I beg you to allow me to close my short letter as I have yet to put my correspondence in order, and to arrange the immense work before me, which I am scarcely competent to carry out.
With unlimited esteem.
Your most devoted.
DR. MORITZ MULLER.
DIPLOMA FOR THE MEMBERS OF THE HOMOEOPATHIC CENTRAL ASSOCIATION.
Very esteemed Hofrath, Dear and much beloved teacher,
It is with great joy that I, as Secretary of the Central Association of Homoeopathic Physicians, carry out the honourable task entrusted to me of requesting you to send me your signature written in Latin characters, in order that we may add a facsimile of it to the diplomas, which every physician, whom we know to be keenly devoted to the reformed art of healing, is to receive. Your signature, revered Master, will be the greatest ornament, and the best encouragement for all homoeopaths, for who among us could fail to recognise what we, and what humanity owe to you! I will not attempt to describe to you in my feeble language, the gratitude expressed to you, the great founder of homoeopathy, on the 10th of August. My colleague Muller has already sent you a short description of the celebration, but may I be allowed to express once again my hearty thanks, dearest Master, for your forbearance, and to add the assurance that I shall always endeavour to be worthy of the teaching of such a great man, whose beneficent, work in the interest of suffering humanity will be still more unanimously praised by posterity.
I close with the request that you may still continue to extend to me your fatherly affection and forbearance, and remain with true esteem and admiration.
Your faithful and grateful pupil, HAUBOLD.
Leipsic, 15th September, 1832.
P.S.-I also take the liberty to enclose a copy of the wording which will be lithographed, so that you can alter anything that you do not approve.
In numerum suum hoc scripto solenniter recipiunt virum, etc., etc., Medici in morbis curandis disciplimam sequences homoeopathicam.
Director Prases perpetuus DR. MAUR. MULLER. Secretarius DR. CAROLL HAUBOLD.
(English): The physicians who follow the homoeopathic teaching in the treatment of patients, solemnly admit Dr. into their ranks by this document.
Permanent President, etc., etc.
HAHNEMANN’S LETTERS OF THANKS TO MORITZ MULLER, OF SEPTEMBER
24TH, and 28th, 1832 ( “On the history of Homoeopathy,” by Dr. Moritz Muller, Leipsic, 1837, page 30, with additions from the original.:)
Dear Colleague,
A rush of patients has made it impossible for me, until to- day, to consider my obligations and thank you heartily for the vivid description of the celebration on August 10th. The whole event has given me much pleasure, and I agree with you, our science has been more honoured this time than ever before.
I can hardly express to you how much interest I take in the whole matter, but especially in the organisation of the Association. I also recognise that a form of diploma for homoeopaths who have distinguished themselves is not a bad way of praising and encouraging those who are endeavouring to become more efficient, thus helping them to become real and genuine disciples of Science. I consider this all the more necessary, as many who pose as homoeopaths are still influenced by the old teachings, which they had to study, and combine with their treat- ment in many cases of disease old allopathic methods which are altogether incompatible with the true doctrine. They act like those who whilst only wishing to worship Jehovah sometimes brought offerings to Baal; in a similar way anyone who masters our science thoroughly and knows what it can do, never needs to draw one drop of blood, nor give either an emetic or a purgative, and does not even require the help of external irritants as outlets, just as little as I have had need of them for the last thirty years notwithstanding which I have obtained excellent results.
Therefore wherever you can eradicate in our pupils mistakes of this kind either due to an old allopathic habit or to lack of knowledge of our Divine art (they are a disgrace to real homoeopathy, and give our enemies a cause for rejoicing) I would entreat you to do so, dear Colleague. Do tell them that there is no conceivable case of disease where the old practice is still necessary, and indeed where it is not harmful, that could not be better treated homoeopathically. Let them tread in my footsteps, for since I have known better I have never again trodden in the mire of the old-time practice.
I most heartily desire, as I have already stated in my answer to the letter of our friend Haubold (who as secretary of the Central Association desired my signature), that we may soon be so fortunate as to establish, under Government, a hospital with two or three instructors and homoeopathic practitioners, where the true doctrine can be practically demonstrated and proved on all kinds of cases, and we shall then be able to show how successfully diseases can be treated and cured by homoeopathy, without being obliged ever to resort, in any way, to that quack ill-treatment of patients.
It is only by opening a hospital conducted on these lines that we shall be able to triumph over the very antiquated routine methods, and exclaim:
Come and see for yourselves and be dumbfounded.
With the usual greetings.
Yours, SAMUEL HAHNEMANN.
Kothen, Sept. 24th, ’32.
Dear Colleague,
It is strange that the Munich proposition of establishing a homoeopathic hospital with our 3,000 thalers, should have spurred you on to the heroic resolution to do the same thing yourself with such a small beginning as 3,000 thalers. In a similar way Franke started his orphanage at Halle with hardly any money in his pocket, and now it is a very large institution. But your courage in asking for the sanction and support of the Saxon Government is still more marvellous, although you knew how much it is controlled by the Dresden Medical Council, which is so hostile to us. It is a great concession on their part, and I am amazed to think that they have not forbidden it. I never dreamt that they would give their sanction. Yet audaces fortuna juvat! (Fortune favours the brave, or he who dares achieves-R.H.). On the contrary, your City Council has shown itself worthy of praise, especially if you procure from them, for the establishment, the rights accorded to charitable institutions.
I am very much astonished that you have been able to purchase such a roomy house for so small a sum of money. In a word, I see in the whole proceeding the remarkable Guidance of God in enabling us to procure for our method of treatment the much needed opportunity to show openly to friend and foe, our art in a definite way, and prove to them its superiority over the old system of treatment.
It is the first planning that will cause most work. We must try to avoid obvious mistakes.
We now have in the cheap, durable and elastic seaweed, a wonderful substitute for feathers; feathers that so easily harbour all kinds of disease infections, ought to be banished from hospitals; I therefore advise that no feathers should be used even for pillows. How often were the newly split quills prepared in workhouses, and orphanages, by fingers which had the itch! The pillows should be filled with seaweed.
The most expensive items are the woollen blankets, because of the wholesale purchases for future cholera cases; you will be able to acquire them all the more cheaply in small towns close by, where they had been purchased for that purpose, now that they no longer expect to be afflicted by the epidemic. Here such blankets have again been disposed of by auction.
Heating with peat will not present any difficulties. In all the hospitals of Lower Saxony they burn nothing but peat, and even here we are very healthy with peat fires; my own house furnishes an example of this.
As soon as three beds are occupied, so that you can say the institution has actually begun its work, friends and patrons will be summoned through a pathetic appeal in both homoeopathic papers, the “Allegm. Anzeiger der Deutschen,” the “Augsb. allgem. Zeitung,” the homoeopathic Journal of Geneva, and all the literary channels available, to promote by their generosity the new homoeopathic institution which has just come to light for the purpose of treating patients and teaching students. An essay that I should like to see from your energetic pen. Unless I am very much mistaken, a great many blessings will flow in. Such an essay can also be easily distributed on loose leaflets, and I would ask you to send me a few hundreds of them. If it is possible to give Dr. Lehmann some part of the administration in this matter, I should do it-you cannot find a more faithful, conscientious, obedient and less expensive man.
The proceeds from the sale of my portrait in steel engraving, which the art dealer Lenz, has been authorised to sell, have been settled in perpetuity on the homoeopathic hospital. After this the administrators of this institution have a right to help bring about this sale; you can urge Lenz to advertise it frequently and well, etc.
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