Hahnemann: The Father of Homeopathy - Part 4

In Part 3 of my blog on Hahnemann, you learned how he discovered the Law of Similars in medicine. He took a medicinal substance when healthy, and it gave him the symptoms of the illness that it was known to cure. When he stopped taking the substance, the symptoms went away, returning if he took it again, so causation was firmly established.

[An aside: To this day, homeopaths (and volunteers) experience and record the symptoms of substances by taking part in organized “provings.” A proving provides the necessary raw data, which is then published and organized into homeopathic repertories, which are used to find the symptoms that clients report during consultations. A remedy recommendation is rarely based on just the pathological symptoms. Preferences, aversions, causative factors, and general tendencies are also taken into consideration. A cohesive whole that makes logical sense is the goal, and finding the remedy picture takes skill and experience. Some homeopaths are better able to find the picture than others, which is why it’s good to get a referral when looking for a homeopath.]

Returning to Hahnemann, he continued his literary pursuits during the six years that he conducted provings on a variety of substances (1790 - 1796). He wrote part two of “Friends to Health,” giving good advice on subjects ranging from the importance of fresh air to the importance of cheerfulness. He began an important work, “Pharmaceutical Lexicon,” which ultimately “received the praise of all the scientific physicians of the day, and became the standard work on pharmacy.” His translations continued as well, earning him many accolades, and included Rousseau’s “Handbook for Mothers” and Taplin’s “Veterinary Medicine.” As always, he enriched his translations with extensive forwards and footnotes.

Hahnemann moved his family hither and yon for both financial and occupational reasons, finally settling in Konigslutter around 1795, where he would eventually begin practicing medicine again with his new homeopathic system. In 1795, Hahnemann was 40 years old and had six living children, one son and five daughters. One daughter, a twin, had been stillborn.

In that same year (1795) a personal friend of his, Christoph Hufeland, launched a new medical journal. Hahnemann’s first article in it was an account of his cure of an insane man that had occurred in 1793. You might ask: How did he cure someone when he had given up practicing medicine? Hahnemann was thrust into the spotlight when he publicly stated that Leopold II of Austria was bled to death during his last (and fatal) illness. His outspokenness about the evils of venesection caught the attention of Duke Ernst of Saxe-Coberg-Gotha, who wrote to Hahnemann, asking him to try his hand at curing Herr Friedrich Klockenbring, Minister of Police and secretary to the Chancellor of Hanover, who had developed a “most fearful madness.” His fee of 1,000 thalers was too substantial to refuse, especially considering how financially strapped the family was.

Hahnemann moved his family to the Duke’s beautiful lands in 1792, where temporary housing for Klockenbring had been established. The Hahnemanns lived in a wing of the Duke’s hunting castle, which seemed like paradise after their tiny house in Stotteritz. Meanwhile, Hahnemann went to work on the patient, and he writes that he watched the man carefully for two weeks before giving any medicine. In those days, the typical treatment for mentally ill people was quite punitive and violent, but Hahnemann would not allow such barbaric methods—he was one of the first advocates for the humane treatment of the insane. Klockenbring was cured of his illness under Hahnemann’s treatment, and details of the recovery were published in Hufeland’s journal. In the same volume, he published the article “Essay on a New Principle for Ascertaining the Curative Powers of Drugs." Its tone was “calm and impartial” because the new method and its discoverer had not yet come under attack.

Hahnemann published numerous articles in Hufeland’s journal. Some of them showcased his new medical model, for instance when he wrote about a case deemed hopeless that was cured “by means of a medicine producing very similar morbid symptoms." Some were more general, such as his article entitled “Are the Obstacles to Certainty and Simplicity in Practical Medicine Insurmountable?” He was trying, in a gentle and persuasive way, to induce his “professional brethren” to use “simple remedies given according to a precise law.” But his articles weren’t changing many minds. Most physicians still championed the old methods, particularly those whose careers had earned them fame and fortune.

Hahnemann started practicing medicine again around 1796, treating patients with one, well-indicated remedy at a time. The other physicians were tolerant of him until a scarlet fever epidemic came to Konigslutter around 1798-1799. By using the homeopathic remedy Belladonna, Hahnemann had remarkable success with both the prevention and treatment of this dreaded disease. His “brethren,” not as successful, must have felt embarrassed, threatened and jealous, which would explain their next actions.

