I was always learning and trying to enlarge my circle of knowledge, for knowledge is power. There are individuals born with a vocation. Valdajon, first surgeon to King Louis XVI was a cobbler. His instinct made him a bonesetter. He left his native village with his wife and three children in order to come to Paris, in the hope that the old shoes of that city might prove more remunerative than those of his village. In his booth he was continually setting bones. He set so many joints that one day the servant of an Englishman of high rank, whose dislocated shoulder he had set, told his master about it. The later had been lingering for six months on a bed of pain with a dislocated hip which all the surgeons of Paris were unable to reduce. The Englishman, while scolding his servant for his stupid credulity, sent for the cobbler who came before him with an independence of manner and a candour of speech to which this great lord was not in the least accustomed. He was greatly surprised at Valdajon’s short and unembarrassed rejoinder, who when he saw they were not coming to facts, said: ” let us make haste Milord, my time is my children’s bread.” The Englishman then showed him his dislocated hip, which the cobbler at once examined and reduced during the same interview. He applied an ointment which he had prepared himself, for Valdajon never used any remedies but those he had made himself. Soon after this the Englishman went to Court, where everybody was greatly surprised to see him, as they knew that for the last six months he had been in the hands of the medical faculty who were unable to do anything. The Englishman told his story which astounded everyone. Valdajon soon had his booth filled with all classes of patients whom he cured but from whom he accepted no remuneration, because, as he said he was a cobbler and not a doctor. Now it happened that Madame Victoire, the King’s sister, fractured her arm at the elbow. This fracture was so badly set that the elbow was on the inside at the place where venesection is performed. The whole faculty had handled it. It was a question of a painful and possibly dangerous operation. They sent for Valdajon who said: “This arm must be broken again,” which brought forth loud cries and desperation. He was touched by the sorrow of Madame Victoire and said to her, ” You Princesses have delicate stomachs, you cannot be treated like other people, leave it to me and you will suffer little.” He applied his local remedies and although one does not know how he went to work the operation was neither painful nor dangerous, and Valdajon as a reward received the diploma of first surgeon to the king. If this had happened to-day he could have been prosecuted as I have been (in the concept this has been cancelled and in its place: “If Valdajon had done that to-day he would have been, in spite of his results, or on account of his results, prosecuted by the Academy of Medicine”).
I too was born with a vocation for medicine and I will prove it. At eight years of age I dissected little birds in order to see the inner parts of their body and satisfy my curiosity, in the same way that children break their toys in order to find out what makes them move. I constantly tormented my father with questions that he might explain to me the functions of the organs. I had extraordinary inspirations when I was near patients. At twelve years of age I saved the life of one of my father’s friends who had been involuntarily poisoned by opium. Whilst the doctor, not recognising the poisoning, was treating him for a gastric disturbance, and ultimately threw a cloth over the head of the patient declaring that he was dying from cerebral congestion. I was preparing a decoction of lettuce, which taken by the patient gave him back his life after a certain time. I had in this case unconsciously employed homoeopathy; very frequently I noticed that the doctors did more harm than good to the patients. I used to question the physicians who treated my mother and their answers were so ambiguous and absurd that my analytical mind was not unreasonably scandalised. When I was ill they gave me black draughts, which made me still worse, and I then asked myself: “Why augment the evil to such an extent it no good comes from it”? At eighteen years of age I studied art anatomy in a lecture- room to which I had access when the pupils were absent. After having studied the external part of the human frame I wished also to study its internal parts, and then in spite of its loathsome side I went right through the study of anatomy as the doctors do. I did this as I do everything, in the way best possible to
me.
I remained sixteen years with M. and Mme. le Thiere, and was the soul of the family. Le Thiere, the father, left me by an Act of Will when dying the two children of his eldest son, to whom I gave the medicines belonging to Hahnemann. M. and Mme. le Thiere died in my arms blessing the day they had given me shelter, and commended their family to my care. I have given in marriage two of their grand-daughters, and provided for them.
My interest in medical studies persisted; I had studied physiology and pathology and found everywhere doubt and error; I heard everyone say that the doctors were asses, and I was justified in sharing the general opinion, especially as being sometimes ill I received no help from the remedies that the best physicians administered to me, and when my excellent friends, whom I dearly loved, were ill I had the opportunity of continually realising the insufficiency, or the sad danger of the remedies employed for their treatment. On those occasions I was distressed like Hahnemann, and reasoned in the same way; my health was impaired as a result of grief caused by the loss of several of my friends. Looking everywhere for help I could not find any; the Organon of Hahnemann’s doctrine suddenly opened my eyes and the first glance showed me that it contained the whole truth about medicine; the sun of true medical science had at last risen for me. On the very same day I resolved to go and visit Hahnemann. I told my friends who considered me mad. I arrived in Coethen on October 8th, 18 (October 8th, 1834, has been struck out).
Dr. Hahnemann was living with his two youngest daughters, who were unmarried, in a small and unpretentious house. His remarkable face inspired me with respect and astonishment. He talked for a long time and immediately conceived a great friendship for me. He provided accommodation for me with one of his intimate friends, whose family at once became attached to me; soon a very strong sympathy united us; I found in him that moral perfection which I had constantly sought but had never found so completely in any one of my friends, although they were refined souls. I felt the need of being able to admire that which I loved, and not only found an exemplary man (from here onwards the rough draft is completely different from the finished copy- R.H.)whom I saw constantly performing miracles, but also a sublime intelligence, a genius, a beneficent being, such as had never lived on earth before, for of all useful discoveries, the one which gives back health is certainly the most important, and I said with Moliere: “Trash if you like: my trash is valuable to me.”!
Hahnemann wished to marry me, and his friends and his friends who had learned to appreciate my character did all they could to persuade me to accept his offer. It was only natural that I should hesitate. It was not the outlook of having to nurse a noble old man that frightened me, but the fear of losing him too soon and missing him so much that I might die of grief. Through various extraordinary circumstances I discovered, apart from his excessive kindness of heart, how much his surroundings tormented him, how much he needed a young, strong, devoted and clever soul who could lighten the burden of old age and help him to complete his great work, and how much I might be able to contribute to the development and propagation of the new medical science for which I had the most disinterested devotion. And so I married him (space, probably for the date-R.H.). In order to help his family, honour, him, and show that my devotion was not actuated by selfish motives I asked him to give his whole fortune to his children, which matter was legally arranged, and became known throughout Germany. I voluntarily renounced the share which the law allots to the wife in the inheritance of the husband; I refused the wedding presents; everything even to the smallest piece of furniture and linen was divided among the children. Having thus deprived my husband of all his property I legally assured for him the use of mine; those are irrefutable facts which prove my disinterestedness.
Hahnemann was happy for the first time; I nursed him as one nurses a newborn child, I was his barber, his valet, his secretary. I loved and admired him so much that I would have served him on my bended knees. Never was tenderness more fully returned, never was a union stronger. This perfect and longed for happiness, that each of us had found in its moral perfection, was attained by our marriage. It lasted until death and was never destroyed in spite of the extreme difference of age; thus it was again proved, that those who share the same views are of the same age.
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