OF PERE LA HAISE: MONUMENTS AND RELICS.
SUPPLEMENT 245
CONCERNING THE UNCERTAINTY REGARDING HAHNEMANN’S TOMB.
Dr. Gaillard writes in the French periodical, “L’Homoeopathic Militante,” of the year 1878.
Where are the last mortal remains of the Founder of Homoeopathy? People think, in Paris. But no one in the world knows in which cemetery. One of my colleagues in Paris assured me, fourteen years ago, that Hahnemann’s body had been temporarily laid in the vault of the famous painter Le Thiere.
During the assembly of the International Congress of Homoeopathic Physicians, of Suggest 14th, Dr. van der Heuvel of Antwerp, proposed in the name of the Homoeopathic Medical Service of Belgium that a monument should be erected over the grave of the Founder of the Homoeopathic School of Medicine. The President, Dr. L. Simon (Homoeopathic physician of Paris — R.H.) replied to this tat the burial place was unknown.
Dr. Petit, who knew Hahnemann’s family more intimately, stated at the same meeting that the remains were resting in the place where Madame hahnemann had laid them. But he could not exactly say where.
Two French periodicals, published in October — signed by Apothecary Catellan — that Hahnemann was at rest in the Cemetery Pere La Chaise.
In consequences of this contradictory report, Gaillard wrote to the Administration of the Cemeteries and received the information that Hahnemann had been laid in the cemetery Montmartre, 16 V. first row along wall No.9. Madame Hahnemann, his widow, was interred next to him as it was a tomb purchased in perpetuity. But that there was neither a wreath nor a border round Madame Hahnemann’s grave. There were only a few flowers to be found which had been put there a few months previously.
Dr. Platt, Professor of Chemistry at the Hahnemann College, Philadelphia, wrote on the 2nd May, 1896, to Dr. Bradford in Philadelphia:
I have called on several French physicians, but these apparently know as little about Hahnemann’s life in Paris as I do. They know nothing about the Rue de Helder or Rue de Milan. They even did not know that Hahnemann had died in Paris and was buried in Montmartre.
German description of Hahnemann’s grave in Montmartre.
Dr. Puhlmann wrote in the” Hom. Kalender,”1892, and in the “Leips. Pop. Ztg.,” 1891, 22nd year, page 10:
The monument which we here reproduce was erected by his widow very soon after his death; it is decidedly a worthy monument. The memorial stone contains the inscription;
“Chretien Frederic Samuel Hahnemann.”
It belongs as we were assured to the so-called historical graves, that is, to those which are kept in order at the expense of the French nation when the family no longer attends to them.
The cemetery keepers of Montmartre know very well where it is guide every German who asks for Hahnemann’s burial place. It can easily be found, if immediately on entering the cemetery one keeps to the 16th Division, to the left along the wall where the conspicuous tomb of Madame Marie Champeaux is to be found. It is close to that. The protecting roof which had been placed above the tomb seems to have been removed later, at least, thirteen years ago this August it was no longer present.
Puhlmann seems according to this, to have mistaken Madame Melanie Hahnemann’s tomb for the actual tomb of Hahnemann. This can be shown by the reports of Dr. Platt and the Parisian physician Dr. Cartier, of the year 1896 — therefore three years later.
Concerning the picture it is related in the same passage:
The picture originates from S. Hahnemann’s legacy, namely from his daughter in Kothen, and was presented to the Homoeopathic Hospital of Leipsic. The words inscribed under it read: “Mausolee S. Hahnemann.” The following note is added in writing; “Etched after a drawing by Suss-Hahnemann.”
SUPPLEMENT 246
THE EXCUSE OF THE FRENCH
Dr. FranCosis Cartier wrote in the” Reveu Homoeopathique FranCaise” of June 30th, 1896 (S. “Allg.hom. Ztg,” 1896, Vol.133, page 105)
It is a very modest and very neglected tomb which contains the earthly remains of the Founder of Homoeopathy! Hahnemann lies in the Cemetery of Montmartre in Paris, completely forgotten and whilst Washington has erected a monument in a public square, costing 500,000 francs, his lonely tomb is left to the ravages of time.
The French homoeopaths are not to blame form his. When Hahnemann died in 1843, paris had enough physicians and followers of his teachings who could have collected, by subscriptions, the means to erect a worthy tomb for their master. But we had to reckon with the difficulty of obtaining permission from the family, and Madame Hahnemann, his widow, who alone could dispose of her husband’s body, had a mind of her own, and had Hahnemann almost secretly buried.
