"Who does this work, is thrice blest."

Who was Samuel Hahnemann?

Hahnemann was a medical reformer, a medical doctor who refused to practice a form a medicine he did not believe, a linguist who spoke 13 languages and earned is living as a translator, father of a new science who live to see his work taken up by the nobility of Scotland and become to toast of Paris in post Napoleonic France.

Scientist, inventor, pharmacist, chemist, physician, father of new medicine, scientific revolutionary, student of chemistry, botany, physics, entomology astronomy, meteorology, geography. He was a pioneer- in mental diseases, in the use of a sterile field for surgery.

Hahnemann studied medicine but was quickly discouraged; never practicing until he perceived what was to be healed. Instead of seeing patients, he earned a living by translating, continued to refine his vision and insight. When he finally discovered the simple fastest way to clear the blocks from the vital force of man, then, and only then, did he set out to administer the healing balm. Then he began to practice, and continued to practice until late into his 88th year, only weeks before his death. Even then, he encouraged his chosen disciple to carry on his work, administering the medicines, as this was the path he perceived to fix the ills of mankind: the ills preventing the body mind/spirit connection from proper growth, the healing which was freedom. 

Samuel Hahnemann was a thinker, a man who integrated many fields of science, who with his brilliant linguistic ability was able to synthesis many diverse fields of thought. He dedicated himself to a life not lived in vain, and to daring to know. He considered himself a reformer in medicine. A medical revolutionary.

         In his youth he was recognized early as a brilliant student, later as a doctor, he chose to work as a translator, instead of practicing medicine because he did not believe in the current medical methods. A linguist who spoke about 13 languages, originator of modern medical research techniques, a German doctor forbidden to practice in his homeland who lived his last and happiest days in the height of Paris society, teaching and healing retaining use of all faculties until his death at the age of 88. The scope of his life work is immense.

         Hahnemann lived a life of poverty, rather than practice the medicine he did not believe in[i].

He the recluse the scholar, the thinker, became in his old age the fashionable physician in the gayest city in the world. He believed that his discovery of homeopathy was a gift from God in trust for the benefit of his fellow man. He proved over ninety different homeopathic medicines and wrote upwards of seventy original works on chemistry and medicine.

The Genius of Hahnemann

         Hahnemann stood at the pivotal intersection in the history of medicine. Because of his linguistic abilities he was able to read from ancient medical works in 13 languages, including Greek roman, and Aramaic.

         Many of his medical ideas were accepted in his time. His work in hygiene was well accepted. Even Goethe wrote that he was following the advice of “the good Dr. Hahnemann." He would go into a room with a person sick from lung disease and suggest that the windows be opened. He advocated walking every day.

Philosophy

Hahnemann was a voracious reader. From the age of 12, he was reading in Greek. He read everything he could get a hold of, in any language. He translated Abelard, the pivotal work in the English language taught in major universities. His view was that of someone who knew the whole history of thought worldwide because he had read it all! His vision was all embracing, because he was able to read in so many languages that he could envision it all.

He was aquatinted with the history of thought from the inception of written thought in Greek, and Latin, and the other ancient languages, including Aramaic, to modern thought in modern languages.

As a child he would hide with his books, so that he would not be interrupted. He was ever the thinker, not an idol philosopher but a practical vision question, searching, integrating, collating the data of the history of insight and the history of thought.

His goal was to find the simplest, quickest, clearest source of healing, for all people. To unlimit the limitations on our psyche, so humankind, freed of limitations, could achieve its potential, Every disease afflicting mankind is a veil between his body and his soul.

Above all he was practical. His goal with his study was to find the simplest cure for "disease." 

Aude sapere

          Hahnemann was not a doctor, looking to fix medical problems. He had not set out to study anatomy and physiology. He had studied medicine, and was quickly discouraged; never practicing until he had perceived what was to be healed. Instead of seeing patients, he chose to continue to study and translate medical works, written treatises from around the world, and from the history of recorded time, continuing to refine his vision and insight. When he finally discovered, the simple fastest way to clear the blocks from the vital force of man, then, and only then, did he set out to administer the healing balm. Then he began to practice, and continued until late into his 88th year, only weeks before his death. Even then, he encouraged his chosen disciple to carry on his work, administering the medicines, as this was the path he perceived to fix the ills of mankind. Not the bodily ills, which had never been his focus. But the ills preventing the body mind spirit connection from proper growth. That is why his work was about the vital force, the healing that was freedom. The way to the truth.

That was why his credo became “Aude Sapere”. Through knowledge we have the path to God. That was his quest, and not the illumination of germs or pain in the body. Aude Sapere. Let in the knowledge of all the recorded wisdom of the past, in all its many languages, and unite it in one simple totality.

