ADDRESS DELIVERED BY DR. W. TAUBE OF WEISSENFELS, GERMANY, AT OSCHATZ IN SAXONY, ON JUNE 24, 1928, ON THE OCCASION OF THE DEDICATION OF A MEMORIAL TABLET ERECTED IN THE HOUSE IN WHICH CONSTANTINE HERING WAS BORN ON JANUARY 1, 1800.
Greeting to the town of Oschatz whose walls enshrined the cradle of him we celebrate today. Greeting to those of his family and relations who have come from Germany and from across the ocean to us. Greetings to all friends of the works of Dr. Constantine Hering.
“Wie an dem Tag, der dich der Welt verliehn,
Die Sonne stand zum Grusse der Planeten
Bist allsobald und fort und fort gediehn
Nach dem Gesetz, wonach du angetreten.
“So must du sein; du kannst dir nicht entfliehn,
So sagten schon Sybillen, so Propheten,
Und keine Zeit und keine Macht zerstuckelt
Gepragte Form, die leband sich entwickelt”.
“As on the day that gave thee to the world,
The sun consociate to the planets stood,
Thou didst prosper, evermore develop
According to the laws that governed them.
“So must thou be; from self thous canst not flee,
So sibyls spoke, so prophets wisely told.
Nor any time, nor any might can break
The graven form by destiny prepared”.
Over everyones life a star presides. Guardian spirits hover near, and demons lie in wait to drag him down. With iron pen the ruinic characters that mark our fate are graven into the book of history. Scratching in, charizo the Greeks have named it, and that which is so inscribed is the character of the man. According to his being his destiny is formed. It was to this natural observation the seeker Goethe gave poetic expression in the above verses.
Happy the man who can see the lines of his destiny, who again according to an ancient Greek word can know himself and act according to this knowledge. Such a man was Dr. Constantine Hering. Today, on the occasion of this celebration, when his life is already familiar to many, we will undertake to observe, from a different viewpoint, according to principles, his life and his labours.
A change of years is surely nothing extraordinary, purely a human arrangement and yet thoughtful people will at mid-night pause to wish one another a happy New Year while folding their hands in gratitude for the old and a wish for the new. Also the division of time into years is based upon ancient astronomical observations and each year bears its stamp upon it. How much more each century. Exactly on the advent of the nineteenth century on January 1, 1800, Constantine Hering was born here in Oschatz in the dwelling of the cantor. His father was organist and choirmaster in the church.
Another natural observation says, “mans years are seventy, if more are added they come to eighty.” This external law was also fulfiled by Constantine Hering. A noble life, full of energy and labor stretches from the young century to July 23, 1880. Another imprint, the third, attaches to this life – the name. Hering signifies leader, general, Constantia: steadfastness, perseverance. A steadfast leader in the army of light, was Constantine Hering. The commander in chief of this army had sounded his call to arms four years before Herings birth.
Samuel Hahnemann then published his first ideas on homoeopathy in Hufelands Journal. This is not the place to enter into the principles of the new system. Only this much may be said that medical science at that time was but poorly equipped. Medical art spent itself in blood-letting, leeching and the mixing of an incredible number of drugs. Hahnemann pondered over that which great physician to Frederick William III and Queen Louise, although never a homoeopathic physician, was generous enough to smooth the way for the new doctrine. Hering, as we will later see, became its true apostle.
He was brought up simply and naturally. He sprang from a prolific family. In him was verified the same observation we so often make in Germany that from such families come notable men (Bach, Lessing, Arndt, Jahr, etc.) He was a good pupil who particularly liked to occupy his mind with the natural sciences and nature studies. His acute thinking powers qualified him to be a mathematician. At the same time there developed in him a strong sense for justice. When the French army marched through Oschatz in 1806 a soldier begged him for bread. He handed him a piece of good plain rye which the Frenchman refused.
