I therefore advise, first to publish a request through the Anzeiger der Deutschen (because in that paper it will be done more quickly) and as soon as the thirteenth piece has appeared, to also ask though this paper, the publisher B.F. Voigt Ilmenau most urgently to reveal the alleged author of the preface to this useless little book, “The Magic Power of Homoeopathy,” F.W. Ewers, who brings to light such highly improbable, such palpably invented tales which are utterly devoid of proof regarding the patronage of homoeopathy by Napoleon, as also by France and England. All far and near admirers of homoeopathy protest against such illusive representation, probably originating in empty air, as the value of this science of treatment dose not require any artificial make up or any lies for its glorification. Voigt would have to announce within a definite limit of time the origin of these untruthful statements in the preface if he, himself, did not want to be taken for the inventor of them.
Because we cannot draw in Kochy at once, as he does not give his name on the title page, Voigt, himself, must first openly admit where he gets it from, and then we shall be able to challenge Kochy. This could be signed: “The society of homoeopathic physicians,” This is my humble opinion. Otherwise I must not be mixed up in this; but it remains true that no more accursed blow could have fallen on us. We shall have to stand up to it firmly but with circumspection, so that the public may see that we are in earnest, and yet we may not use any but the right way to unmask;the imposter, who would fain move our enemies to loud and derisive laughter.
14 November, 1825:
Do you really believe these wretched fellows do any harm to the good cause? You are mistaken. Their performances are so bad a nd bear their own condemnation on their face. So I have written Dr. Gross to request him to prevent any homoeopath taking the trouble to refute or answer them.
Still it would not be amiss to say a few words to the public about them. I wish you would transcribe what I have written on the enclosed leaf and send it to the editor of the Anzeiger for insertion. this would I know be agreeable to the editor, who has more than a dozen such hostile articles against the good cause on his hands and does not know hot to refuse them. But at my recommendation he will destroy most of them.
I do not feel annoyed at the rubbish, for it has gone to such length that it must now come to an end. They scream themselves hoarse and lose their powers of speech, and the reading public knows how to estimate their screaming, and despises the rascals, who among their neighbours pose as angels of light, as friends of mankind, and as gentle lambs; but show by such invectives that they are raging wolves, and they must inevitably sink low in the estimation of their neighbours.
It is but natural that the thousands of such fellows who have their corns trodden on by the new doctrine, should find themselves in the greatest straits, and should utter malicious exclamations, but every rational person perceives from these cries how important the matter is in reference to which they behave so extravagantly, and that they cry out because they wish to cry down the better treatment, which they are too lazy and too proud to adopt.
The stuff they write is to evidently dictated by passion, and too full of errors and falsehoods to impose on the public and induce them to regard such bunglers as good judges of this important matter.
The truth has already extended its rays too widely, and shines too brightly to admit of being eclipsed.
Thank you for carrying our matters regarding Voigt, for where evil can be prevented it should be done bravely.
The enclosed article will have some effect. Please send it to Gotha quickly.
22 December, 1825:
Muller’s refutation of Wedekind’s article my probably lead to more interesting consequences. Wedekin’s wretched old book was not worth all the trouble he gave himself nor I pressure was Wedekind himself, worth it.
The medicinal scribbling under the false name of Bergmann-I have also one on itch lying before me-which the noble Mr. Hartmann edits-do find out if their author is any other but Caspari?.
It is well that the publication against the valiant Mr. Schnaubert and Mr. Mombert, by the Society of homoeopathic physicians, was accepted at the last minute in the Anzeiger der Deutschen.
In the meantime the editor has written me a letter (He would have, to his great sorrow, to take up two more of the evil essays in his care, for the sake of showing impartiality.) in which he begs my pardon, and this does his heart much credit, but I replied to it, that such slanders left me quite indifferent and had not troubled my peace of mind for a single instant; therefore he was not to feel embarrassed for my sake, and to publish anything and everything, be tit ever so mad-but I regretted to think that his paper would be very much spoiled by it-it would become so abominable though it, that the honest public would no longer like to read it. That is what he should care about and not me personally.
This made an impression on him, and he would not allow the last two essays against homoeopathy to be printed, and at the same time forbade for the future anything that did not contain new scientific ideas and proved facts-do read No.323. And thus this the are has been closed for ever against venomous rudeness. Once more a victory over the black demons!
Therefore abandon your fear, such things cannot harm the good cause at all. People who as patients are led astray are to be pitied; but for each one that turns his back on us, three others more sensible come to us in their place, and who are sufficiently clever to go by experience. I am very indifferent to it all; such things cannot in the lest upset me, for it lies in the nature of things, and must so happen the more homoeopathy advances.
Just consider! How Jenner’s vaccination against smallpox has proved itself everywhere, and yet in England so many invectives in print were issued against it, that at one time I counted twenty-you cannot find any of those now-presumably the paper on which they were printed is used in grocer’s shops for wrapping cheese.
And yet how few incomes did Jenner damage with his invention, compared with what homoeopathy doses. It puts to shame many thousands, of the allopathic-guild, most of whom feel that they have forgotten too much, and are incapable of treating the new way with any success.
This makes the many thousands malicious to a high degree, they gush out poison and gall, transpose them with sophisms, misrepresentations and abuse. What harm does it do? IT hurts them, not us. Truth continues its course quietly;and sensible people only think that those who use abusive language quietly; and sensible people only think that those who use abusive language are in the wrong. Let us continue on the good road with equanimity. It will repay us.
13 March, 1826 :
I now still read about other sciences, but nothing on medicine (in a previous letter Hahnemann expresses pleasure at having received a translation of Confucius – R.H.) except your “Archiv.” “Hufeland’s Journal” has not been near me for years, and I should not know, here in my restricted seclusion from the other physicians, where to borrow the copy that you mention, although the important phenomenon gave me much pleasure; and to think that the leader of all the writers of complicated recipes, the most incarnate ordinary pathologist, has again directed his gaze in a friendly manner on his antipode, who indeed represented him as the one who carries on the ancient nonsense of medical science in his writings, and whom he singled out to mention by name (in the sources of ordinary Materia Medica, at the head of the third volume of the Materia Medica Pura).
I would, therefore, be very much obliged to you, if you would send me a short extract of his favourable judgment, when it is convenient. i am very pleased with Gross’s refutation of the Anti-Organon. Gross is growing, in my opinion, more and more staunch. But I am sorry that he has to employ so much time and so much brain on these sophistries.
19 July, 1827:
If the enclosed essay, out of the Gerais newspaper, is from the Old Doctor Jany, I am experiencing another satisfaction. He was, in the past, at the beginning of the new science, my sworn enemy, and even tired, after I had established Belladonna, against Scarlet Fever, to beat it down more than anyone else, in the” Allgem. Anz.”
You surely will not think of that miserable thing, the “Biene” in the “Archiv.” It is scandalous beyond all means of expression, and therefore quite harmless. “Transeat cum ceteris,” (Away with it-R.H.).
Perhaps we could insert, on this occasion, in the “Archiv,” what is written on page 92, and ask if in the allopathic practice, things went on as they are stated there.
6 September, 1827:
Caspari has brain; we must own that, and there is much that is good in his pathology. I wish we could give him an opportunity to approach us, and I will forgive him with all my heat what he wrote against me. It would be well if we did not let him act in such isolation, for if he became one of us he would accept friendly advice about his undertakings, and all the results of the one-sidedness, so harmful to the good cause, might be avoided. Will you see how he can possibly be introduced among us. (See his career in Chapter 27, Vol. I.)
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