The non-homeopathic physicians of Konigslutter joined ranks to plan Hahnemann’s professional demise. They hit on the idea of bringing charges against him for dispensing his own medicines (instead of using the apothecaries) and carried the plan forward. In Part 2 of this blog, I told how Hahnemann once inspected apothecary shops in his influential position as Stadtphysikus in Gommern, forming a none-too-good opinion of them; As mentioned above, his extensive knowledge of chemistry as it related to pharmacy was so apparent in his Pharmaceutical Lexicon that it became the standard reference for apothecaries. The charge brought against Hahnemann was ridiculous and he appealed it, arguing that the law governing apothecaries related only to making compound medicines, and that his single-substance medicines fell outside that jurisdiction. He lost his appeal and once again had to decide where to move his family so that he could practice homeopathy without hindrance. He reached out to his friend, Duke Ernst, but unfortunately the man had recently died.

The patients he had helped in Konigslutter didn’t want him to move, and several of them “accompanied him some distance,” wishing him God speed along the way. He had decided to put a great distance between himself and Konigslutter, moving almost 140 miles northwest, to Hamburg. It was a perilous journey for the Hahnemann family. Along the way, the large carriage he had purchased for the move overturned on a stretch of bad road, and an infant son was so badly injured that he died shortly afterward. One daughter broke a leg, and Hahnemann himself was considerably bruised. Much of his property was damaged when it rolled into the stream that ran at the bottom of the road. With the assistance of some local peasants, they made it to the nearest village where they stayed for six weeks while his daughter’s leg healed. They finally entered Hamburg in early 1800.

Word of Hahnemann’s success during the scarlet fever epidemic spread, and he received letters from people far and wide asking for medical advice. The volume of letters was proof of the new system’s merit, but unfortunately most of them did not include a fee. This expectation for free medical advice irked Hahnemann, who still struggled to support his family. In an attempt to discourage the free-loaders, he (on two separate occasions) published a letter to “the Public.” In it, he announced 1) that he would no longer accept letters that were not postpaid, 2) that even if a letter was postpaid, he would send it back if it did not contain at least a “Friedrich d’or” (which, after doing some research appears to be approximately $100), and 3) that he would send all letters containing lottery tickets back. His public letters “aroused a very great amount of adverse criticism,” since such announcements were unheard of. They also gave the other physicians one more thing to hold against him. [NOTE: Lotteries were very popular in 1800. In fact, according to Google AI, the brokers who hired agents to sell lottery shares in the German states later evolved into the modern stockbrokers.]

Of course, everyone wanted to know what Hahnemann had used to successfully combat scarlet fever, but his professionalism and caution made him hesitant. Belladonna, a known poison, could be dangerous if handled incorrectly by the wrong people (the apothecaries of the day), so Hahnemann devised a plan that would allow him to make the medicine “carefully by his own hand” and share it with his country. He asked for 300 subscribers, at one Friedrich d’or each, who would, as members, get his medicine with full directions for its proper use. Once he had distributed medicine to 300 subscribers, he would then publish details of the medicine’s beneficial effects, also revealing its name.

His rigorous standard for honesty was not compatible with his marketing endeavor. When advertising his subscription, he let it be known that “he deserved something from both the public and from the Government for his most important discovery.” Needless to say, he got “scarcely a fourth part of the number” of subscribers and a “vast amount of abuse and calumny.” Those who subscribed were mostly physicians who were dealing with epidemics of scarlet fever themselves, and Hahnemann begged them to report their findings “be it what it might” … but they did not. He wrote an article entitled “Considerations Upon the Liberality of the Medical Fraternity at the Commencement of the Nineteenth Century” in which he writes, “Physicians of Germany, be brothers, be fair, be just!” It was the last thing he ever wrote in a spirit of conciliation. Henceforth, he continued to follow his own path and seldom responded to the attacks of the other doctors, whom he now viewed with “disfavor and contempt.”