He wished for white bread. The blood of the six year old boy was up and he said: “If you will not eat the bread my mother baked God will punish you!” Curiously, as Hering often in his lifetime reaped the fruits of his manly acts, so it happened here. In the disastrous retreat of the army from Russia in 1812 the soldier humbly begged for a piece of black bread. It is told that this time gave him a piece of white.
His aptitude for treating the sick first showed itself when at the age of twelve, he removed a tick, a troublesome parasite, from his sisters scalp. After his schooldays were over Hering attended medical lectures in Dresden, Leipzig and Wurzburg. Early in his years of the study of medicine he was made acquainted with Homoeopathy through the Moravian, Dr. Ruckert, The Moravians again played a part in his later life. Thoughtful and clear thinking in matters of science as Hering was, he did not at once enter the new camp with flying colors. He waited a good while. More vivid experiences brought him nearer to homoeopathy.
In making an autopsy a finger became infected. The wound rapidly became gangrenous. Amputation of the forearm was proposed. It was then that Hering, at the advice of a friend took a homoeopathic dose of Arsenic. His hand and arm were saved. He was at the time an assistant of Surgeon Robbi who at first was favorable to homoeopathy but later turned away from it. Baumgarten, a book publisher, desired a book written to lampoon Hahnemann who had been driven from Leipzig and was to be made impossible in the rest of Germany. Robbi referred this work to his assistant, Hering, who, honoured by the charge, began the work with ardour.
With customary thoroughness, he, to avoid superficial judgment, took up the study of Hahnemanns writings and also began the proving of drugs. In consequence of his conversion to the teachings of Hahnemann, his employer had to be disappointed. From a Saul he had become a Paul. Already Herings fearlessness and steadfastness proved itself when professing his convictions. Because his means were slender he had applied for a stipend, but when this was handed him with a warning to keep away from the heretical doctrine he flung back the money saying: “Rather will I hunger than prove untrue to myself”! In consequence of this manly bearing his principal earnestly looked into the new doctrine and became favorable to it.
With all his firmness, Hering must have possessed an unusual amount of tact not to have made a greater number of enemies. One of his contemporaries, Hornburg by name, who entered the homoeo- ranks with youthful enthusiasm, was so crushed by opposition and legal persecution that he pined away and died at the age of forty-one. It must be admitted that this hot head had made use of the most unpractical methods to convert his friends. Hering dared to make favorable mention of homoeopathy before his medical examiners, and in his thesis, Medicine of the Future, predicted a great future for it.
After having received his diploma, he took a position as teacher in mathematics and natural science in Blockmanns Institute in Dresden, his purpose being to discipline and perfect himself in these branches of learning; another proof of his thoroughness.
From Dresden he was sent upon an expedition to Surinam, a Dutch colony in the north of South America, its purpose being the examination of the interesting flora and fauna there, a commission to which young Hering devoted himself with great enthusiasm. He there made the acquaintance of German missionaries, Moravians, to whom he soon became a friend and medical adviser. In gratitude, they cheerfully assisted him in making provings of drugs which Hering conducted systematically with plants and even snake poisons.
The first proving of Lachesis was made by him. One must realize that under then existing circumstances such a proving required a large measure of personal courage. From that time on he sent regular reports to Germany, above all to his homoeopathic colleagues. The King of Saxony, under whose patronage the expedition had been fitted out, and those in office under him, were, however, not well pleased with this kind of work, and demanded that Hering should abandon his experiments. Hering relates that by return mail he resigned his position. He remained true to his principles and as usual this turned out for the best for himself and his mission.
He had, in the meanwhile, become acquainted with the mayor of the town of Surinam by rescuing and restoring to health one of his friends whom he had found helpless and sick by the wayside. For this benevolent act of Samaritanism the mayor chose him for his medical attendant. Now that he had lost his job he had to look for another. He became a homoeopathic practitioner and settled in Paramaribo, the capital of Surinam. By his thorough fitness for his calling, his love for humanity, his knowledge and skill he soon won the hearts and confidence of all. He did much to relieve the sufferings of those afflicted with leprosy to whom he gave his human sympathy.
