Some comments on the most important works.
The ” Medizinisch-chirurgische Ztg.,” 1793, Vol. III, on page 171, comments in the two volumes of the Apothekerlexikon :
The author presents here a book which is very useful for the practical apothecary, and even for the physician. It compares favourably with similar writings and renders the Fiedlersche Pharmaceutical Lexicon unnecessary. Also this work is not a mere compilation, but contains many new ideas, hints and valuable improvements. Several articles are particularly well written.
In the same journal (1799, iI, page 4II) it says :
A work of this kind, by a man who has made a name for himself in Germany as a chemist and as a practitioner, deserves special recommendation. Every article gives evidence of having been written with the greatest care.
Trommsdorff, Professor in Erfurt, wrote in his journal of pharmacy ( 1794, Vol. II, part I, page 185):
An excellent work which every apothecary ought to procure. Brevity, lucidity, decision, and yet a completeness seem, as far as we can judge from this first part, to distinguish this work from all others of a similar character. In examining the work more closely, we can find much new and important matter, and every pages shows that the well-informed author speaks from experience. We wish the author leisure and continued health for the completion of this important work, which will be of great service to pharmacy.
In the eighties of the last century, Hofrat Mayer of Tubingen, who was lecturing at that University on the science of pharmacology, said to the homoeopathic doctor Schlegel that Hahnemann’s Pharmaceutical Lexicon” ” was still a very useful book in which he often looked things up.” (” Allg. hom. Zeitung.” No. 8. 1916.)
The translation of the “New Edinburgh Dispensatory ” is announced as follows in “Hufeland’s Journal” (1798, V, page 469): The usefulness of this work has recognised and it is enhanced by the translator’s notes.
” Trommsdorff’s Journal of Pharmacy” (1799, Vol. V, Part I, Page 22) thus criticises it:
Although there is no lack of treatises of this kind in Germany, yet the present work is welcome, especially as the translation is an improvement on the English original on account of the notes by the learned Dr. Hahnemann.
On the Cure of Strictures of the Urethra by Caustics.” In the year 1800 Hahnemann translated, under the above title a little English book by Dr. E. Home. As with almost all his translations, here he also added his personal views and experiences in the form of annotations and footnotes. Home was a disciple of the genial Hunter, a specialist on diseases of the genital organs. He had already carried out in practice the recommendation of his teacher to use strong caustics for urethral strictures. In the easy now before us he was relating his observations and experiences. Even if the opinion of Hunter and Home in the reasons and causation of urethral strictures no longer coincides with our present views, chiefly because since then the microscope has given us a better insight into the construction of a network of cells, and the pathological processes which underlie a stricture, yet the hypothesis brought forward by Hunter and Home testify to such a correct and fine observation, that even to-day we cannot withhold our admiration. The strong recommendation of the use of caustics in the treatment of certain urethral strictures as suggested by the two English specialists, was not only declined by many physicians of those days, but also fought against and repudiated. And yet such a treatment at that time had a certain justification. Hunter and Home started with the correct assumption that there are strictures which are incapable of an involution, and therefore can only be removed by destroying the restricting web of tissues. Operative measures, without anaesthetics and without the knowledge of aseptic surgery, as it was used in those days, apart from being often a failure, partook of the nature of cruelty. For this reason, the treatment by caustics of Home decidedly deserved preference
Hahnemann had grasped this fact correctly, and it was no small merit to him to have acquainted the medical profession, through his superior translation of Home’s work, with the progressive experiences of English physicians on the treatment of strictures of the urethra.
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