I sow and bring to fruition with much toil, and thousands reap the cheap fruit to their own advantage.
About thirteen people who called, wished to know the secret in advance, in confidence, on their word of honour, and as the scarlet fever was raging they could not stand any delay. I sent them the remedy without giving its name, with instructions for use, and an now expecting that at least a few will demonstrate sufficient enthusiasm for the good cause, and that they will publish the desired success in your Reichsanzeiger.
The Heir-Apparent of Coburg has written to me in flattering words regarding the good results with his children and others; he is so far the only one who has let me know results.
I was risking a good deal when I sent it to them, because if they did not use it exactly as prescribed, there might be cases where it would fail to act; this would bring shame on the remedy (which is infallible when used in the right way), before I could receive an indemnity.
Believe me, dear friend, you, who are at the same time a warm-hearted friend to all humanity,-believe me, it is one of the most beneficial medical discoveries which has ever been made, and as infallible as any remedy has ever been.
Although its promise is so great, few believe in it; they are waiting until it becomes known, and has fully redeemed the promise made. Then the originator is praised and renowned, but no one recompenses him; they gratefully use an invention, but do nothing to improve his financial position when he has once let the blessing leave his hands.
It would have been more lucrative for me had I always sold the remedy as a secret, but it would not then have become so generally beneficial as I want it to be, even though I may be only partly recompensed.
How would it be if we used the innocent trick of inserting the enclosed reminder, or something similar, in the R.A.?
I judge by experience, that one prefers to make purchases at the counter where one sees other customers waiting-believing that where there are pigeons perhaps other pigeons will alight.
Give your household my kind regards, and those of my family, and continue your affection for, Your faithful friend,
SAMUEL HAHNEMANN.
Altona. April 16th, 1800.
(To Councillor Becker at Gotha.).
Altona, May 1st, 1800.
Dearest friend,
I believe I have found out how to steer a middle course by means of the enclosed announcement (which I would like to beg of you to insert as quickly as possible, for the sake of those who are suffering) so that the world be served, and that I may at the same time not be forgotten. Why should we do everything for nothing? After the first advertisement has appeared in your paper, will you please see that one little powder is enclosed with each subscription form. As the latter is not charged for, it will not give appearance of selling medicines, and I may gain its object. Through the slow subscriptions of the past, the nd would never be attained.
Please send a specimen copy of the Reichsanzeiger, with a small powder, to Hartenkeil and Struve, as soon as possible.
If previous subscribers should ask for one, please do not refuse them. Put expense and trouble down to my account.
I think this fulfils every legitimate demand. No one can expect me to forget myself, especially with a numerous family and considering the many sacrifices I have already made gratuitously.
My Hamburg connection has persuaded me to remain here in the neighbourhood.
On Ascension Day I shall be quite settled down in a pretty house in St. Jurgen, near Hamburg (Alsterwiete, No. 126), and ready to receive Wetzel. I shall remove in a fortnight’s time.
Kind regards and best wishes for your health. Kind greetings from my family to you all.
DR. HAHNEMANN.
The article enclosed in the above letter, and published in No. 108 of the “Reichsanzeiger,” on May 12th, 1800, is worded as follows: The demand, to introduce my remedy for scarlet fever infection as soon as possible, becomes more and more insistent. It is making an appeal to my conscience, seeing that scarlet fever is raging and many hundreds of children are carried away by it. But no one who is reasonable can expect me to neglect my own interests in order to fulfil this legitimate request on the part of the public by urging that it is my duty to acquiesce in their desire, without having due regard to my own claims. It is certainly worth something to have found 40 subscribers, but that is still far below the 300 whom I may reasonably expect. No one should therefore be vexed when I declare that I cannot for the present publish my book without financial embarrassment. As long as I do not close the subscription list in the Reichsanzeiger, the offer remains open.
Meanwhile there is, however, an alternative for those who are now suffering, which will prove my sympathy with the welfare of humanity. I have deposited in the offices of the Reichsanzeiger, my remedy, made up in small powders. Everyone who deposits a Friedrichs d’ or, as a subscription to my book on scarlet fever, will receive such a little powder free of charge, which contains enough to render several thousand people immune from scarlet fever, with the receipt form for his money. (Hahnemann describes in detail, after that, the use of the powder.)
On September 17th, of the same year, Dr. Muller, general practitioner of Plauen in Voigtland, communicates “that in this, his district, no child or adult had caught scarlet fever after using Hahnemann’s preventative remedy for two or three weeks” (although prior to that many children and several adults had been carried off by the ugly disease in that district.).
But many were afraid that the remedy, although so beneficial, might contain a slow- acting poison which might produce harmful effects even years later.
On October 15th he reports that in one case the remedy completely failed. Also Dr. Christian Heinrich Jani, general practitioner of Gera, in Reuss Voigtland, writes that he has given Hahnemann’s preventative to thirty-six children in ten families. In one family of six the remedy was useless: the eldest girl died of scarlet fever and the other children, who were suffering from it, were cured without Hahnemann’s remedy.
Of the 30 children of the remaining nine families who took the preventative remedy under the supervision of the undersigned, none have knowingly been exposed to the danger of infection, nor have they so far become ill with it, although the use of the remedy has been discontinued as having been found inefficient.
Therefore, he draws the conclusion that the remedy does not ensure immunity from scarlet fever. But he dare not deny that the remedy might have a from scarlet fever. But he dare not deny that the remedy might have a certain value in the prevention of scarlet fever. The reporter then concludes by saying: Is it not possible that the worthy Hahnemann made his experiments under more propitious circumstances, and was led to an erroneous deduction?
In the “Reichsanzeiger” of December Ist, 1800, Hahnemann writes:
In order to answer several anxious enquiries, I declare that this medicine consists only of the juice of one of our official plants, the effects of which last about 6 days, and then disappear for good out of the system, and in the dose prescribed by me it is quite harmless.
For certain constitutions, however, I find that the initial dose is too weal. This defect can be remedied by arranging that the first four doses be taken as follows: the second dose 24 hours after the first, the third dose 36 hours after the second, the fourth 48 hours after the third, and then be continued every 72 hours until the end of the treatment.
DR. SAM. HAHNEMANN.
The dispute continued: in No. 30 of February 5th, 1801, Dr. F.G. Sulzer, H.S. Councillor and physician at the Spa in Ronneberg, attacks Hahnemann’s scarlet fever prophylactic in a lengthy treatise.
Dr. Hahnemann, who is renowned and appreciated as a great chemist, pharmacist and physician, announces a remedy of his own discovery, which from the wording of his own assured conviction is infallible for the prevention of scarlet fever. Who would not believe such a worthy man? Then Sulzer complains that Hahnemann does not treat the physicians with the seemly courtesy and frankness that they would expect, nor does the remedy, which has been distributed, act as was stated. Sulzer then goes into details regarding the use of the powders, and stumbles especially over the enormous dilution.
This little powder (at least, the one which I received) does not weigh more than I 1/5 gran, or I/200th of a loth: it is to be divided in 2, 400,000 (two million four hundred thousand) drops of liquid.
He asserts that such a dose could never be effective; therefore he made some experiments with three dogs, on himself, and on many people (among others twenty-eight belonging to a factory, who “took as many of my drops as I liked to give them in return for a few cans of beer”), ” everywhere without any kind of visible any kind of visible results.” Sulzer attacks the way the drops are prepared, and by means of a table shows the possible difference in the size of the drops.
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