SUPPLEMENT 239
HISTORY OF THE TIME PRECEDING THE MARRIAGE OF MADAME HAHNEMANN’S ADOPTED DAUGHTER WITH BOENNINGHAUSEN’S ELDEST SON.
In a letter of December 12th, 1855, Madame Hahnemann speaks openly for the first time of her plan:
Two of your sons are medical students and will follow in their father’s footsteps. I, too, am fortunate in possessing an adopted daughter whom God has sent me, and Hahnemann himself had chosen when he made her dance upon his knees. It is the outcome of an old family affection. Her parents were friends of mine. In my dreams of motherly happiness when thinking of your sons I have said to myself: “These young people must have had an excellent education. Their chivalry must be as great as their talents. They are of marriageable age; who knows? A union of our children would perhaps not be impossible.”
Boenninghausen was not averse to this plan. He immediately gave details of his family and then asked for the portraits of Madame Melanie and her daughter. In another letter of January 12th, 1856, Madame Hahnemann briefly describes her adopted daughter:
My Sophie is a small, pretty brunette without weaknesses, and very well built. Her waist is slender although she never tight-laces herself, her whole outward appearance is well- proportioned, and her whole bearing is that of distinguished elegance. Her face is pretty although without regular beauty; she pleases.
After this letter Boenninghausen describes his sons and proposes that they might meet during the summer in Brussels. In April, Madame Hahnemann agrees to this proposal, and communicates the further intention of having her daughter’s portrait painted. In any case the matter went too slowly for her, and therefore she herself went to Germany.
As Boenninghausen had omitted to mention for several months in his letters to Madame Hahnemann the matrimonial project, she wrote to him on October 13th, 1856:
You do not say anything to me regarding our plan of marrying our children. The plan is of course very indefinite but you had already said so much to me that I may be allowed to think that you had seriously considered it. I wish that you would be kind enough to speak openly about it with me, so that I may know where I stand. If I hurry you for an answer I do this because I intend to ask the Emperor for an audience, on his return from the hunt, in order to bring homoeopathy to his notice.
I could at the same time, if our children were to marry each other, ask permission that your some might practise in France, free and without an examination, which I am certain to obtain. The physician who becomes my son-in-law will have immediately innumerable patients; I have gained this certainty from the past as well as from the present.
Now Madame Melanie became more and more explicit and describes her financial position (October 30th, 1856.)
I have possessed a capital which was more considerable than it is to-day. I participated in an undertaking for locomotion by compressed air; I put a considerable sum in this venture which I failed and my money was lost. To-day I only possess approximately 150,000 francs. What I still possess and what I have possessed is my personal property. What remains is invested in good landed property and all that I have without exception will belong to my dear Sophie. To-day my income goes to increase my legacy, which as I repeat will belong entirely to my daughter.
As I am also certain that through me a large capital can easily be acquired, I demand absolutely no financial advantage in my son-in-law if he is capable; it is a matter of difference to me if he possesses nothing, provided that he loves my daughter, makes her happy, and is diligent with her, as I am diligent.
It is possible that Sophie later on will be extremely rich, because I still have interest in some important industrial undertakings which are fully paid up.
When Boenninghausen still hesitates, Madame Hahnemann makes her final request on November 12th, 1856.
It is very difficult to obtain permission here to practice without an examination. I hope, however, that this favour will be granted me, but only once, and you understand that I must ask for this privilege for that physician who is to become my son-in-law.
You must, therefore, know what you want before I take this step, and besides he who does not know what he wants never has what suits him. I do not hide the fact from you that I soon wish to be informed of your decision.
Only then does Boenninghausen’s son appear to have acquiesced.
SUPPLEMENT 240
MADAME HAHNEMANN ON THE PUBLICATION OF HAHNEMANN’S LITERARY LEGACY, ETC.
Boenninghausen communicated the following to the Ninth Yearly Assembly of the Homoeopathic Physicians of Rhineland and Westphalia on July 31st, 1856 (” Allg. hom. Ztg.,” Vol.53, page 21).
Boenninghausen had urgently requested the widow of the Founder of Homoeopathy, in various letters, to publish the 6th Edition of the “Organon” (Complete in the manuscript) which contained particularly a new and improved mode of dynamising the medicinal remedies, hitherto unknown (as the late Hahnemann had shortly before his death written himself to the writer Boenninghausen). It also contained an authentic copy of a certain number of treatments from the case-books of Hahnemann during the last years of his life, in order that he might acquire definite knowledge about this technical mode of proceeding during his last years. Madame Hahnemann in her replies had hitherto always stated that she had solemnly promised her husband on his death-bed not to allow either to be published until it became absolutely necessary in the interest of science, and until pure homoeopathy should be in danger of branching off into wrong paths. She did not shrink from undertaking a journey to Munster in order to speak in detail about this matter which was being so urgently pursued by the writer. She arrived on June 17th, 1856, and remained until the 22nd.
During this visit the writer succeeded in making Madame Hahnemann definitely promise to publish for one thing the 6th Edition of the “Organon” during the coming Autumn, and form another to send to the writer a copy of the patients’ treatments from Hahnemann’s Journals (because she could not decide to part with any portion of the original), with permission to publish them accompanied by suitable remarks and annotations, and ultimately also to send to the writer some samples of Hahnemann;s own preparations, concerning which she gave complete explanations regarding their origin and peculiarities under the sal of complete silence, so that experiments might be made and a reasoned judgment obtained, as to their great efficacy, which consisted chiefly in the fact that the curative effect was immediately attained without delay and without any aggravation.
So far of course nothing more had happened than the sending of some extracts from the Journals. But the writer was still hoping that in the great interest of some valuable relics of the deceased man, Madame Hahnemann would fulfil her given promise. But he was deceived; instead of that which was promised, on the 8th of September came a letter full of strong reproaches;
When I sent you, No. I of “diseases” I thought that you would feel how important it was not to speak about them before publication. I was, therefore, most painfully impressed when I read in the “Leips. hom. Ztg.,” (July 28th) that you have published this writing and that the infinitesimal dilutions had been carried so unreasonably far that it must be assumed that the mental debility of old age alone could have induced Hahnemann to a fall into such errors. Fortunately, however, these communications had been subjected to Boenninghausen’s critical examination, etc., — Is it not extraordinary that the intellect of Hahnemann who up to the last moment when he departed this life had made so many brilliant remarks in the light of science and who shortly before the end was clearer in mind than he had been in the middle of his carrier(!-R.H), that this spirit should not be able to define the last expressions of his desire which he compile at the utmost end of life when he had soon to give account, in Eternity, concerning them, should not be able to do this without a guardian, even if this guardian were a Boenninghausen (!!–R.H). And just from there (from the senile, intellectual debility — R.H) Muller, the old enemy of his master, continues in a similar periodical (August 11th) and again in the same spirit, so that the literary legacy of the great master is decried and insulted before it appears. This is a very great misfortune, grater than you can imagine. If the secret had been kept, as I have done for twelve years, the works would have shown themselves and justified themselves by saying: “Do as I have done, but do it as I have done it!” Now they attack what they do not understand and what cannot defend itself; they ridicule what should be revered, as the weight of medical science. Once more, it is a misfortune which will render the mission entrusted to me still more difficult. It was a good intention that urged you to betray what should have remained a secret. Dear Friend, if you had asked me I would have begged of you to remain silent until I gave you another message. Hahnemann’s works must appear before mankind like the light of the sun which is not control but enjoyed.
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