DR. SAMUEL HAHNEMANN, Member of several learned societies.
Leipsic, 14th February, 1820.
Notwithstanding this excellent defence, the Council of the city of Leipsic, gave judgment, on March 15th, 1820 against Hahnemann, by forbidding him to make, or to dispense his medicine to anyone. Such sentences became valid only after confirmation by the State.
Meanwhile Hahnemann received the support of his influential patient, the Prince of Schwarzenberg, who was at the time under his treatment, at Leipsic. In grateful recognition for services rendered to him, the Field Marshal applied to the King of Saxony on behalf of his physician. Regarding this we have the following documents which are to be found in the State Archives of Dresden:
ps. to the Government Office on July 11th, 1820. Page 63.
Noble Count, The rumour which is being circulated here, that Dr. Hahnemann will be forbidden the practice of his method of treatment, by an act of the Government, forces upon me the necessity to beg His Majesty the King, to graciously grant an audience to my Adjutant-General, the Colonel Baron Wernhardt, so that he may put before him some information regarding this new method of treatment which I am undergoing at present.
The memory of our old friendly relations justifies me to hope, that your Excellency will be good enough to support my petition, before His Majesty, to the best of your ability.
Since I have been under Dr. Hahnemann’s treatment some of my attacks have already been alleviated, and I do not doubt that I shall soon have improved sufficiently to put before His Majesty, personally, my very deep gratitude for the many proofs of His graciousness which I have experienced during my sojourn in this town.
I shall be especially glad to see you again on this occasion, after a long separation, and to assure you once more of my friendly sentiments and deep esteem.
I have the honour to be, Your Excellency’s Obedient Servant, KARL, Prince of Schwarzenberg.
Leipsic, July 8th, 1820.
ps. to the Government Office.
July 11th, 1820.
Your Majesty,
The rumour is spreading here that Dr. Hahnemann, whose treatment I am undergoing at present, will be refused, by a decree of the Government, the right of treating patients in accordance with his new system. Therefore, I respectfully take the liberty to humbly request Your Majesty to grant an audience to my Adjutant-General, the Colonel Baron Wernhardt, and to allow him to put before Your Majesty, in my name, a few disclosures on the method of treatment of Hahnemann, which I was able to acquire while under the care of this physician.
In the hope that You will graciously accept my humble petition with your usual clemency, and that my improved health will soon allow me to tender personally my most submissive thanks for the many tokens of your gracious good will received during my sojourn here, I remain with deepest respect and submissiveness.
Your Majesty’s most humble servant, KARL, Prince of Schwarzenberg.
Leipsic, July 8th, 1820.
(Answer to the Prince of Schwarzenberg).
Your Excellency,
I have to communicate to you in obedience with a gracious order received, the following with regard to the medical situation concerning Dr. Hahnemann at Leipsic: it is not a question of prohibiting him the practice of his own method of treatment. It was that the apothecaries of Leipsic had complained to the town council about the dispensing of his own remedies, and the said authorities were on the point of prohibiting Dr. Hahnemann the punishable presumption in accordance with the existing regulations of the law. Several patients of Hahnemann, Dr. Volkmann and Cons. have lodged an appeal against this and thus the matter has been brought to the notice of the Government. The latter requested a declaration of opinion from the Medical Council and from the Medical Faculty of Leipsic. Both these declarations have already been received and have proved adverse to Hahnemann, so that now it would mean to warrant Volkmann’s appeal against the prohibition of self-dispensing pronounced by the City Council. But the Government of the country has deemed it necessary to bring the matter for final decision before His Majesty, owing to the interest that the Prince of Schwarzenberg has taken. Therefore, the submissive report which has already been drawn up could be handed in tomorrow. Now I am asking for permission to await your Excellency’s further orders of procedure, before any further progress is made.
With deepest esteem, I remain,
Your Excellency’s most humble servant,
BARON VON WERTHERN.
Dresden, July 11th, 1820.
A Monsieur mon Cousin, M. Prince Charles de Schwarzenberg, a Leipsic.
