Samuel Hahnemann(1755-1843)
Hahnemann grew up in poor circumstances. Thanks to a scholarship, the talented boy was able to attend secondary school. He devoted himself to the writings of Hippocrates and other founders of the medical art. In 1775, Hahnemann began studying medicine in Leipzig, and two years later he moved to the University of Vienna. In 1779 he completed his studies with a doctorate in Erlangen. In 1782, Hahnemann married the pharmacist Johanne Leopoldine Henriette Küchler, with whom they had eleven children. His wife died in 1830. From 1785 to 1789, Hahnemann was responsible for managing the hospitals as deputy of the city physicist in Dresden. In 1789 the family settled in Leipzig. Hahnemann had now retired from practicing medicine to devote himself entirely to writing and translating medical writings.
In 1790, after reading a medical book and conducting a self-experiment with cinchona, he discovered the "rule of similarity" as the principle of action of natural medicines that cause disease symptoms in healthy people that are analogous to those experienced by the sick person for whom they have a healing effect. In self-experimentation, the cinchona bark used against intermittent fever caused the same symptoms of intermittent fever in healthy Hahnemann. The experiment is considered to be the birth of homeopathy, whose principle of action "similia similibus curentur" ("Similar ailments can be cured by similar means") was only published by Hahnemann in 1796 after repeated experiments and observations. Accordingly, the homeopathic medicine is used in low concentrations against the diseases that the remedy would cause in high doses.
He then began practicing as a doctor again in order to further develop the new method. Hahnemann made the discovery that the healing effect of medicines was inversely related to their dilution, which led him to develop another basic principle of homeopathy. In 1801, Hahnemann drew attention to himself with his work "Healing and Prevention of Scarlet Fever". Further writings such as his main work "Organon of Rational Medicine" (1810) and the work "Pure Medicine" (1811) followed. Although Hahnemann's new healing methods caused considerable discontent in the learned medical world, he was able to work as a lecturer in pharmacology at the University of Leipzig from 1811 to 1821.
At the invitation of Prince Ferdinand of Anhalt-Köthen, the family settled in Köthen in 1821, where Hahnemann lived until 1835 and published, among other things, the work "The Chronic Illnesses" (1928). After the death of his first wife (1830), Hahnemann married Melanie d''Hervilly at the beginning of 1835, with whom he settled in Paris. The alternative practitioner opened a thriving practice in the French capital. Between 1841 and 1843, Hahnemann wrote the sixth and final edition of the "Organon", which was only published posthumously with the LM potencies and is now considered a standard work of early homeopathy.
Samuel Hahnemann died on July 2, 1843 in Paris.
In 1790, after reading a medical book and conducting a self-experiment with cinchona, he discovered the "rule of similarity" as the principle of action of natural medicines that cause disease symptoms in healthy people that are analogous to those experienced by the sick person for whom they have a healing effect. In self-experimentation, the cinchona bark used against intermittent fever caused the same symptoms of intermittent fever in healthy Hahnemann. The experiment is considered to be the birth of homeopathy, whose principle of action "similia similibus curentur" ("Similar ailments can be cured by similar means") was only published by Hahnemann in 1796 after repeated experiments and observations. Accordingly, the homeopathic medicine is used in low concentrations against the diseases that the remedy would cause in high doses.
He then began practicing as a doctor again in order to further develop the new method. Hahnemann made the discovery that the healing effect of medicines was inversely related to their dilution, which led him to develop another basic principle of homeopathy. In 1801, Hahnemann drew attention to himself with his work "Healing and Prevention of Scarlet Fever". Further writings such as his main work "Organon of Rational Medicine" (1810) and the work "Pure Medicine" (1811) followed. Although Hahnemann's new healing methods caused considerable discontent in the learned medical world, he was able to work as a lecturer in pharmacology at the University of Leipzig from 1811 to 1821.
At the invitation of Prince Ferdinand of Anhalt-Köthen, the family settled in Köthen in 1821, where Hahnemann lived until 1835 and published, among other things, the work "The Chronic Illnesses" (1928). After the death of his first wife (1830), Hahnemann married Melanie d''Hervilly at the beginning of 1835, with whom he settled in Paris. The alternative practitioner opened a thriving practice in the French capital. Between 1841 and 1843, Hahnemann wrote the sixth and final edition of the "Organon", which was only published posthumously with the LM potencies and is now considered a standard work of early homeopathy.
Samuel Hahnemann died on July 2, 1843 in Paris.