SUPPLEMENT 83
HISTORY OF THE TIME PRECEDING “CHRONIC DISEASES.”
A letter a Hahnemann to the royal Prussian Consul-General, Dr. Friederich Gotthelf Baumgrtner (“Allg. hom. Ztg.,” Vol.32, page 42):
Right Honorable Doctor and Consul-General.
Beloved Patron,
I regard it as the work of Divine providence that you, a man of high standing in the world, should have the foresight and courage to try and bring honour to the art of healing, which has been maligned in a thousand ways, has frequently been suppressed and reviled by the great fraternity of physicians, on account of its simplicity, truth, nd astonishingly good results, they who are proud in their comfortable old humdrum ways.
I have read you report to Berlin, and pay you my whole- hearted respect for this great deed. May God give his blessing. I also thank you for the banquet which you gave in honour of this science of mine and I take great interest in this public acknowledgment of the value of our homoeopathy. It must have created quite a sensation among your friends.
I wish to God that the government of Saxony had acted more fairly toward me-for a genuine homoeopathic physician who will practise his system perfectly., and which the necessary conscientiousness, cannot employ an apothecary for the preparation of his medicines, even if the latter were an angel- for then I would not have been oblige to leave my beloved Leipsic, and come to reside out here, sacrificing more than 2,000 thalers.
I rejoice that you have progressed so far on the way to recovery. I do not advise you to insist on having these last discomforts, the dry mouth at night and the numbness of the big toe, removed by means of the homoeopathic instructions at present in existence. It has its disadvantages if you wish to force this, and the desired and will not be obtained.
There will always remain some ailments uncured by homoeopathy, the remains of some deep-seated chronic disease. All that has been published by me, on the homoeopathic healing art is not sufficient for the complete cure of a great family of chronic diseases. Incredibly more is effected by it in these old diseases than by the medicines prescribed by the allopaths. Yet in homoeopathic writings as yet published, there is still lacking the great key notes which binds together all that has been thus far published, so that we may only be able to improve the treatment of chronic diseases, but also able to effect a complete cure.
I have striven night and day for the last four years to discover the missing key notes, and thus find the means of stamping out the old chronic diseases. By thousands of experiments and experiences, as well as by uninterrupted meditation I have at last attained my object. None of my pupils as yet know anything of this invaluable discovery, the worth to mankind exceeds all else that I have ever discovered, and without which all existing homoeopathy remains defective or imperfect. It is still wholly my property, and enables me to cure the worst chronic diseases, which not only the doctors of the old humdrum school have to leave uncured, that would be natural, but also the best among my homoeopathic pupils (since, as I said before, although the homoeopathic art as it has been published by me so far, can accomplish a great deal, yet it is not sufficiently perfected to be able to cure chronic diseases, this has only become possible through this new discovery, and the result of unspeakable efforts).
But this knowledge now finally attained, is of such a kind that I could impart it to young physicians, in a practical way, at the beside of patients, in some clinical establishment, through their own observation. In order that I might do this before my death, I entreated our Duke to establish a hospital for the purpose. It appeared acceptable to him, but I see clearly that notwithstanding his seeming desire to do so, nothing will ever come of it. We have as yet no public hospital in Cothen.
Should nothing be done here in the matter, as I can see it will not, it would be more agreeable to me, to have such an establishment in a large place.
Since this knowledge cannot be communicated by written works, but men must hear, see, and be convinced for themselves, I shall perhaps have to take this treasure with me to the grave, and make use of it myself during my life-time to heal those invalids that no one else can cure-a slight advantage, which should be willingly granted me, who have so willingly communicated to the world everything previously discovered, but have received very little for it even from my own pupils (more likely have had patients frightened away, etc.), and have suffered persecutions from the doctors of the old school, as well as from people in authority, who were only anxious to look after the privileges of the apothecary.
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