As Hygienist and Dietist



And in 59 (page 110):

Coffee was ordered as an antidote to drowsiness in the daytime, on account of its refreshing primary effect. When its action ceased, the day sleepiness increased.

The world-war has deprived the German people of over-sea importations The lack of these importations and the economic and political collapse which followed the war have among other consequences had that of weaning the German people from the abuse of coffee. For some years Germans had to resort to these substitutes (malt coffee, chicory) and they became accustomed to them. But now that coffee is imported again, and consequently is more easily obtainable, the bad effects of which Hahnemann warned us over one hundred year ago, are more evident than ever. Geh. San Rat. Prof. Dr. Kurt Brandenberg (Berlin) writes in the “Medizinsche Klinik,” No. 50, of December 12th, 1920.

We may accept without hesitation that in more prosperous days coffee had been injurious in many cases, owing to its excessive use. Thus the enforced abstinence from coffee must have acted beneficially on the general state of health, much in the same way, though perhaps not to so great an extent as abstinence from alcohol. The discontinuance of the coffee habit however, has developed another condition, which at times becomes startlingly apparent. That is hypersensitiveness due to the use of strong genuine coffee. It is certainly no mere chance, that at the present time, an acutely diseased condition has suddenly developed, and comes before the medical profession for treatment; the symptoms, which chiefly manifest themselves on the heart and blood -vessels, must be considered as due to poisoning by coffee in people with an irritable heart.

Following this, Professor Brandenberg describes three such instances of poisoning by coffee, which came to his notice within a few days of each other.

SUPPLEMENT 38.

HAHNEMANN’S ATTITUDE TO HYDROTHERAPY.

To the treatment by water, hydrotherapy, Hahnemann had given far more study from the beginning of his career than most of the fellow practitioners of his day, and he knew how to appreciate its value during the whole of his life in the treatment of various diseases.

In his little work, “Suggestions for the treatment of Chronic sores and ulcers” (1784, by Crusius, Leipsic) nineteen pages are devoted to the use of water. He lays special stress on the duration of the bath, and the degree of the temperature of the water. In the introduction he writes:

If there exists anywhere a generally useful medicine, it is water. I could not permanently heal my patients of old sores without the use of a cold bath, and the cold in this instance seems to work not only by strengthening and promoting contraction, but also as a preventative to the development of putrefaction.

Speaking of baths which he used for the cure of ulcers of the legs, he says concerning the temperature of the water.

The degrees of cold and the increasing movement of the body must go on step by step with the recuperation of strength. Treatment by baths can be so carefully graduated as to temperature, be it high or low, that even the weakest body can gradually reach the extreme without the slightest shock to his nerves provided the doctor’s instructions are correct and that the patient carries them out with punctuality and obedience.

I have not yet ceased to wonder how our great physicians in prescribing strengthening treatment can have been so neglectful in the instructions for cold baths. One is to use partly or entirely full cold baths morning or night; that comprises the whole prescription! Not a word about the degree of temperature or the exact length of duration of the bath, or the other indispensable instructions for cold baths. One is to use partly or entirely full cold baths morning or night; that comprises the whole prescription! Not a word about the degree of temperature or the exact length of duration of the bath, or other indispensable instructions. Surprise at the frequent harm done to the health ceases if one considers how many unsuitable applications of cold water must have resulted from such crippled and incomplete prescriptions.

The debilitated and languishing patient remained for hours in snow-cold water in order to show respect to some great man by carrying out heroically some vague instructions, and he was pulled out of the water in a faint, stiff with cramp, paralysed by a stroke, or chilled to the point of putrid fever, or possibly even dead.

Instructions cannot be too exact or detailed when ordering vigorous treatment; as it is, some neglect in complying with the orders is only too probable.

This vagueness has roused so much opposition to cold water treatment that one finds a very large number of people fear it as if it were a medical torture chamber, and worse than death. But the dregs of blind-worshipping doctors have by senseless application of these vague directions of our Hippocrates, given rise to the utmost abuse of the cold bath.

On the effect of cold water, Hahnemann expresses himself as follows:

I do not observe after my prescription any chill, on the contrary increases or continued warmth, and the strength of the patient improves from day to day, as I do not allow a cold bath to draw more warmth from the body than it can very soon replace by its own blood -heat. The activity of the blood which is coursing through the body is increased by the contraction of the muscular fibre and vessels, through the cold, in a uniform way, and just as the power of a spring increases, the closer it is wound up, so in the same way the functions of the body receive new life.

After he has devoted several pages to the effect of waters containing iron, he comes again to the rules which have to be observed for cold baths, and recommends particularly exercise, before and after the cold bath.

The weakness of the patient, and sometimes the severity of the climate, make it almost a general necessity to take moderate exercise before entering a cold bath and also after coming out of it. This is an incomparable means for maintaining the circulation in good order. The stimulated warmth of the blood can thus more easily resist the coldness of the bath, and the muscular fibres as well as the blood-vessels, contract uniformly. This method has the advantage that the cold bath never, causes a chill, and that the temperature of the bath may be reduced more rapidly than is the case when the patient, who has taken no previous exercise, suddenly and unpreparedly exposes himself to the coldness of the water. The exercise before the bath must be so moderate that it never produces a perspiration, as it would be very unwise to enter a bath in such a condition, but whilst the exercise after the bath may be a little more vigorous neither must it lead to perspiration or tiredness. With these modifications, enormous advantages can be obtained which could not be otherwise secured.

How much Hahnemann was imbued with the correctness of these views is clearly shown at the conclusion of the chapter.

If I put the cold bath next in order to appropriate diet, as the chief thing in the stimulating treatment of chronic sores, it is because I have numerous and carefully selected experiences before me, and I ask for unbounded confidence in these utterances, so that even the poorest can easily and without elaborate instructions (except, so that even the poorest can easily and without elaborate instructions (except those named above), use this, glorious and helpful remedy, which is not a small proof of its excellency.

On the use of water for hardening and rearing children, Hahnemann gives us his opinion in “The Friend of Health” (1792), and his “Hand book for Mothers” (1796). In these he complains about the softening of the upper as also of the lower classes, but at the same time he cautions against sudden attempts at hardening.

But the philanthropic Genius of the last quarter of this century watched all these horrors and harmful degeneration and grieved over them. He established baths in cold streams, in which the delicate offspring of distinguished parentage were plunged. They were forced to go barefoot and bareheaded, with uncovered chests, over common covered with hoar-frost, and allowed to sleep only for a few hours under light covers on hard beds.

One could not doubt your good intentions dear Genius, even if the poor pupils had their hands and feet frozen off through these attempts, or died of phthisis, or the fever following chills, or if you sadly comprehended that a hot -house plant must not be transplanted in November in order to accustom it to a Northern climate.

Nature never does anything unprepared. All her work is done gradually and the more complicated and artistic the work that she carries out, is the more carefully and gradually does she accomplish it. You cannot change winter into summer, without introducing autumn as a transition stage. Let us imitate her, never let us put January after June, never July after January, if our plants are not to shrivel up in either case through extremes.

Richard Haehl
Richard M Haehl 1873 - 1932 MD, a German orthodox physician from Stuttgart and Kirchheim who converted to homeopathy, travelled to America to study homeopathy at the Hahnemann College of Philadelphia, to become the biographer of Samuel Hahnemann, and the Secretary of the German Homeopathic Society, the Hahnemannia.

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