SUPPLEMENT II
ENTRIES IN THE CHURCH REGISTERS OR ST. JOHN IN DESSAU.
BIRTH
1764. On the January, Mr. Gotthard Heinrich kuchler, apothecary in this town, had a daughter baptised, born to him on the Ist inst. by his wife, Marthen Sophien.
The Godparents are:
I. Minister Robls
2. Mademoiselle Pauli.
3. Mayoress Krahmerin.
The name of the child is Johanna Leopoldine Henriette.
DEATH
1769. O n the 6th March, Gotthard Heinrich Kuchler, citizen and chemist of this town, who died on the 3rd inst. was buried. Age : 65 years, 5 months and 3 days.
MARRIAGE
1770. On the 21st May the banns were published for the first time between Joachim Haseler, architect, and Mrs. Susanne of Spandau; and Marthen Sophien Kuchlerin, widow of Gotthard Heinrich Kuchler, citizen and apothecary of this town; and on the 10th of June, after the banns had been published for the third time, these two persons were wedded.
The mother of Mrs. Hahnemann, martha Sophie, died on the 19th March, 1797, aged 66 years 4 months 2 weeks and 3 days. The stepfather and father-in-law, Joachim Heinrich Haseler, who owned the Mohren apothecaries’ shop in Dessau, and was adviser and medical assessor to the then-reigning Duke of Dessau, died at 1 a.m., on the 5th May, 1812, aged 72 years 3 months ad 4 days, of debility.
Wedding of Hahnemann with Johanna Leopoldine Henriette Kuchlerin Entry in the Church Register of St. John at Dessau.
1782. On the 17th November, Samuel Hahnemann, doctor of Medicine, Medical Officer of Health to the Saxon Electorate in Gommern, aged 28 years, eldest son of Christian Gottfried Hahnemann, a painter in the porcelain factory of Meissen, and Johanne Christanen: with spinster Johanna Leopoldine Henriette Kuchlerin, aged 19 years, only legitimate daughter of Gotthard Heinrich Kuchlers, who was apothecary here, and Martha Sophien. The banns were published for the first time on December 1st, and after the third time of asking the wedding was celebrated.
The remark in the autobiography of Hahnemann that at the beginning of his appointment in Gommern he got married must here be corrected, as Hahnemann lived for more than a year as a bachelor in the little town, having begun his appointment at the end of the year 1781.
SUPPLEMENT 12
LETTER OF SAMUEL HAHNEMANN TO HIS FIANCEE, “Biographical Monument”. Albrecht, p. 110 ( IST DECEMBER 1782.)
“Sentiments on the day of my union with the only daughter of Joh. Henr. Leop. Kuchlerin, born at Dessau.”
(This letter the English editors have decided to omit from this work. It has no intrinsic merit, and it is more than doubtful that it is Hahnemann’s at all. The sole authority for it is Albrecht (1851), who cut it out of his second edition, for very good reason it is to be supposed.)
SUPPLEMENT 13
APPEAL OF HAHNEMANN TO THE PRINCE LEOPOLD FRIEDRICH FRANZ OF ANHALT-DESSAU.
Your Royal Highness,
I should seemingly be mistaking Your Royal Highness’ kindness regarding the decree of October 2nd, were I not to express herewith my humble gratitude. But should Your Highness still be pleased to consider that the small fruits of my father- in-law’s diligence must have been depleted in order to pay for the cost of this research; and furthermore that a private scientist has nothing to spare, since the remuneration of study will hardly suffice for a scanty subsistence, the undersigned hopes to receive the full patronage from that gracious hand which has already deigned to acknowledge to him one half.The 1500 RThl and the furniture which I acquired through my marriage are after all only partly mine. My growing children will later on demand them as their right, and I should then rejoice to be able to tell them how much of it they owed to the favour of the kind Prince of Dessau, whose gift I should meanwhile remember with deepest respect, until such times as my children may be able to appreciate it for themselves.
Your Royal Highness’s Most dutiful subject, Dr. SAMUEL HAHNEMANN.
Dresden, October 8th, 1786.
(The above extract is from the State Archives of the house of the Duke of Dessau. This appeal is not on behalf of the (still living) stepfather of Mrs. Hahnemann, Haseler, but concerns the work of Gottfr. Heinr, Kuchler, who had died 17 years before. The nature of this research and the reason why this transaction had been so long delayed could not be ascertained, neither is it of any importance to our object. What concerns us is, that Hahnemann, the husband of Kuchler’s only daughter, still believes he has the right of making this claim for himself, to which act he probably may have been driven by the privations of that year)
SUPPLEMENT 14
WRITINGS OF HAHNEMANN FROM 1777-1784 (a) TRANSLATIONS.
