Hahnemann replied to these attacks. (No. 48, of February 26th, 1801) With me it is a question of dissolving, of an internal mixing of the dilution. If the doctor will take one sixteenth of a grain of arsenic (Sulzer had spoken of it himself) and dissolve it by constant stirring in 8 ozs. of hot distilled water, for a full minute, or till it is dissolved, and then will publish honestly in the k. priv. Reichsanzeiger details of the terrible attack resulting from this little thing; Oh, if only he would do it!- he would remember it all his life, as well as Hahnemann who was better acquainted than he, with the infinitely higher power of medicines in fluid from and accurate dilution.
Regarding the experiments with dogs, Hahnemann remarks:
Has he (Sulzer) never read that the conclusions deduced from the effects of medicines on animals demonstrate little for human beings? Dogs can take ounces of water-hemlock and juice of the belladonna berry without any harmful effect, but will die, of a few grains of Nux Vomica, without any hope of saving them.
He concludes:
Finally, you, m. H.S., need not consider it a crime that deep thinking led me to my discovery.-Your whole treatise shows clearly enough how carefully you refrain from thinking.
After Dr. Muller of Plauen had once again written against Hahnemann’s prophylactic for scarlet fever, which had meanwhile become known, Dr. Sulzer (April 6th) writes the final word which is chiefly a personal attack on Hahnemann, and with this the final word which is chiefly a personal attack on Hahnemann, and with this the discussion was closed for the time being.
(See however, the following Supplement 41.).
SUPPLEMENT 40
HAHNEMANN’S LETTERS FROM MOLLN AND MACHERN.
To Councillor Becker in Gotha. (“Leipsic Pop. Zeitschr.,” 1900, 31st year, page 182.).
Molln in Lauenburg, 19th November, 1800 Dearest friend,
Your complete silence makes me fear the diminution of your good will-probably on account of the unsuccessful undertaking with Wetzel. For Heaven’s sake, do not let this come between us! Consider the reasons which have accumulated in my letters (written during your absence from Gotha). I was being overpowdered by circumstances, and had not the slightest prospect of being able to help him there. Do no grudge the father of nine children a few more years of life, so that he may educate them to some extent. Convince yourself that in my position I could not do more, and again give me the full measure of your friendship.
When you are scrutinizing Wetzel’s accounts, will you be so good as to send me the board money for the last three quarters of a month (the first, I have received). I remind you of this reluctantly. I will try to repay you and the world by further good efforts.
I have already made a small beginning, by discovering a new and important chemical product, a new alkaline salt, the medicinal use of which I shall now try to find and insert in your Reichsanzeiger.
In the meantime please insert the enclosed advertisement at my expense, and accept the assurance of my steadfast friendship, affection and respect,
DR. SAM. HAHNEMANN.
To Councillor Becker in Gotha. (” Leipsic Pop. Zeitschr., ” 1901, 32 year, page 26.).
Molln.
22nd January, 1801.
Dearest friend,
Everyone considers his own insertions to be the one which is worthy of earliest publication, and this might also be my case. You see similar insertions from those who send them in every day, and you would not even notice mine if I said the same of the enclosed writing. But no, you will see for yourself that great assistance could be rendered to this good and important matter if the enclosed was published without delay. For many reasons I owe this compte rendu au public.
Regarding my little book, I want to tell you that were I to retain it in my desk on account of the insufficient number of subscribers, no one would have the right to resent it; since I have satisfied all claims, taliter qualiter, by distributing the medicine. This is however, not the case with Samuel Hahnemann. he has the little book ready. Here it is. He wants you, through your never tiring kindness, to have it printed on several sheets, as concisely as possible according to your insight and judgment, and on good paper for subscribers only, with the request to debit me with the amount. The names of those who have sent the Louis d’or, which have come from the north, will be there recorded. But they are, by far, too few for me to give them complete possession of this incalculably important discovery; nor have they behaved with sufficient honesty (see enclosed essay) to allow the whole truth to come to light through them-this concerns me most of all.
