IN THE HOMOEOPATHIC PERIOD.
And even in the last revision of the “Organon”(6th Edition, 186) he says regarding the treatment of local affections which have been caused by external injuries :
The treatment of such diseases is relegated to surgery; but this is only right in so far as the affected parts require mechanical aid, whereby the external obstacles to the cure which can only be secured by the agency of the vital force may be removed by mechanical means, e.g., by the reducing of dislocations, by needles and bandaged to bring together the lips of wounds, by mechanical pressure to stem the flow of, blood from open arteries; — by the extraction of foreign bodies that have penetrated into living parts;– by making an incision into a cavity of the body in order to remove an irritating substance or to procure the evacuation of effusions or collections of fluids; by bringing into apposition the broken extremities of a fractured bone and retaining them in exact contact by an appropriate bandage, etc.
SUPPLEMENT 199
HAHNEMANN AS ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON.
(“Allg. hom. Ztg.,” 1857, Vol. 53, p.107)
The treatment of Scoliosis (spinal curvature). From a letter of S. Hahnemann to Dr. Lowe of Prague:
As regards the girl with the crooked spine I would never recommend machines, which, as far as my experience goes, are very far from attaining their object, but, rather, do more harm than good; and as, moreover, the disease that lies at the root of the softening of the bones, causing the curvature, is purely a psoric one, you will find it best to give first, tinct, sulph., one, tow or three globules; then Calcarea; then Phosphorusacid, them Baryta and Phosphorus and Silicea.
At the same time the patient should walk out in the open air, and should use gymnastics exercises on the cross-bar several times daily, by hanging from it with both hands and swinging to and fro several minutes at a time. You will, of course, also order that coffee, tea and vegetable acids should be avoided. Stroking the crooked parts with mesmerising hands has often been of use alone, and we should at least use it as an auxiliary means.
Farewell, and remember yours, S. HAHNEMANN. Cothen, 23rd September, 1831,
SUPPLEMENT 200
ON THE CARE REQUIRED IN THE TREATMENT OF PATIENTS.
Hahnemann’s letter to Dr. Aegidi:
Cothen, January 9th, 1834.
How can those gentleman boast hat they can attend thirty to forty patients a day! What a time it takes to find the useful remedy for one patient, when searching and consulting our manuals. They cannot possibly devote the necessary time to examine thirty to forty patients. How would they be able to find something exactly suited to each one? Or have these gentlemen memorised the materia medica and all the remedies in chronic diseases etc., so well, that after enquiring into the circumstances of the patient, form which they frequently need half to three-quarters of an hour, they may be able to find at once a suitable remedy in their mind?
From the celebration speech of Professor Dr. Riecke of Tubingen, 1833:
The strict and conscientious homoeopath cannot attend as many patients daily as the allopath can. The much more detailed examinations of the patient, the taking of notes, and the process of individualising requires a much longer time than the method of the allopathic school, which only follows general indications. However, simple the principles of homoeopathy appear it presents many difficulties when accurately studied and practised. This circumstance is rather an advantage than disadvantage of homoeopathy. Even the best physician can only attend a few important cases in a limited time, and thus homoeopathy checks the, mischief of our visiting practitioners, who walk or drive and have a prescription ready in their pocket for every named disease, and whose consulting room is the open road.
Professor Dr. Krehl of Heidelberg, in “Pathological Physiology,” 11th Edition, 1921, page 687, says:
The excessive work of the physicians which has been forced upon them by a law that has little understanding of medical work, and which has allotted too large a number of patients to them, whom they are obliged to attend, has destroyed their inner relationship to suffering humanity. The economic fight gnaws at the marrow of the physician and endangers his devotion to the highest task. who can treat a human being that he neither known nor understands? How is the powerful influence of the physician upon the patient to arise, how the careful and loving care which under all circumstances must be presupposed before treatment and help can be given? And when even the Siren voice of “Science” exclaims: ” You need not be a physician in order to cure patients, neither do you need sympathy, care and trouble for their suffering– learn how to enumerate the morbid process of the body, percuss the lungs, X-ray them, examine the sputum for tubercle, and the blood for typhoid bacilli and you have all that you require; you gain a diagnosis and give the patient a serum as treatment. He gets well and goes his own way. You have no anxiety, receive your fee, and treat other people! What flowers has this conception of medical activity produced in many a `scientific’ essay. I refrain from quotations.”
