I also offered the post to Schweikert, but even then he did not reply (as on previous occasions when two essays on cholera had been sent-R.H.). Has the man whom I numbered among my friends, a grudge against me?
The letter which Hahnemann wrote offering Dr. Schweikert the post in England is dated August 30th, 1831, and reads as follows:
Dear friend and colleague,
Please insert the enclosed essay in your paper as soon as possible (and may God grant that it be the last on cholera).
At the same time I may perhaps have the pleasure of improving your worldly luck; it depends if you are fairly well versed in French and would like to associate yourself with the very aristocratic world in which you would have to dwell.
The first Count by rank in England, a very religious Catholic peer, who lives on his estate (like a great Prince), Lord Shrewsbury asked me to provide him with a good homoeopathic physician, who has the above-named attributes. He brought with him from Naples a few years ago the famous homoeopath Dr. Romani to his English estate, who created a great sensation there with his cures, and even in London. But the colder climate did not suit him, and drove him back to Italy. The Count then fetched another Italian homoeopath (for My Lord and his whole family cling body and soul to homoeopathy) from Fabiano, Rabata by name, but he can no longer keep his post as family physician on account of some caries of the clavicle, the result of an old shot wound. He is going to London for treatment and will then return to his family in Italy. He gives his family physician (who has so far increased his salary by at least 60 guineas a year by treating eminent guests at the Earl’s magnificent estate) L 150 year, with board and residence. The young ladies (the daughters and their governess, who is a German) speak German perfectly; the married daughter, Countess Talbot, with whom I had some small professional dealings last year, writes a very good German letter, so that it would be very useful for you to have such social intercourse. It would be no good to you though unless you could save 2,000 thalers a year.
I am therefore waiting for your well considered decision. I am only thinking of you in connection with this post, and have written to no one else on the matter. Do what you think best; I should be very glad to make your fortune.
Yours faithfully.
SAM. HAHNEMANN.
Kothen, August 30th, 1831.
Hahnemann also offered a post abroad to Schweikert’s son, Julius; it was in Petersburg. In a letter dated May 27th, 1832, from carrying out his former plan to journey to Kothen with his father:
Accept esteemed Hofrath, the often repeated assurance of my innermost gratitude for the fatherly care that you have given to me. I owe you my good fortune, the excellent sphere of activity, towards which I am hastening now. I shall always, as far as I am able, try to act as duty prompts me, and will strive to bring honour to my revered friend and teacher.
In the year following, Schweikert (Senr.) writes already that his son will return as the post does not altogether suit him.
Also Attomyr’s expedition to England fell through. Hahnemann wrote to Dr. Stapf:
May 19th, 1832:
I have commissioned the pure and keen homoeopaths, Griesselich of Baden, and Jamm of Carlsruhe, to tell Attomyr the reason why I could not and might not offer him the post with Kurakin. If he will accept the explanation, it is all right, if not, let it be.
Attomyr seems to have been pacified. For we find in the same year, after he had sought in vain for an appointment in Saxony, and after a personal visit to Stapf and Hahnemann at Leipsic and Dresden, he writes later from Pressburg to Hahnemann; he had evidently returned to Austria.
How difficult it was made at the time for a physician to practise in Germany can be seen from a letter of Attomyr to Hahnemann, which we will insert here: Leipsic, May 1st, 1832.
I went to the Dean of the medical faculty and asked him for the conditions to be fulfilled in order to acquire the veniam practicandi. The Dean replied, (a) a viva voce examination on the theoretical and practical part of medicine to be conducted by the Dean in the presence of an auditorem; (b) 80 thalers Prussian currency; (c) the answer to an question, in writing; (d) an anatomical demonstration on a body; (e) the attendance at the clinic of Clarus for one month. But as Saxony is divided into two districts, therefore those whole reside in Leipsic must not practise in the Dresden district, and vice versa.