I also desire to find a God-parents of the pure truth, non- subscribers, who may be scattered here and there, and non- partisan doctors who are not jealous, and also the mass of educated lay people, among whom are to be found many capable of holding their own against the whole shoal of doctors, not only in medical insight but especially in healthy judgmentTo attain this object, how would it be if you were good enough to print the whole of the small essay on scarlet fever, in the “Reichsanzeiger”? In your small type it would not fill more than one sheet. It could in that way be sold easily for a small amount so that the surplus, after deducting your expenses, can go to the poor. The printing expense for the subscribers’ specimen copies is to be kept separate: please account for them separately. But do this as seems best to you. If only the knowledge reaches the public as far as possible. Only then can I promise myself an unbiased test of the great use it may be to the world.
Kind regards and best wishes for your welfare and happiness.
Your faithful friend,
SAM. HAHNEMANN.
Letter from Machern- a defence against the attacks of opponents. Again to Councillor Becker in Gotha. (“Leipsic Pop. Zeitschr.,” 1901, year 32, pages 56 and 69.).
Machern, June 8th, 1801.
Behold! One, hitherto as cool and level headed in argument, as he has ever been warm hearted in his friendship, becomes heated in argument and cold in his affection for an honest man!- for me! What a phenomenon! That my old friend Becker should write in that way to me, already very small faith in human nature, and depresses me more than if the whole guild was standing against me. If several unreasonable zealots called me to account and slandered me, would a man, who was often no better off himself, and who has often been openly attacked, who frequently found the only free resting place, as I do now, in the pure and clear consciousness that it was for a good cause, join in their low brawling? The so-called Kali pneum was the only striking error, which escaped me through my human weakness, as I had sent some as a present to the Coadjutor Dalberg, on whose esteem I set great value. Much greater men than I have committed similar errors. No chemist of any renown can be named who has not made some glaring chemical mistake. I have confessed mine openly, and have left the 5 Reichsthaler, after the deduction of expenses, to the poor of Leipsic, and — now I do not owe any further satisfaction or apology to the public or to my friends. I have easily thrown away 30 thaler in expenses. That this error should appear at the same time as the derisive utterances against my scarlet fever remedy, is a stroke of ill-luck which might mislead the public through a purblind combinatio idearum, and set them against me, but it should not influence a man like you, who can discriminate between more than one pair of fact in his thoughts, and has learned to trace each back to its own source. Have I lost the whole of my literary reputation through these two failures? “How can such a thing be contemplated?” Who can rob me of my small merits in this world? Is it a philosopher who holds this threat over me? But if I am only to be offended through this your prophecy of bad luck (I have never perceived that you took a malicious joy in the misfortune of others) I may as well tell you that I have never worked for public applause, or for the mere honour of it, but from a higher motive;-in that respect, I have nothing to lose and nothing at which to be offended.
How can you allow a man like Struve, who uses such low expressions, to press you so closely, as you are aware that your intentions were most philanthropic? How can you be intimidated by him to the point of denying your friend; “I know not the man”; he who would execute us both on the gallows and makes grimaces all the time?
There is nothing wrong in being pain in advance for one’s discovery, by subscriptions, provided one gives the equivalent on receipt of remuneration. This procedure has the best examples in its favour. Why are you ashamed of having helped such a just cause? That my discovery has not been generally recognised does not recoil on you. It is only on me that it recoils, whose life activities occur at a time when doctors (chiefly the young German ones) are so jealous, hasty, self-opinionated and puffed up with their defective school wisdom, that every new thing which does not originate with them is unbearable, and irritates their common spleen. Is it my fault if they mistook that pestilential epidemic, which cannot have been anything less than Fothergill’s severe diphtheria, for scarlet fever, and thereupon used my remedy wrongly? (The enclosed publication will clear matters up a little if reliable men answer it.) How could my remedy help in a totally different diseases? If you will have no sympathy with my ill-luck, you must not take part in the sin of those idiots and help them to trample me down. If you cannot convince yourself of the truth of my beneficial discovery-if it is impossible to believe my word-well! But you might suspend your judgment; a man with your knowledge of humanity, the best teacher and worker of practical philanthropy, who has never before been guilty of such haste!
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