasant modesty which was always characteristic of him.
Also Stapf’s remarkable communication ( in “The Neuen Archiv,” 1844, Vol. I, page II), is included here:
Stapf had visited Hahnemann in Paris, probably on his return journey from London in the Autumn of 1835. On this occasion Hahnemann, then eighty years of age, boasted to Stapf, “of almost undiminished reproductive powers.”
This also confirmed in a letter by Madame Melanie Hahnemann to a friend, who had reproached the comparatively young woman for having married such an old man. Madame Melanie replied that the term “old” was a very relative one. Hahnemann, her husband, was by no means a decrepit old man as might be expected from his age. Because in his youth and during his manhood he had not given way to excesses his virile powers had been wonderfully preserved.
The original letter, seen by Dr. Haehl, is in the possession of an American friend.
In a letter to Dr. Neidhard of Philadelphia, Dr. Croserio writes (See “Homoeopathic Examiner,” Vol.I, pages 104 and 346) in detail concerning the plans of the homoeopaths of Paris:
Paris, October 20th, 1839.
Under the name” Institute de la Medicine Homoeopathique” we have erected and shall open in a few weeks in the Rue de la Harpe, No. 93, in the immediate neighborhood of the School of Medicine, a large institution for the following purposes:
(I) To teach students the theory and practice of Homoeopathy, by public lecturers.
(2) To spread the benefit of Homoeopathy among the lower classed of the capital, by giving consultations gratis to those who will personally apply for them.
(3) To give advice in writing to those patients in the country and in the provinces of France, who, having no Homoeopathic physicians near them, may apply for it.
(4) To prepare Homoeopathic medicines according to the method of Dr. Mure
(5) To translate into the French language practical works on Homoeopathy.
(6) To publish under the title of “Le Propagateur de l’Homoeopathie,” a monthly periodical, in which all Homoeopathic works and periodicals will be reviewed, etc.
(7) To procure for those Homoeopathic physicians and other individuals in the provinces, or in foreign countries, who would apply for them, Homoeopathic books, instruments, medicines and practical advice in special cases.
(8) To open a cabinet de lecture where students, physicians, may read or borrow all Homoeopathic books and periodicals published in France or outer countries.
(9) To consult strangers who come to Paris, either to study Homoeopathy, or for the purpose of taking general information on the state of Homoeopathy, or to purchase Homoeopathic medicines, books, etc.
(10) To serve as a central point for Homoeopaths of all nations, and to nominate correspondents for that purpose in all foreign countries.
For the present I can inform you that Dr. Jahr will teach Materia Medica Pura, and German as the Homoeopathic language; Dr. Mure, Pharmacology and Mnemonics applied to the Materia Medica; and that I have accepted the Homoeopathic clinic.
In a further letter of July Ist, 1840, Dr. Croserio writes:
The Homoeopathic institutions have been established in the city during the past year, one in the Rue de la Harpe, the pother in the Rue Gil-le-Coeur. Both are situated near the School of Medicine, and in both, courses of public lectures are delivered on Homoeopathy and the Materia Medica: public consultations have been organised of which sixty to one hundred invalids from the labouring classes of society have availed themselves of daily.
Richard Haehl was also an editor and publisher of the homeopathic journal Allgemcine, and other homeopathic publications.
Haehl was responsible for saving many of the valuable artifacts of Samuel Hahnemann and retrieving the 6th edition of the Organon and publishing it in 1921.
Richard Haehl was the author of - Life and Work of Samuel Hahnemann