The death of the master was only made known four days after his burial. and even to-day we do not know for certain whether he died in Paris or in Nice.
The famous Charge, later physician to Napoleon the Third, repeatedly tried to induce Madame Hahnemann to allow a monument to be erected to the Founder of Homoeopathy, but the widow, who who lived in the Rue Faubourg-St.-Honore, and practised Homoeopathy under the legal responsibility of her son-in-law, a son of the famous Boenninghausen (or perhaps the latter himself), opposed it most obstinately.
Thus the years passed and ultimately the care of the tomb was entirely left to the widow without any other supervision and in this way the tomb became entirely forgotten.
Dr. Cartier tells of his visit and of the previous endeavours of Professor Platt and describes the grave he found as follows:
It is marked by a large stone, larger than the others, covered by a half-sunk in roof of the zinc and surrounded by a completely rusted railing. Six wreaths, which are probably as old as the surround, have been laid under the roof. On the tombstone– no inscription — in small letters only capital “C.P.” with a number which designates it as a permanent hereditary tomb.
Hahnemann is not alone in the vault; there are two more bodies there, relatives of the family Lethiere, of whom one was the famous painter and professor in Rome. Therefore the vault does not belong to Hahnemann but to the Lethiere family, and as the latter has now become extinct, no one troubles about this vault.
Cartier’s assumption that the Le Thiere family had become extinct was, in any case, erroneous during the years 1850 and 1860. With Madame Melanie Hahnemann lived a young apothecary, Lethiere by name. Also the remarks added in brackets; “The tow skeletons which are still in Hahnemann’s tomb are those of the husbands of Madame Melanie. When she married S. Hahnemann and brought the latter to Paris she had been a window for the second time.– This cannot be proved by any documental evidence.
Cartier’s essay then continues:
Close to this tomb is a tombstone which is kept in a good condition, decorated every year with fresh flowers and fresh wreaths; it is the tomb of Melanie Hahnemann. This tomb is conscientiously kept by the daughter, Mrs. von Boenninghausen.
Are we not led to bitter meditations at the sight of these two graves, the one well cared for, the other entirely neglected” Is it possible that a man who has educated you and who has rendered so much service to humanity should be so utterly forgotten? Can the Founder of homoeopathy be so entirely put aside when you yourself bear a name which is so celebrated in homoeopathy?
But neither Mrs. con Boenninghausen (Dr. Leopold Suss Hahnemann is meant — R.H.) are entered in the register of the Cemetery of Montmartre as those who took care of the vault, Lethiere-Hahnemann, but a Mr. Cloquemin, business adviser of Mrs. von Boenninghausen in Paris, is alone mentioned in that Register. This man who had a great liking for Madame Hahnemann, faithfully tends her tomb; but as he is not a homoeopathic physician and never knew Hahnemann, he naturally had very little interest in his grave.
Poor tomb, which contains such an eminent man!
The International Homoeopathic Congress of the year 1896, elected a Committee which was to collect the money form the erection of monument on Hahnemann’s tomb which would b worthy of him. It consisted of Dr. Brasol of Petersburg, Dr. Cartier of Paris, Dr. Hughes of Brighton, Dr. Bushrod James of Philadelphia, and Dr. Villers of Dresden.
SUPPLEMENT 247
DR. CARTIER OF PARIS ON THE AUTHENTICITY OF HAHNEMANN’S TOMB
(Translated from the French of the official report on the disinterment of Hahnemann’s body. Corbeil, Printing Works of Ed. Crete, 1898)
At the re-opened tomb Dr. Cartier says:
In the presence of this open tomb before the coffin which contains the body of our celebrated master, Samuel Hahnemann, surely a duty develops upon me to describe the work of this genius who has stirred the world by his ideas and his doctrines. As Secretory of the International Sub-Committee in charge of the tomb, and as the French delegate, being the only one who can act at the place, I must offer public proof to all those who are present and to all those in the whole world who await anxiously the result of to-day’s ceremony, that we have indeed before us the precious remains of Samuel Hahnemann, and that the tomb which we shall erect in the Cemetery of Pere La Chaise, will actually cover the body of the Founder of Homoeopathy. This has its reason owing to the disputes originated a short time ago in certain Homoeopathic journals and to which we must absolutely put an end by giving all the proofs of authenticity.
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