Is it not odious, that Saxony which is small in any case, should be divided into two confines, and that for 80 thalers one may only be allowed to practise in one half of it. I do not like that. In Leipsic the homoeopaths do not want me, at least no one has said to me, ” stay here,” on the contrary, they all said,” you might succeed in Dresden,” and when I was in Dresden, the physicians there would say that Leipsic might the suitable.
On August 2nd, 1832, Dr. Schreter wrote to Hahnemann from Lemburg:
Dr. Attomyr is now at Leutschau, with the supreme Count Carl Czaki.
(He evidently became the successor of Dr. Schreter; see also the biography of Attomyr, Chapter 27).
Dr. Theodor Neumann of Neustadtel, in Lower Silesia, who is 35 years of age, and who graduated after 1821, from the University of Berlin, with No. I certificate as practitioner and surgeon, with permission to practise in all Prussian States, solicits a post as physician in a town under appointment from Hahnemann.
November 15th, 1832.
Royal Prussian Hofrath Nordmann of Muhlhausen, in the district of Erfurt, enquired from Hahnemann (September 5th, 1832) for a homoeopathic physician:
This town has approximately 11,000 inhabitants, and only has three physicians of the old school at present; its population consists largely of the wealthier class, as is also the case with the surrounding neighbourhood.
It has a large number of admirers of your teaching and there is therefore, no doubt that a capable man would make a very fair income. The most essential point would be, that whoever decided to establish himself here, should keep strictly to the instructions of your “Organon,” in treatment as well as in the diet, which is of so much help in the treatment. This is the most favourable opportunity to demonstrate the higher value of the new teaching in the right light, because the cholera is prevailing here, and the efforts made with the old treatment are not very successful, while those of a homoeopathic candidate, who stayed here once for a time proved helpful.
Hahnemann replied to this:
If 30 families will subscribe 30 Rth. per annum, and purchase a family medicine chest containing 96 bottles, from Lappe, I will then procure a physician for them. During the present cholera he is to have my instructions printed and distributed, so that everybody may be able to save his own people.
On April 20th, 1834, Nordmann informs Hahnemann of the appointment of Dr. Vehsemeyer.
He had been trained as a pure homoeopath under the guidance of Dr. Schweikert, in the clinic of Leipsic, and considered it a question of conscience to practise only in accordance with the teaching which he had recognised at he better one….He has about 80 patients, and has had already among them some quite good results, both in acute and chronic cases.
We have brought before the notice of the Secretary of State, v. Altenstein, that, for good reasons which we did not wish to purchase medicines from the chemist, and made the request for a written permit signed by him, to allow us to take our medicine from our physician. If he should refuse we shall appeal to the King.
INVITATION.
I want a physician who has graduated in the Prussian States, and who is qualified to practise, who can prove to me that he is a capable homoeopath, for a prosperous town with a yearly income of 900 thalers. But only such as are sure of their capabilities in homoeopathy may apply in a franchised letter.
SAMUEL HAHNEMANN, Hofrath.
Kothen, September 26th, 1832.
(Advertisement in the “Allg. hom. Ztg.,” 1832, Vol. I, No.9.)
Hofrat Rau, Giessen, October 13th, 1832:
I read yesterday in the Oberpostamtszeitung of Frankfurt:
“The homoeopathic physicians are rising in value. Hofrath Hahnemann wants a physician for 900 thalers.” I have a good income here, but I would accept another post in order to escape the restriction to dispensing which prevails in our country. I am exactly 53 years old, and have been a homoeopath for the last 12 years, and possess sufficient youthful vigour and keenness to fight for the good cause without tiring.
Hahnemann made the following note on the letter:
If he has permission to practise in Prussia, he is to write quickly, and have the post in N.
Dr. K.Luther, junr. (Ragusa, March 15th, 1833), thanks Hahnemann for the post of homoeopathic family physician to the English family Campbell, obtained through the meditation of Schweikert and at the same time, takes leave of him, as he would have to quickly to that family at Nice. Salary 2,000 fr., free board and lodging; freedom to practise outside the house, and 500 fr. travelling expenses.
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