In 1801, he published the pamphlet “Cure and Prevention of Scarlet Fever,” despite the fact that he never got his 300 subscribers.

NEXT: Hahnemann continues to treat patients with homeopathy, despite the many obstacles placed in his way by his medical peers. He publishes “The Organon of Medicine,” detailing his homeopathic method and creating the vehicle that carries homeopathy far beyond Germany.

Hahnemann: The Father of Homeopathy - Part 3

We now come to the part of Dr. Samuel Hahnemann's story that everyone who has ever studied or researched homeopathy knows about - how he "discovered" homeopathy. We established in part 2 of the series that Hahnemann became thoroughly disillusioned with his chosen profession, stopped practicing medicine, and supported his growing family by doing translations and original works related to medical science and chemistry. Imagine the strength of mind it took for him to abandon the path that could have made his family financially comfortable! But instead of continuing with medical practices that were ill-conceived and dangerous, thereby compromising his high standard of truth, he accepted poverty as a temporary step in his quest towards finding a better means of healing.

As I mentioned in Part 2, Hahnemann never wavered in his belief that God had created a perfect method of healing, and its discovery was his ultimate goal. I must also point out that Hahnemann was a steadfast skeptic. In his autobiography, Hahnemann credits his father for giving him the assurance to examine supposed facts (which included those taught in medical school). As a physician, he used the various  protocols he had learned, and invariably exposed everything that was wrong with them. He therefore could not, in good conscience, continue to practice medicine.

At this point, Hahnemann's abhorrence of accepted medical treatments was not widely known by his scientific peers, so they remained willing to acknowledge and honor him. In 1791, now in his mid-thirties, Hahnemann was elected into the Oekonomische Gesellschaft (Economic Society) of Leipzig and the Academy of Sciences of Mayence. He continued to write original articles which were widely read, including "The Insolubility of Metals," "Best Means of Preventing Salivation, and the Destructive Effects of Mercury," and "Freunde der Gesundheit" (Friends of Health) — advice that remains applicable to this day. For instance, he was one of the first to recommend washing hands to prevent the spread of infection; he also recommended a good night's sleep and a wholesome diet. And he continued his translations, to great acclaim. Lorenz von Crell, founder of the first periodical devoted to chemistry, says of one translation, "Hahnemann has added precious notes which expand and elucidate Fabbroni's principles; he has thus enhanced the value of the work."

Regardless of the accolades, Hahnemann was so financially strapped that he was forced to move his family away from the large city of Leipzig to the little village of Stotteritz (in 1792). He wore "the garb of the very poor" including wooden clogs, and helped his wife by doing all the heavy housework and kneading the family's bread.  In his autobiography, Hahnemann wrote that they washed their clothes with potatoes since soap wasn't in the budget.

And now we come to Hahnemann's translation of Dr. William Cullen's "Materia Medica." As Hahnemann was "the most accomplished translator of medical works of the time," the project was offered to him. Cullen was a famous and talented chemist, and a very popular teacher and lecturer in Edinburgh. The German publishers knew that a well-translated version of his book would bring in good money, because Germans in the field of medicine were excited to learn Cullen's new theories regarding disease.

Cullen wrote that Peruvian bark cures intermittent fever (malaria) because of its bitter/astringent quality, yet Hahnemann knew that other substances, just as astringent or bitter as the bark, had no effect whatsoever on intermittent fever. Cullen's argument was therefore faulty, which caused Hahnemann's scientific and skeptical mind to whirl. He decided to try Peruvian bark for himself in order to judge its effects. He took, twice daily, "four drachms" (0.5 ounce) of a solution made from the bark and developed symptoms characteristic of malaria, along with several other symptoms. His symptoms lasted 2 - 3 hours each time, recurring only if he repeated the dose, and when he stopped taking the solution his symptoms disappeared. Hahnemann discovered that the bark created the same symptoms of the disease for which it was a known cure. It produced symptoms and cured them in a similar way. [Note: Quinine, which is used to treat malaria, comes from Peruvian bark.]

The bark's additional (non-malarial) symptoms were also interesting to Hahnemann. They made him hopeful that each drug could cure far more than the one disease for which it was specified. For instance, the bark had caused him to have heart palpitations and numbness in his fingers, so perhaps it could also treat circulation problems.