Whilst the present volume was being printed there appeared in a Frankfort newspaper (April 27th, 1922, I, “Morgenblatt”) s report about the Convention of the “German Society for Internal Medicine”. At the opening session, Professor Ludolf Brauer, Director of the Hamburg-Eppendorf Infirmaries, spoke on the question of the condition of the doctors to the Workman’s Sick Fund, etc.
The State Insurance regulations must be altered from their very foundations. All doctors know that the medical practice of the Workman’s Sick Fund only pays when as many attendances as possible are made in a short time. One hundred patients or more in one or two consulting hours is not a rare occurrence. If the physician works without considering his time he cannot exist financially. Mass production reduces the intrinsic value of the physicians work, both for him and for his patients, and even the Sick Fund suffers under it.
SUPPLEMENT 201
HAHNEMANN REQUIRES THAT THIS PATIENTS SHOULD BE FAMILIAR WITH THE “ORGANON”
Hahnemann to Dr. Aegidi: Cothen, September 28th, 1831.
If I had received more letters from you I should have realise what I notice now too late, than an individual morbid timidity prevented you from exercising the authority and self- confidence, as physician-in-ordinary of the Princess, towards her husband and his allopathic doctors, and from gaining ground by this firm attitude. This morbid timidity prevented you from refusing the Prince’s request when he asked you to treat him secretly. You made a great mistake by doing this. Besides, you must not have anything to do with the Prince and his son until he has read the “Organon” again, and then frequently discussed it with to do this you should have left him alone; you still remain Physician to the Princess. This method of remaining aloof is the only one that will impress a man however much he may be surrounded by inimical allopaths.
SUPPLEMENT 202
THE QUESTION OF FEES AGAIN.
Hahnemann writes to Dr. Aegidi: Cothen, December 11th, 1831.
We have to look after ourselves and our families. This would be easy if you possess the confidence of the public. if your homoeopathic methods are preferred to the allopathic tortures and bungling of diseases. Every person of means must pay a Friedrichs d’or for each prescriptions lasting twenty-eight days, to be paid to the physician at the time the medicine is given. You can explain that way your arrangement with all patients as you had no time for keeping accounts. When once you have introduced this, one tells the other, and no one refuses to do it unless he wishes to deceive you, and such a patient is no great loss. Those who pay one Friedrichs d’ or for a prescription of four week’s duration must also pay a fee of one Friedrichs d’ or for the first examination. This is an established rule with me. It is of course understood that those who have less means only pay 5r. and those who have less still, 4r., and 3r., and of course there are some who are still poorer to whom nothing is charged for examination and to whom you give a prescription lasting four weeks for only 2r. or Ir. But this is quite in order when they receive a medicine. This requires an exact knowledge of people’s financial circumstances. In order to introduce this we must begin with the very poor, who are always obliged to pay cash at the chemists. These do not think anything of it if they have to pay at once for their prescription- they call it medicine – let them give 8g., 6g., 4g., (gute groschen) for a week’s supply, and they are very poor, 4g. This arrangement comes to the notice of those whom we can ask to pay one gulden for fourteen day’s supply, or one thaler, and when this has been established it becomes known to those who are charged one or two thalers a month and so upwards. As soon as you require reputation and confidence with the public, and you only demand your fees in accordance with their financial position, no one will refuse to pay his contribution, and will always bring it with him. If in the beginning you are dealing with very small people, and you are not quite sure that they have enough money with them, then say, before you prepare the medicine, that the prescription would cost such and such an amount and ask if they have so much with them, because you never lend anything, and have no time to keep accounts. If the patient has not the amount with him, tell him that the medicine will not be ready for a little while and he must fetch it in an hour’s time and bring the money with him. In three months time the people of all classes will have become accustomed to it, and you will never need to send out an account. I never did, and you have the money in your pocket to recompense you during his illness-he may then stay away or come again.
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