I see myself compelled through this growing importunity to declare :
1. That henceforth I shall return unopened all letters are not sufficiently stamped, whoever the senders may be.
2. That after reading through letters from distant patients or others seeking advice I will return them unless they contain a sufficient fee ( at least a Friedrich’d or ) in a cheque or actual money, unless the misery and poverty of the writer is so apparent that I could not withhold advice without offending the laws of humanity.
3. Lottery tickets will all be returned by me without exception, in such a way that the post-office here shall pay my expenses, and the tickets will therefore become an expense to the collectors.
SAMUEL HAHNEMANN,
Doctor of Medicine. Altona near Hamburg, November 9th, 1799.
SUPPLEMENT 35
LETTER TO COUNCILLOR BECKER FROM EILENBURG
Eilenburg, September 18th, 1801.
I was again almost unable to write to you to-day, as, although I have only been here a few weeks, I have been blessed with so many patients that I often hardly had time for meals. I have found much favour here, which helps me to overcome many difficulties, the chief of which is the building of my new house.
Do find me a buyer for my pretty and comfortable house in Machern-a place where the remaining comforts of life are indeed nearly all missing. It is this which drove me away from there.
Otherwise I had a very good country practice, both far and near. But here matters are even worse.
This declaration of Hahnemann’s does not agree with a somewhat touching description of Dr. Dudgeon’s in London, who wrote in his ” Biography of Hahnemann” (” Lectures on the theory and practice of Homoeopathy, ” 1854, page xlviii) :
During his residence at Machern, after toiling all day long at his task of translating works for the press, he frequently assisted his brave-hearted wife to wash the family clothes at night, and as they were unable to purchase soap they employed raw potatoes for this purpose. The quantity of bread he was enabled to earn by his literary labours for his numerous family was so small that, in order to prevent grumbling, he used to weigh out to each an equal proportion. At this period one of his daughters, a little girl, fell ill, and being unable to eat the portion of daily bread that fell to her share, she carefully put it away in box, hoarding it up, child-like, till her appetite should return. Her sickness, however, increasing, she felt assured that she would never recover to enjoy her store; so she one day told her favourite little sister that she knew she was going to die, that she should never be able to eat any more, and solemnly made over to her as a gift the accumulated fragments of hard, dried-up bread, from which she had anticipated such a feast had she recovered! ”
If Hahnemann was able to own a “pretty and comfortable house” in Machern, and if he was able in the same summer and before he had sold the other, to build a second “almost new house ” in Eilenburg, then it can hardly have been a question of such distress in the Hahnemann family that he, the physician, had to do the family washing at night, and in order to save money used raw potatoes for it instead of soap; and also that the children had to be fed on carefully weighed out portions of bread which had even become stale. Besides, Hahnemann himself speaks of a ” country practice both far and near ” which he had in Machern. Neither does it apply that he spent “his whole day ” in toilsome literary work.
There is here probably a confusion with the period in Stotteritz. A confusion which can be ascribed to the ” relatives of Hahnemann’s family ” from whom Dr. Dudgeon would have heard this narrative.
SUPPLEMENT 36
HAHNEMANN’S OWN WORKS AND ESSAYS, AS WELL AS
TRANSLATIONS IN THE YEARS 1793- 1804.
OWN WORKS AND ESSAYS.
(a) Of a chemical and pharmaceutical nature.
1793-99. Apothekerlexikon (Pharmaceutical Lexicon), in IV parts; 280, 244, 259 and 498 pages. Leipsic, by Crusius.
1793. Some Remarks on the Wurtemberg and Hahnemann’s Wine Test. ” Intelligenzblatt der Allgem. Liter. Ztg.,” No. 79.
1793. Preparation of the Cassel Yellow. Erfurt.
1794. On Hahnemann’s new Wine Test and the new Liqor probatorius fortior. ” Crell’s Annals.” Vol. I, part 12, pages 104-III.
1797. Something about the Pulverisation of Ignatia Beans. ” Trommsdorff’s Journal of Pharmacy,” Vol. V, part I pages 38-40. (b) Medical.
1795. On Crusta lactea (Milkcrust). J. Fr. Blumenbach’s ” Medica. Bibliothek, ” Vol. III, pages 701-705.
1795. The Friend of Health. Leipsic, by Crusius. Part II, 6 sheets.
1796. Description of Klockenbring during his Insanity. ” Deutsche Monatsschrift,” February, 1796 ( trans. in Lesser Writings, 295).
1796. Essay on a New Principle for ascertaining the Curative Powers of Drugs, and Some Examinations of the Previous Principles.