[An aside: Peruvian bark does indeed cure circulation problems, but certain characteristics of it were also discovered that complete "the picture" of the remedy. E.B. Nash, one of my favorite "pioneer" homeopaths, describes some important characteristics of Cinchona officinalis (Peruvian Bark) in his book, Leaders in Homeopathic Therapeutics. He says it's a good remedy to consider in any complaint where there has been an excessive loss of bodily fluids - hemorrhage of blood from any outlet, diarrhea, vomiting, or even too much perspiration. With the loss of fluid there is the expected debility, but there is also an intolerance to light touch, including something as light as a draft of air. E.B. Nash was born too late to know Hahnemann but he, and all the homeopaths who have come after him, have benefited from the tests - "provings" - that all homeopaths do to understand remedy pictures. Such tests continue to this day.]

Hahnemann spent the next six years testing medicines on himself and his family and friends. He also examined the many Materia medica books with which he was familiar, carefully noting records related to accidental poisonings. He quickly realized that the action of a drug varied according to age, sex, and the general constitution of a person, so he made sure to test substances on a variety of people.

But when did he have time to do these experiments since, as it was, he was struggling to support his family? He sat up "the whole of every other night," and in the process picked up the habit of smoking a pipe to help him through the long nights. He disregarded his own advice for good sleep because pursuing his investigations was too important; it was divinely inspired work, so his comfort was secondary.

It's interesting to note that his habit of smoking a pipe remained with him for the rest of his long life. Hahnemann wrote about tobacco use in Chronic Diseases (published many years later, in 1828). He says "smoking in some cases of chronic disease may be permitted, when the patient has been accustomed to an uninterrupted use of it, and if he does not expectorate; but smoking should always be limited, and more so if the mental activity, sleep, digestion or the evacuation are defective." We must remember that Hahnemann did not have a chronic disease, and tobacco in his day was not polluted with additives and chemicals.

Next time: Hahnemann shares his new theories with the medical community but does not get the reception that he hoped for. The stage is set for the years of discord that followed.

Hahnemann: The Father of Homeopathy - Part 2

In Part 1 of my series, you learned a little about Dr. Samuel Hahnemann's boyhood and training. In this part, you'll learn how he met his wife, about his early days as a physician, and how he dealt with his disillusionment of the current medical practices.

Hahnemann's first official job after getting his medical degree was in the mining town of Hettstadt. He left after nine months to find a more intellectually fulfilling place to practice, choosing Dessau on the Mulde River. He certainly found "more congenial society" there, as he put it in his autobiography, and he also continued his study of chemistry. Jöns Jacob Berzelius, a famous Swedish chemist who remained steadfast against homeopathy, says of Hahnemann: "That man would have made a great chemist, had he not turned out a great quack."

Hahnemann's interest in chemistry led him to study with an apothecary so that he could fully understand the topic in relation to pharmacy. Herr Haseler was his main teacher, and the man also happened to have a "young and charming," 17-year-old step-daughter, Johanna Kuchler. [Her father had owned the apothecary shop but had died, and her mother married Herr Haseler, another apothecary.] Hahnemann and Johanna fell in love, and now Hahnemann had to consider how he could best support a wife and future children. He became a parish doctor in Gommern, 43 miles northeast of Dessau, marrying his beloved "Elise" almost 2 years later, once he was established there.

Hahnemann was the first physician to practice in the small town of Gommern, and he says in his autobiography, "the people had no idea concerning such a person." Therefore, his practice was not large and he didn't do much to increase it because he was happy immersing himself in studies, particularly of chemistry. He also did translations, and one translation was of French chemist Demachy's Art of Manufacturing Chemical Products. Demachy had published it so that his countrymen could have the tightly held trade secrets of the manufacturers, and Hahnemann wanted to do the same for his German countrymen. He did other translation work and each manuscript showcased his extensive knowledge through his insertions of corrections and additions. For example, Demachy claimed that he knew of no work on carbonification of turf but Hahnemann mentions six in his additions to the book.

