He started for Hamburg, but on the way he met with a very bad accident. After staying at Muhlhausen (a village on the way to Hamburg) for some time, to get over the effects of the accident, he went to Altona and stayed there for a short while. In 1800, however, he removed to Hamburg. In the same year Hahnemann published his new discovery of Alkali Pneum which however was later proved to be only Borax. For offering this preparation as a discovery for sale Hahnemann was much maligned.
He however had the honesty to admit his mistake with humility and magnanimity of soul immediately after it was brought to his notice. Hahnemann left Hamburg about 1802 and after wandering through some places settled in Torgau in 1805-6. It was there he again started practice which he continued to the end of his life. He remained in Torgau till 1811 when again he left for Leipsic.
It was at Torgau he published his book of provings in 1805. He also gave to the world his famous ORGANON or the Bible of Homoeopathy. It was published in Dresden in 1810 and was the signal for Hahnemanns oppositionists to start fresh trouble. He was attacked in the medical journals of the day; books and pamphlets were published decrying his new system, He was called a quack. His minute doses were declared to be impossible. He tests of medicines were pronounced impossible.
His tests of medicines were pronounced to be ridiculous. In the very next year Hahnemann gave to the world the first volume of his Materia Medica Pura, This must have proved a fitting reply to all his malevolent oppositionists. The second and third volumes of the same Materia Medica Pura was published 1816-17; the fourth in 1818, the fifth in 1819 and the sixth in 1821,
In the early part of 1811 Hahnemann removed to the great medical city of Leipsic with a view to popularise his new system by means of lectures, discourses and instruction. If we examine the period of our hero;s life between 22 and 56 years– a period of 34 years–what do we find? In spite of all odds– poverty, derision, ridicule, the malevolent attacks by the medicoes of the time and various other ways in which he was persecuted –he kept on to his guns.
He never forsook the ideal he kept before himself– the pursuit of knowledge and research until at last he emerged out triumphantly, with an immortal glory to himself, with a new law of healing the sick, most rationally quickly, permanently, pleasantly and surely, This period of 34 years was certainly one of remarkable changes, bad to himself in the worldly way and good to his own fame and the good that was in store for humanity at large.
At the end of this period he was well known for his new system of medicine that was superior in all respects to the old one. He, at the age of 56, now returned to Leipsic to teach to others the truths of the principles of the new system, that God had ordained him to discover after all possible hardships that he had to undergo with a lions heart, in pursuit of his own ideal.
He asked of the Leipsic University permission to teach his new system whereupon he was asked to defend a thesis with a respondent and to pay to the Faculty a fee of fifty Thalers. He did this on June 26th, 1812,, with his son Fredrich as the respondent. All his hearers were amazed and the Dean of the Faculty publicly tendered his congratulations.
And yet a few years later this Master of medical learning was hounded out of Leipsic by physicians who said he was not capable of preparing his own medicines; they even burnt those medicines, so great was their prejudice against the man. The subject of the dissertation was A medical Historical Dissertation on the Helleborism of the Ancients.
After being permitted to lecture he began to give two lectures per week and continued them semi-annually during his entire stay at Leipsic from 1812 to 1821.
Now Hahnemann had a number of devoted disciples who gladly and faithfully assisted him in testing the effects of drugs upon their own healthy systems. This was a season of triumph and happiness for the old reformer; he was busily engaged in his favourite studies and he also had the satisfaction of knowing that at last he was educating others to aid him in disseminating his new and beneficent law of medicine. For all this proving purpose, he had a host of faithful provers, the chief and notable of whom were Stapf, Hartmann, Franz, Gross, Hornburg, Wislicenus Hermann and a few others.
These, the first pupils and adherents of Hahnemann were bound very closely to the master. Their activity as drug provers began with Causticum and covered the entire period from the second to the sixth part of the Materia Medica Pure without however ceasing with Stannum. “But in other ways, a few years later, were they active factors in the development of Homoeopathy, at first at medical practitioners successfully employed in every special field of labour; later as contributors to a literature which was now aiming to construct, then to combat opposition and which finally sought to gain proselytes (converts) among professional men and among laymen”.
The year 1813 was one of triumph to Hahnemann. The contagious Typhus fever, the typhus of the camps, prevailed throughout Germany. Hahnemann attended cases of this terrible disease with a success that silenced his critics and proved the superiority of the new method and of the truth of his principle. Out of the great number treated by Hahnemann he lost but two–an old man and another who died from neglect in his diet.
The year 1819 proved to be one of great persecution to the master. On December 16, 1819 the apothecaries of Leipsic petitioned to the city council that their rights were being encroached upon by Dr. Hahnemann dispensing his own medicines. They still reserved the right to proceed at any time in the future again his students who were also dispensing their own medicines.
In spite of a very able appeal by the eminent doctor, the council publicly notified that he would be held to the penalty of twenty thalers for the dispensation of each and every article of medicine to any person whomsoever, lest he should give occasion to more severe measures. This order practically meant that the doctor must leave the place. But just as he was looking about for some future refuge from the persecution by his enemies, a circumstance happened that for a time stopped the opposition.
In the year 1820, on the recommendation of a military surgeon of Prague, the Austrian Field Marshal Schwartzenburg came under the treatment of Dr. Hahnemann. The Saxon Government considering the high position of the patient stopped Hahnemanns persecution by an exercise of its sovereign authority. For a time all went well with the Marshal and he improved so much as to be able to go out for walks. This improvement was, however, temporary. The patient became worse and died of apoplexy on the 15th October 1820. After this death, Hahnemanns enemies renewed his persecution.
Even his pupils were persecuted. Dr. Hahnemann was now so disgusted with these persecutions that he thought he was likely to do harm to his benevolent but new system of medicine and endanger his life as well, if he were to continue his stay in the place. He therefore decided to go to Leipsic at the earliest opportunity. In the mean-while certain of his patients and friends, influential citizens, had addressed a petition to the king and to the Municipality of the city for justice in behalf of Dr. Hahnemann.
Before this petition was answered the Grand Duke of Coethen offered Hahnemann the post of private physician to himself, with free privilege of practice according to the dictates of his own conscience within the limits of the Dutchy. Hahnemann immediately accepted with thankfulness this honourable and advantageous offer and without waiting to see the outcome of the petition in his behalf went to Coethen in the spring of 1821.
LIFE AT COETHEN–1821 to 1835.
We now enter upon the most happy portion of our illustrious Doctors life. Hahnemann now lived a quiet and studious life at Coethen. He was now free from the constant persecution by his enemies and had nothing to distract his mind. He enjoyed perfect freedom of opinion and action. He now devoted himself to his important studies. For some time he remained secluded from the world, seldom going out of his house except to visit the Duke professionally.
His other patients including those from Leipsic were obliged to go to him. After Hahnemann had been for six months quietly and happily living in Coethen, the petition to the Leipsic authorities in regard to the self- dispensing of medicines was favourably considered and on November 30, 1821 a Royal decree was issued granting him that right under certain conditions (probably because it was considered that Hahnemann would surely never entertain the idea of returning to Leipsic).
This was of course a formal recognition of the new method and, although life now rendered possible in Leipsic, offered many advantages Hahnemann preferred to remain at Coethen with the liberty and quiet it afforded him through the kindness of the Duke. It may be stated here that Hahnemanns relations with the Duke and Duchess remained extremely cordial throughout his stay at Coethen.