” Hufeland’s Journal,” Vol. II, parts 3 and 4, pages 391-439 and pages 465-561. (Translated in Lesser Writings.) 1797. A Case of Rapidly Cured Colicodynia. ” Hufeland’s Journal, ” Vol. III, part i, pages 138-147. (Trans. in Lesser Writings 353.) 1797. Are the Obstacles to the Attainment of Simplicity in Practical Medicine Insurmountable? Ibid., Vol. IV, part 4, pages 727-762. (Trans. in Lesser Writings and in British Journal of Homoeopathy, Vol. II.) 1797. Antidotes to Some Heroic Vegetable Substances. Ibid., Vol. V, part I, pages 3- 21. (Trans. in Lesser Writings, 382.) 1797. Some Kinds of Continued and Remittent Fevers. Ibid., Vol. V, part I, pages 22-51.
1797. Some Periodical and Hebdomadal Diseases. Ibid., Vol. V, part I, pages 45-59. (Lesser Writings 395.)
1801. Cure and Prevention of Scarlet Fever. Gotha, by Becker. 40pages. ( Trans. in Lesser Writings.)
1801. Fragmentary Observations on Brown’s Elements of Medicine.
1802. ” Hufeland’s Journal,” Vol. XII, part 2, pages 52-76. (Lesser Writings 405.)
1801. On the Power of Small Doses of Medicine in General and of Belladonna in Particular. Ibid., Vol. XII, part 2, pages 153-159. (Lesser Writings 443.) 1801. Observations on the Three Current Methods of Treatment, by the Author of the Medical Treasury. ” Hufeland’s Journal,” Vol. II, part 4, pages 3-64. (Lesser Writings592.) 1803. View of Professional Liberality at the Commencement of the Nineteenth Century. “Reichsanzeiger,” No. 32.
1803. On the Effects of Coffee. Leipsic, by Steinacker. 56pp.
1803. On a Proposed Remedy for Hydrophobia. ” Reichsanzeiger.”No 31.
(c) Translations. 1796. Hand-book for Mothers. J.J. Rousseau on the Education of Infants. Second edition, 1804. 1797-98. Translation of Taplin’s Equerry, or Modern Veterinary Medicine. Leipsic. part I, 387 pages; part 2, 304 pages. 1797-98. Translation of the New Edinburgh Dispensatory. Leipsic, by G.Fleischer, Junr. Part I, 583 pages with annotations; part 2, 628 pages. 1800. Translation of Thesaurus Medicaminum, a new collection of medical prescriptions. Leipsic, by G. Fleischer, Junr. From the English. 412 pages, with a preface and notes by the translator.
1800. Translation of Home’s Practical Observations on the Cure of Strictures of the Urethra by Caustics. Leipsic, by G. Fleischer, Junr. From the English. 147 pages with annotations.
In the article ” Antidotes to some Heroic Vegetable Substances, ” Hahnemann continues :
In early days physicians were looking for a universal antidote against all that they called poison. At first these enormous mixtures, then came the ineffective Bezoar and after that Edelsteinlatwerge (gem electuary). In more rational and modern times, the universal antidote has been sought in vinegar, although it will do nothing against poppy-juice, and little or nothing against Camphor. Others saw in milk and fatty substances an alleged universal remedy against poisons of all kinds. Others relied on emetics, which however are only useful when a large quantity of harmful substance has swallowed. In the end they tried to obtain for each separate poison, or for special kinds of poison, a corresponding antidote.
And Hahnemann now gives a number of antidotes.
Against Camphor, poppy-juice and vice versa; against Arnica, vinegar; against India berries ( Cocculus indicus ), Camphor; against gummi guttae (gamboge and other drastic gummy resins), Tartaric brine salts; against Datura Stramonium, vinegar (and lemon acid); against Ignatia bean, vinegar; against Veratrum album, coffee; against Mezereum, Camphor; each case is illustrated with examples from his own practice.
In conjunction with this article, Hahnemann published a second one :
” Some kinds of Continued and Remitting Fevers.”
He says : “The big epidemics which differ widely are more often describe than the many small sporadic ones, which on account of their frequency and because they are unknown do not kill fewer people.” He continues to describe such sporadic fevers and their treatment in an essay of twenty-five pages-among them he also describes influenza-always linking up with them cases from his own practice.
A third article deals with
“Some Periodical and Hebdomadal Diseases.”
Hahnemann shows with examples, on seven pages, the treatment of alternating fevers-especially those with periodical attacks of seven days’ duration-by Ignatia bean.
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