Noble Prince, especially dear friend,
The Colonel Baron von Wernhardt, whom you have sent, has already delivered your message to me in connection with the matter of Dr. Hahnemann of Leipsic, and has received from me an answer to the effect that I shall make enquiries. I have ordered all that is necessary for that to be done, and arranged at the same time that no further steps shall be taken against Dr. Hahnemann. In any case he shall not be hindered in his efforts to cure your dear person with his new method of treatment. It is my sincere wish, that it may fully answer all expectations, and the pleasure which I personally shall derive from being convinced of it, will be equally great I assure you. I would like you to be convinced of my sentiment of esteem, which I try to show by small signs of pleasant courtesy which I remain willing to prove at any time.
Your affectionate friend, F.A.
(King of Saxony).
Castle Pillniez, July 14th, 1820.
To His Serene Highness, the Imp. R. General Field-Marshal, and Councillor of War, President Prince of Schwarzenberg at Leipsic.
Your Serene Highness’s highly esteemed letter of the 8th inst. has been handed to me by the Colonel Baron von Wernhardt. Immediately after receiving it I hastened to inform the King, my gracious Master, of the reason why this officer had been sent here, and His Majesty has graciously summoned him to Pillnitz, that he may deliver his report on Dr. Hahnemann’s method of treatment.
Will your Serene Highness permit that, in consequence of the provisional reply already given on his report concerning this matter, and the Royal letter which is here enclosed, I may be allowed to refer to and add the following.
The inquiries made by His Majesty’s order showed that it was not a question of forbidding Dr. Hahnemann to practise in accordance with his own new method of treatment, but that owing to the apothecaries of Leipsic having laid a complaint before the Municipal Council of that town, the latter were on the point of forbidding Dr. Hahnemann from dispensing his own medicines, in accordance with the existing laws. But an appeal made by some of his patients, to the Government was considered, and this report will now be tendered to His Majesty.
I will close by thanking Your Serene Highness most heartily for the flattering and greatly valued expressions of your good will, with the assurance that I await impatiently for the moment when I shall be granted the privilege of congratulating you on your restoration to health, and to express the profound veneration and devotion with which I have the honour of being.
Your Serene Highness’s most obedient servant, E.
Dresden, 14th July, 1820.
SUPPLEMENT 64
ADDITION TO THE POST MORTEM FINDINGS OF THE DECEASED PRINCE OF SCHWARZENBERG.
Hofrat Clarus added to the postmortem report in “Hufeland’s Journal,” Vol. 51, Part 4, the following paragraph.
As regards Dr. Hahnemann’s assistance in the treatment of the deceased Prince, I declare with all my heart, that I do not envy him in the least the fame which he has acquired through it, and can leave the test of his convictions with confidence to time and the efforts of others, as my complex profession, and the road which, I have set myself through my literary work, leave me neither leisure nor the desire to take part in the discussions on this subject. In the meantime, my public position makes me declare myself openly on this occasion, a decided opponent as regards his views in general, and I believe I acted in the spirit of our wise and mild Government, when I advised my younger colleagues, to abstain from every passionate controversy, and on every occasion to try and make valid the principle, that where openings transgress against the conviction held by a majority, it is safer and dignified to leave them to the free test of every- body, than to fight them by degrees and magisterial interposition, a procedure, which with regard to truth is vain and useless, because it will always fight as way to victory, but puts an unearned crown of martyrdom on errors and fancies, the sight of which urges on the masses, who always shout without knowing why, to an ever increasing blind partially. Therefore, although I myself, together with the preponderant majority of physicians, am convinced, and could prove this by demonstrations, that Hahnemann’s method of treatment in individual, especially in acute cases, causes much harm, by the neglect of strong measures; yet I believe that this harm from a higher point of view, has no comparison with that which must be caused by an even only attempted impediment of the free development of the mind, and research in a German University as long as and so far as such an endeavour to find the truth in a different way from that ordinarily used, does not stand in opposition to the existing laws and arrangements. If there is among them (those that study) a small number who from lack of introductory knowledge think they can find their salvation in some one-sided theory, or use it for the sake of an unlawful and in every way low gain; then I answer that at no time have we been short of such unripe half doctors, and remark at the same time that with such shallowness, Hahnemann’s method causes far less harm in their hands than any other.
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