As happy as Hahnemann was with his chemistry work, he was growing less and less satisfied with what he considered to be ill-founded medical practices. He says "It was agony for me to walk always in darkness, with no other light than that which could be derived from books...and to prescribe according to such or such an hypothesis." The medicines, he said, "so easily occasion death, or produce new affections and chronic maladies, often more difficult to remove than the original disease." [The "such or such" hypotheses that abounded were Hippocratico-vitalistic, Gelenic, Humoral, Electro-Galvanic and others.]

He also wrote, "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."

However, Hahnemann could not let the matter drop. When he became a father, he wrote, "Serious diseases threatened my beloved children, my flesh and blood. My scruples redoubled when I saw that I could afford them no certain relief." He eventually shunned all the prevailing hypotheses and took a simpler approach, using only medicines whose effects were well-known. He was also one of the first physicians to recommend a wholesome diet. And throughout his search for a better method, Hahnemann remained strong in his belief that God had ordained some certain method of healing the sick.

Despite shunning many medical practices, Hahnemann was a respected physician. In Gommern, he gained the influential position of medical officer, or "Stadtphysikus," and his position included inspecting drugs in the apothecary shops - a job that sowed the seeds of his dissatisfaction with such establishments. He was also a surgeon, as records indicate that he treated a necrotic bone by scraping it. But prestige did not go to his head; he is known to have said that most of his patients would have done as well without his aid.

He resigned the position in Gommern after almost three years. Too disgusted with the errors and uncertainties of the prevailing methods of medical practice to remain, he moved his growing family to Dresden. His fervent wish was to determine some better method, and if he had to sacrifice money and prestige, so be it. In Dresden, he did not start his own practice, largely devoting himself to translation work and his favorite study of chemistry.  But he met "venerable Dr. Wagner," the town physician, and formed a lasting friendship - even taking over care of patients at the town hospitals when Dr. Wagner needed a sabbatical due to illness.

Dresden was a more cultured and enlightened city than Gommern. There was an Electoral Library on the first and second stories of a Japanese palace there, which was full of historical and antiquarian works. Hahnemann must have felt that he was back in Hermannstadt as Baron Brukenthal's librarian (see part 1), and he relished his time in Dresden, staying for about five years. It was a time of growth for him - mentally and otherwise. At the start of his time in Dresden, Hahnemann and Johanna had one daughter, and by the time they left, in 1789, they had three daughters and a son. [Dresden is within 20 miles of Meissen, where Hahnemann grew up, so I like to imagine that his parents made periodic trips to see their grandchildren; perhaps he, Johanna, and the children traveled to Meissen for holidays.]

Other friendships that developed in Dresden were with the superintendent of the Electoral Library, John Christopher Adelung,  and with the librarian, Karl Wilhelm Dassdorf. Hahnemann was given free reign at the library, and formed additional friendships with author Blumenbach and chemist Levoisier (who was guillotined during the Reign of Terror in 1794). Needless to say, Hahnemann's thirst for knowledge was deeply satisfied during these years.

Hahnemann completed many translations in Dresden (with accompanying notes and corrections), but he also introduced new concepts based on his understanding of chemistry. For instance, he developed a method for the detection of adulteration in medicines—the Wine Test—which effectively detected dangerous metals in wine manufactured during that time. A writer in the "Journal of Pharmacy" stated that "ignorance of Hahnemann's Wine Test was damning evidence of the incompetence of many apothecaries." At times, he branched away from science. One of his praised translations was The History of the Lives of Abelard and Heloise.  Critics said the translation was "correct and fluent, and of value to romantic history."

Hahnemann also published some books during his time in Dresden. One was Poisoning by Arsenic: Its Treatment and Judicial Investigation, and he was one of the first to suggest that poisonous substances should be kept under lock and key and strictly regulated. He also wrote Instructions Concerning Venereal Diseases, Together with a new Mercurial Preparation, and his new preparation was greatly praised by physicians and chemists. He wrote many journal articles too, and his peers highly respected his ideas and writings. But he by no means wanted to rest on his laurels. In 1789, he moved to Leipzig "in order to be nearer to the fountain of science." In his mind, he still had much work to do.

Next time: Hahnemann explores the fundamental Law of Similars and homeopathy is born.