Early years

         Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann was born on midnight April 10, 1755 into a family of porcelain painters. Though the civil records are inconclusive about the exact hour of his birth, he has always celebrated it on the 10th. He was baptized by Pastor M. Junghannes on the Sabbath after his birth.

    His father was Christian Gottfried Hahnemann, and his mother Johanna Christiana nee Spiess. The home that Hahnemann was born in was know as "Corner house" because of it's location of the corner of two streets, a fitting place for the beginnings of the life of a man who was to turn to the corner on medical and scientific thought as it was known at that time.

         Porcelain was discovered by Johann Bottger in the early 18th Century. It sprang from a vain attempt by the German princes to attain wealth. Prince Elector August the Strong commissioned Bottger and other alchemists to search for the formula to produce gold. Although the discovery of porcelain was a failed attempt at this ancient quest, porcelain did provide a suitable income for the prince. The art of painting china with gold and pictures became a secret guarded by chemists and artists alike. Even the artists were sworn to secrecy.

         By the time of Sam Hahnemann's birth, the Hahnemann family had been porcelain painters for three generations His grandfather was known in church registers as "Christian Hahnemann, the painter". Before being called to Meissen, in 1743, his father and uncle had lived in Lauchstedt, Germany, and contributed their known artistry to the local art school.

At Meissen school

         Hahnemann was a favorite pupil of Convector Muller at the Prince's school. There, he studied mathematics and botany. At Meissen, he studied Latin, Greek, Hebrew, history, physics and botany, but his favorite was medical science. He graduated in 1775. When Hahnemann graduated from the Prince's school, he presented a dissertation thesis in Latin on "the Wonderful Construction of the Human Hand. He was 20 years old.

Disillusioned

         Hahnemann became disillusioned with medicine and refused to practice, supporting his large family with his translation work. It was this translation work that led him to homeopathy and then to begin practicing medicine once more.

Homeopathy begins

         In 1790, Hahnemann translated Cullen's " Treatise on Materia Medica" and came upon first glimmer of the insight that was to become homeopathy. In writing of Peruvian Bark (cinchona, or china) Hahnemann, in a footnote, describes for the first time the action of " like cures like."

    Hahnemann observes, "Substances which produce some kind of fever (very strong coffee, pepper, arnica, Ignatia bean, arsenic) counteract these types of intermittent fever." He describes his intentional poisoning with the bark, which caused in him all the symptoms of the malaria that it was known to cure. He deduced, " Peruvian bark, which is used as a remedy for intermittent fever, acts because it can produce symptoms similar to those of intermittent fever in healthy people.[ii]

Death and Burial

         Samuel Hahnemann passed away at 5 am on the morning of July 2, 1843. He was buried in Montmartre Cemetery in Paris. A small entourage carried him down the dreary streets of Paris to Montmartre cemetery. The grave he was placed in belonged to Melanie Hahnemann.  When his widow died 30 years later in 1878, she was buried in a plot next to this at Montmartre Cemetery.

         By the year 1896, upkeep for the grave of Hahnemann owed 110 francs ($22) was owed to the city of Paris for care of the grave-site of Hahnemann. Without payment, the grave was to be exhumed. The French authorities could not find the persons responsible for this debt. Thirty francs a year is the cost of annual upkeep and it was suggested by Dr. Platt, a lecturer at Hahnemann college visiting Paris, to write to his colleagues in Philadelphia and suggest their assistance. The faculty of Hahnemann College commissioned Platt to pay the debts, and to restore the grave, and insure that it was in fact the grave of Samuel Hahnemann. After payment of the debt, Hahnemann's grave was then registered as the property of Hahnemann College in Philadelphia.

         At the meeting of the International Congress of Homeopathic physicians in London in 1896, the proposition was presented by Dr. Brazol of Russia about providing a monument at the newly restored grave. But the plot at Montmartre was not suitable, so it was suggested that his remains be moved to Pere Lachaise, the most beautiful cemetery in Paris. It took 2 years for the arrangements to be complete.

         On May 24, 1898, Sam Hahnemann was exhumed and transferred to Pere Lachaise Cemetery, along with the remains of his second wife, Marie Melanie d'Hervilly Gohier Hahnemann. Also buried at Pere Lachaise are Jim Morrison, Collete, Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, Moliere, Chopin, Nijinski, Hector Berlioz, Edgar Degas, Francois Truffaut, Emile Zola and many others.

 Hahnemann’s legacy lives on in the editions of his Organon of the Medical Arts, and the many followers who practice the science and art of homeopathy.

 The brass plaque reads on his grave reads: Non utilis vixit.

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[i] Bradford, pg. 437

[ii] Haelh, pg 38