1777. Translation of Nugent’s Experiment on Hydrophobia: Leipsic. J.G. Muller, from the English. 150 pages.
1777. Translation of Stedtmann’s Physiological Experiments and Observations with Copper: Leipsic. J.G. Muller, from the English. 134 pages.
1777. Translations of Falconer’s Experiments with Mineral Waters and Warm Baths. From the English. Two parts, 355 and 439 pages.
1777. Translation of Ball’s Newer Art of Healing: Leipsic,1777 and 1780, with annotation under the name of Spohr. From the English.
1784. Translation of Demachy’s Laboratory Chemist on the Preparation of Chemical for Manufacture as for Art: Leipsic, by Crusius. Two vols,,302 and 306 pages. From the French, with supplements and copper plates. 2nd Edition, 1801.
(b) OWN ESSAYS.
1779. Dissertatio inaugur. medic: Conspectus adfectum spasmodicorum aetiologicus et therapeutics, Erlangae, 1779, 4. 20 pages.
1782. The first small medical essays appear in Dr. Fr.Chr. Krebs, Quedlinburg, ” Medical Observations.” Quedlinburg, 1781 – 1784.
1784. Directions for curing old sores and ulcers. Leipsic, by Crusius, 192 pages.
The first part (1781) contains the dedication; ” To Dr. Blodau and Dr. Hahnemann, who were his co-operates and friends, the author dedicates these few pages.” If any of the contribution in the first part, and which of them were really by Hahnemann, cannot now be determined. In the “Preface” to the second part (5th August,1782) it is definitely stated by the editor: ” The author of the first section of the collection contained in this part is Dr. Hahnemann of Dessau, whom I thank herewith for his contributions for which I am much obliged.”
The chief of first title of Hahnemann’s essays reads: ” On a putrid catarrhal fever, under observation from August, 1780 to the beginning of February, 1781, by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann.”
Hahnemann describes an epidemic of putrid fever in Quenstadt in the Mansfeld district. The 25 year old physician, who is naturally still using the remedies of the old school, shows here his own thoughts and a deeper understandings of the causes of disease. He describes with forceful words the hopeless hygienic and sanitary conditions under which people live and sleep together, and says:
I am not daring too much when I maintain that epidemics, in the beginning are largely illness of isolated individuals, which could be easily subjugated: and that they only degenerate into an angle of general destruction by carelessness and ignorance. If I omit a prolonged spell of unhealthy weather conditions, penury and poverty, the remaining fault falls almost entirely on institutions, nurses and doctors, who alone by their combined bad behaviour are able to change a medium illness into a serious one.
Hahnemann thus already considered the possibility of infection from extraneous circumstances:
if one had a fair knowledge of the inner conditions of every household, and examined the means of protection that each employed, one might predict with considerable certainty if any would die in one case or all in another: especially if one took into consideration the greater or lesser possibility of infection owing to the individual constitution.
Hahnemann’s treatment was in accordance with this conception, fresh air, less bed clothes, cold sustaining drinks and cleanliness. He describes four cases with more details, and adds two cases of chorea, where he already deals with the doubtful reliability of the old school medicine. One woman suggested, after his treatment proved unsuccessful, placing the child twice a day in a warm half-bath. Hahnemann writes:
The attacks diminished visibly, and in a few days she was completely free, which she still is after a whole year. Where then is our theory? I should have sooner ordered a cold bath in chorea – I do not know what to say in this case, but quanta sunt quae nescimus! (How much there is that we do not know!)
Dr. Ameke says in ” Origin and Fight against Homoeopathy ” (Journal of the Society of Homoeopathic Physicians in Berlin, 1884, Vol.III, page 145)
In the collection of recent treatises for surgeons (Leipsic, Weygand), several essays by Hahnemann (1783 – 1784- 1787) should be found.
that is inaccurate, to say the least. For these essays are one and all- as the title already says — translations from different languages, from the English and Latin. The name of the translator is never mentioned or indicated by initials. Moreover the small number of “Additions by the translator” do not show in any way the translator or author, even when they are a little more amplified.
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