In a letter to Hufeland on the great necessity of a regeneration in medicine Hahnemann says “It was agony for me to walk always in darkness with no other light than that which could be derived from books, when I had to heal the sick, and to prescribe according to such or such an hypothesis concerning diseases, substances which owned their place in the Materia Medica to an arbitrary decision.
I could not conscientiously treat the unknown morbid conditions of my suffering brethren by these unknown medicines, which being very active substances may (unless applied with the most rigorous exactness, which the physician can not exercise, because their peculiar effects have not yet been examined) so easily occasion death, or produce new affections or chronic maladies, often more difficult to remove than the original disease. To become thus the murderer or the tormentor of my brethren was to me an idea so frightful and overwhelming, that soon after my marriage, I renounced the practice of medicine that I might no longer incur the risk of doing injury and I engaged exclusively in chemistry and in literary occupations.
But I became a father, serious diseases threatened my beloved children, my flesh and blood. My scruples redoubled when I saw that I could afford them no relief.” He continues in telling Hufeland his feelings regarding the uncertainty of medical practice and says that he felt sure that God must have ordained some certain method of healing the sick. This mental state of Hahnemann must be considered the germ seed of the wonderful discovery of his new system of medicine of which he became the past master in his later life. It must particularly be noted that he at this time held the post of Stadtphysicus, proving his ability as a physician.
Although his heart was absorbed in the desire to do good and his love for medical science was very great, his ideas of right prevented him from continuing longer in practice and consequently he resigned his position at Gommern in the Autumn of 1784. Despite the perplexities of his professional life Hahnemann enjoyed in Gommern a happy home life. Due to his resignation on grounds of conscience he and his family had to face poverty. Still he ever remained a very affectionate husband and a tenderly attached father as can be seen from the slumber song composed by himself for his baby.
LIFE AT DRESDEN, 1784 to 1789.
After coming to Dresden, Dr. Hahnemann did not practise medicine but devoted himself to his pursuits in languages and chemistry. Here he had the best advantage of the company of John Christopher Adelung and librarian Dassdorf. He also took the best advantage of the library of John Adelung. He was quite happy in the congenial company of these two gentlemen and in the quietness of the library he fully satisfied his desire for knowledge. Thus he made Dresden a place of his great activities both in the literary field and the field of chemistry. Here he wrote good many books, too many to enumerate.
The most important of them, however, were (1) Arsenic; its treatment and Judicial investigation, (2) The preparation of soluble mercury. “His translation concerning the adulteration of drugs led him to doubt the good faith of the pharmacists, and his knowledge gained while inspector of drugs, of their substitution and fraudulent practices probably went far in the future to favour his desire to prepare and dispense his own medicines. And the hours of painstaking necessary in translating, were the means of giving his mind the needful exactness for the future mathematical law of healing God was to allow him to discover”.
We have already seen that Dr. Hahnemann was at this time leading a life of poverty. Still the desire for extended knowledge was uppermost in his mind, and hence in the latter part of 1789 he removed himself to Leipsic to be nearer the fountainhead of learning and knowledge. In 1790 he published a translation of Ryan on diseases of the lung. But the most important book he wrote in this year was the translation of Cullens Materia Medica. Cullen devotes about twenty pages to the therapeutic uses of Peruvian Bark.
Hahnemann was somehow impelled to experiment with the bark upon himself and see what effect it would have upon a person in perfect health. Dr. Hahnemann found that the effects were very like the symptoms of the intermittent fever for which Cullen recommended Peruvian Bark as a specific. From this he thought to himself:–“Does bark then produce the same symptoms as it removes? Does it alike produce and cure Ague? It is called a specific. Is the specific curing power of drugs founded on such a principle?
Do they all uniformly excite a counterfeit disease to that which they remedy?” “Drug after drug, specific after specific, he tested on himself and healthy friends, with one unvarying result, each remedy of recognized specific power excited a spurious (false) disease resembling that for which it was considered a specific. But many more symptoms than those diagnostic of any one disease resulted from almost every medicine and aroused a hope in the experimenters mind of specifically treating a greater number of diseases than had ever been so treated before.
Besides discovering many valuable medicinal phenomena undreamt of, he verified his discoveries and observations by ransacking the volumes on recorded experiments on Materia Medica and the whole history of poisoning.” Six years were spent in proving drugs and verifying his principle before proclaiming it to the world. For this purpose he did not experiment only on a few individuals but pressed even the members of his own family into this service.
Dr. Hahnemann though poor never relinquished his literary pursuits though the income derived therefrom was of course quite inadequate to the needs of his growing family. He also continued his experiments regarding the provings of drugs. His discoveries in chemistry and his wonderful knowledge of medical subject were now attracting the attention of the scientific men of his time. In 1791 poverty compelled the doctor to remove from Leipsic to the little village Sttoteritz.
It is to be remembered that during the two years following the translation (Cullen) Hahnemann continued to experiment upon himself and on his family and certain of his friends with different substances. But he had not yet tested the truth of his new principle on the sick. The insanity of Klockenbring gave him this opportunity.
Madame Klockenbring being very favourably impressed with the writings of Dr. Hahnemann, and an interview she had with him, decided to put her husband under the care of the doctor. Moreover the Duke of Gotha was also much interested in a person of Klockenbrings position. Hence it was arranged that the insane Klockenbring should be treated by Dr. Hahnemann at Georgenthal in an asylum. Dr. Hahnemann therefore went to Georgenthal in 1792 to take charge of the patient.
He simply watched the patient for two weeks and exercised the utmost gentleness with him throughout the whole period of treatment. He was quite convinced that rough an brutal treatment of the insane would never cure them of their insanity. Dr. Hahnemann after a very painstaking treatment cured Klockenbring completely and the patient went back to Hanover in March 1793. Dr. Hahnemann himself left Georgenthal in May 1793, stayed for some little time in Molschleben and in October 1894, again removed to Pyrmont. In 1795 he again removed to Wolfenbuttel, and some time a later in the same year removed to Koningslutter.
At Koningslutter he completed the Pharmaceutical Lexicon, now acknowledged to be a standard work on the subject. He also wrote some other articles of note. But the most important was “Essay on a new Principle for ascertaining the curative powers of drugs.” This article saw the light of the day in 1796. He presents his theory in the following words: “Every powerful medicinal substance produces in the human body a kind of peculiar disease; the more powerful the medicine,the more peculiar, marked and violent the disease.
We should imitate nature which sometimes cures a chronic disease by superadding another and employ in the (especially chronic) disease we wish to cure, that medicine, which is able to produce another very similar artificial disease and former will be cured; Similia Similibus.” At this time Hahnemann was habitually depending on the single remedy. He also prescribed according to the law of similars. He also prescribed according to the law of similars. He was in the habit of preparing his own medicines and dispensing them independent of the apothecaries.
All this enraged the physicians of Koningslutter who instigated the apothecaries to bring an action against him. Hahnemann appealed but all in vain. He was forbidden to dispense his simple medicines. In 1799 the last year of his sojourn in Koningslutter he discovered in Belladonna a specific for scarlet fever but did not give out its name (must be for sound reasons).
This further enraged the local medicos who launched an action against him and managed to get it decided that he should not prepare and dispense his own medicines. Now Dr. Hahnemann had no other alternative but to leave the place, which he did in the autumn of 1799.
