Not less than one hour after dinner must you touch a book. In the evening at eight o’ clock reading and writing must cease; the blood must then gradually return to its placid course throughout the body and stop rushing violently to the head (which it was forced to do by thinking );the pulse must remain quiet until you go to bed at ten o’ clock. These two hours can be occupied by a friendly talk that is not too tiring. In the evening you must eat no meat, and only a little white bread, and this rather early than late, at about six or seven o’ clock. The mid-day meal must be strengthening and nourishing, almost without spices, and little salt; pork must not be eaten frequently, and veal but seldom partaken of. No tea, no coffee, no wine, but beer which has only a small quantity of hops in it, or pale or ale for a drink.
You must go out of a walk in the fresh air for an hour daily, whatever be the conditions of weather. Choose the brightest part of the day; if it is not bright you must go out in bad weather. The changing of clothing, shoes, or over-shoes will prevent any ill effects. If you have an opportunity of taking fencing lessons, take half-an-hour’s fencing a day, on account of the movements of the upper part of the body, and in order to strengthen the arms you must learn to fence with both arms. If that cannot be done, you must choose the dry and uninteresting occupation of sawing wood.
A correspondence (The originals are in the possession of Dr. Boericke in San Fransisco) with the official administrator, afterwards Judge Koch in Zorbig from 1820 to 1828, shows in detail what importance Hahnemann assigns to diet, etc. he first asks the patient not to remain too continuously at his work, then that he should occasionally get up and walk around the room. He allows him three cups of goats’ milk in the morning, “scalded of course.” Wine and punch are to be avoided as much as possible; and in the evening the patient must never eat much.
If you had not such difficult and continued mental work, you would be able to digest this and other things. But as your work is of sedentary nature, and you have to exert your brain over all kinds of annoying matters, it is impossible to live like a fat farmer who keeps nothing in his head, and lets his farms hands and clerk work for him, while he walks about in the open from morning to night. The more office work you have to do the more sparing must your food be, and the more frequent your walks.
In another letter Hahnemann writes:
I would like you to take very little wine at night in your Kaltschale. (Kaltschale is a cold beverage made of beer with grated, bread, sugar and lemon, or of wine and water with fruit such as strawberries or currants.) As a breakfast drink I want you to take an infusion made with cocoa (chocolate without any flavouring); you should take a piece the size of a hazel-nut of this substance, boil it in two or three cups of water, remove it from the fire and stir into it the yolk of one egg, then you can drink this either with milk or sugar, just as you like. This is a most palatable and harmless drink.
The Konigskerzen (mullein) flowers are medicinal, and I do not approve of them.
Here follows a very emphatic letter:
Dear Herr Gerichtsamtmann, I thought that you would have known from many consultations with me that the self-applied quack remedies of patients are worthless, even injurious, and complicate matters for the good physician. When other do it, who are not acquainted with my principles, one has to forgive them, but you have no excuse.
You cannot realise how much damage you have done with the small chamomile bag, nor can you have any conception how the blood of the patient is heated even by the smell of this strong medicine. Moreover you do not require it; all you need is to abstain from it. Neither do you know what changes elder flower tea products in the state of the health, nor what altered conditions are brought about in the throat by gargling with a solution of vinegar. Why do you do such things when you have me for your doctor? How can you suggest to me emetics, diaphoretics and leeches, all things from the lumber-room of the ordinary doctor?
If I am to treat him, your Ferdinand must not be bungled with any longer. I will try to make good the mischief which has already been done, but do not do such things again, otherwise I shall hand you over to your local allopathic physician.
House-remedies must not be used by those committed to my care. I do not live so far away from you. It is better to let a patient lie for one day without having anything to give him, than to use what would do him harm.
The boy must either have his bed put into another room, or better still the temperature of his room must only be heated up to 12*., and even then he must have lighter coverings than he has now. How intolerably hot the poor boy must be, to constantly want to uncover himself! This is your fault and not his; everything must be so arranged that he is neither too hot nor too cold.
All the chamomile and elder odours must be taken out of the room. The gargling with mallow vinegar and honey must be stopped. He must drink what he desires and as hot or cold as he likes it. When the room is as cool and the covers as light as I have said, and all the medical stuff of the quacks has been removed from the atmosphere of the room, then you can give him No. I of these little powders in a little water, and repeat every twelve hours. When they are finished you can send me another report. I shall not forget for a long time your emetics, diaphoretics and leeches!
Yours truly,
S. HAHNEMANN.
K. November, 1828.
The person thus reprimanded remained faithful to Hahnemann. In a letter of August 15th, 1833, the latter gives the following instructions for the wife of the Gerichtsamtmann:
I want her not to over-exert herself with housework, but rather to go out daily for half or a whole hour’s gentle walk in the fresh air; this will strengthen her and she will able to stand the tiring bustle of the house much better. If she goes for an hour;s walk every day she will not be so irritable.
And in the last letter he gives the following instructions for the pregnant woman:
Neither before nor after delivery must your wife drink chamomile tea, unless she feels ill, very hot and irritable, and has drawing tearing abdominal pains. (Only then would a teaspoonful of chamomile tea be of use to her, otherwise it must do her harm.). She must drink before, during and after delivery only what she desires: beer (Kostritz), sugar water, or if she wants warm drinks, ordinary tea from the grocer, with milk and sugar, gruel, warm beer without any spices and so on. The expected infant requires no medicine to rid itself of the meconium, only the mother’s milk, and as soon as the mother has slept a few hours it must be put to the breast.
My gracious Baroness,
Your nerve-sickness is indeed already well developed, but I trust you to have the steadfastness which will be required, if you want to be gradually freed from it by suitable medicine. I am hopeful of success on account of your obedience.
If you are very moderate with your food, and go out into the fresh air a good deal, you may eat a little salad once or twice a week; vegetables only in moderation as they produce too much flatulence, and (avoiding peas, white beans, or lentils) partake preferably only of spinach, turnips and green beans., Of cereals, take millet, rice, groats or sago, but do not eat farinaceous food often. I would like you to keep mainly to beef and mutton, pigeons and chickens, and smoked ham only on condition that it is raw. In the evening you are allowed a few cups of warm milk, as also milk foods at mid-day. Fruit of all kinds, but only a little at a time, and that daily.
Cothen. 23rd June, 1829.
(Original was in the possession of Dr. Dudgeon, london.).
Dear Herr Hauptkassier,
If I understand your last letter correctly, you have abandoned the three glasses of wine at night. I entirely concur in that, as undiluted wine is not good for you. But if you like, should there be no good simple beer to be had (for double beer and other artificial and expensive beers are not desirable), mix one part of wine with five parts of water, and add a little sugar, that would be a suitable drink for the evening if you use it moderately. I should like to see the evening meal more sparingly arranged and almost without any meat- which you can avoid if you take a few bites of bread in the afternoon. During the winter besides going to business you should take a short slow walk in the fresh air. Essay walking allow you to enjoy the fresh air much more, than you would do on your way to business. Sharp (mustard) and very salty things (like herrings, anchovies, caviare) I beg of you not to take either at night or at any other time, nor any kind of acids, such as vinegar (salad) or lemon juice (lemonade). If you have, as you say, abolished the morning coffee (and the afternoon China tea?) I have nothing more to suggest to you in the way of your diet.
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