|
| |||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
Forums
Courses
Shop
Diseases
Articles
Journal
Directory|
|
||||
Homeopathic Biographies |
||||
|
|
||||
Samuel Hahnemann(10th April 1755 - 2nd July 1842) -- R. E. Dudgeon, M. D. |
 |
|||
|
As
to his religious principles, Hahnemann was brought up in the Lutheran
persuasion, but he could not be said to have adopted the tenets
of that or any other sect of Christians. His principle, as we gather
them from his works were nearly these:- He believed in the ruling
providence of an all-good and all-bountiful God, and he held that
every man was bound to his utmost to benefit each was endowed. He
traced every good thing to the hand of the almighty and beneficent
God, to whom he always gave all the glory for all the good he was
enabled to confer on his brethren or mankind, and denied to himself
any merit for what he had done. "One
word more," he says writing to Stapt in 1816, " be as sparing as
possible with your praises. I do not like them. I feel that I am
only an honest, straightforward man, who does no more than his duty." Again,
in his famous letter to Hufeland, he writes. "If experience should
show you that my method is the best, them make use of it for the
benefit of humanity and give God glory!" Here
is a striking sentence indicative if his sense of the high dignity
of our profession. He is alluding to his discovery of the prophylactic
for scarlet fever: " The furtherance of every means, be it ever
so small, that can save human life, that can bring health and security,
(a God of love invented this blessed and most wondrous of arts’)
should be a sacred object to the true physician; chance or the labour
of a physician has discovered this one. Away then, with all groveling
passion at the altar of this sublime Godhead, whose priests we are!" Here
his emotion the character of the offices of doctor and sick nurse
in the time of plague and pestilence. They are, he writes, " two
persons ordained by God, and placed, like Uriah in the battle, in
the thickest of the light-forlorn hopes quite close to the advancing
enemy, without any hours of relief from their irksome guard-two
very much misunderstood beings who sacrifice themselves at hard
earned wages for the public weal, and in order to obtain a civic
crown, brave the life-destroying, poisoned atmosphere, deafened
by the cries of agony and the groans of death." There
is not a work of Hahnemann’s which is not pervaded by the spirit
of reverence for the Deity, whose humble instrument he feels himself
to be, and love for his fellow-creatures, with which his truly benevolent
heart overflows; "Oh, that it were mine!" he exclaims, after an
examination of all the futile system that had been proposed and
adopted for the cure of diseases- "oh, that it were mine to direct
the better portion of the medical world, who can feel for the sufferings
of our brethren of mankind and long to know how to relieve them,
to those purer principles which lead directly to the desired goal!
Infamy be the award of history to him who, by deceit and fiction,
maims this art of ours, which is intended to succor the wretched!
All compensating divine self approval, and an unfading civic crown
to him who helps to make our art more beneficial to mankind!" This
he said in 1808, when the great truth was gradually developing itself
under his hands. After thirty years spent in laboriously working
out his system, and practically demonstrating that his were indeed
those purer principles whereby the case of diseases was most easily
and safely effected, he was able to make this solemn declaration:- "My
conscience is clear: it bears me witness that I have ever sought
the welfare of suffering humanity, that I have always done and taught
what seemed to best, and that I have never had recourse to any allopathic
procedures to comply with the wishes of my patients, and to prevent
them leaving me. I love my fellow creatures and the repose of my
conscience too much to act in that manner. Those who follow my example
will be, able as I am, on the verge of the grave to wait the tranquility
and confidence till the time comes when they must lay down their
head in the bosom of the earth, and render up their soul to a God
whose omnipotence must strike terror into the heart of thwacked!" The
abnegation of all merit to himself for his many and irksome labours
to perfect his art, and the humble acknowledgment of his gratitude
and reliance on God, are strikingly shown in his memorable words
upon his death-bed, the last utterance of which we have any record.
Whilst suffering much from the pain and difficulty of breathing
that attended his last illness, his wife said him. "As you in your
laborious life and alleviated the sufferings of so many, and have
yourself endured so much, surely Providence owes you a remission
of all your sufferings." To which the dying sage replied, "My! And
why me! Man here below works according to the gifts and strength
Providence has given him, and it is only before the fallible tribunal
of man that degrees of merit are acknowledged, not to before that
of God: God owes me nothing, but Him much-yes, everything." Of
all historical characters Hahnemann most nearly resembles the great
religious reformer of the sixteenth century, Luther to whom he was
found of comparing himself. We find in both the same energy and
perseverance, the same dauntless proclamation of the truth, how-ever
disagreeable to constituted authorities, the same unflinching courage
under the most annoying and wearing-out persecutions, the same cutting
sarcasm and power of caricature when stung into retaliation by the
machinations of their enemies, and the same constant trusting Providence
and assurance of the ultimate triumph of their principles. I cannot
forbear quoting a passage from a letter of Hahnemann’s that shoes
at once his independence of all extraneous aid for the spread of
his doctrines, and his confidence of their eventual general adoption:- "Our
art," says he," needs no political leave, no worldly badges of honour,
in order to become something. Amid all the rank and unsightly weeds
that flourish round about it, it grows gradually from a small acorn
to a slender tree, already its lofty summit overtops the rank vegetation
around it. Only have patience? It strikes its roots deep underground,
gains strength imperceptibly, but all the more certainly, and in
due time it will grow up to a lofty God’s oak, stretching its great
arms, that no longer bend to the storm far away into all will be
refreshed under its beneficent shadow?" In
its effects upon the established school of traditional medicine,
the reformation of Hahnemann strongly resembles that of Luther on
the Roman Catholic Church. Abused, vilified, persecuted, the young
medical school has gone on gathering strength and securing the support
of man distinguished for their learning and rank, until at length
it has become a formidable rival to the antiquated system, which
it threatens every day to extinguish. As Lather’s reformation sapped
the foundation of the Roman hierarchy, so Hahnemann’s which it will
than shaken the stability of the temple of Hippocrates, which it
will eventually overthrow completely, and more effectually than
Luther did the ancient Church, for experimental science is more
sweeping in its effects than theological, and never rests until
pillar of error is overthrown. As the Reformation had its pretenders
and its fanatics, so has Homoeopathy its charlatans and its bigots;
but as the impartial historian will not confound the error and delusions
of the erratic religionists with the Reformation, so may we hope
that the extravagant fancies and theories that have arisen out of
Homoeopathy may not be confounded with the real spirit of Hahnemann’s
great medical reform. Almost every great truth has its unworthy
adherents, who like the parasitical plant, trifle and disfigure
that whereto they cling and whereby alone they exist but as the
great oak survives and remains erect the monarch of the forest,
long after generations of those inferior creatures to which it gave
support have withered away and crumbled into dust, so the truth
that Hahnemann revealed will outlive the memory of its unworthy
parasites, and emerge from their unwholesome embrace a stately tree,
a beacon of hope and a source of health and happiness to hundreds
of unborn generations of suffering mankind. Whilst
pointing out the peculiarities in the life and character of Hahnemann
which we may presume to have exercised an influence upon his doctrines
and practice, I think the sketch I have given will suffice to show,
from the whole course of Hahnemann’s life, from the magnanimity
and fortitude with which he endured poverty in order to pursue the
one great aim of his existence, from the sacrifices he made for
the cause of truth, and from the devotion with which he subjected
himself for a long series of years to the most unpleasant and hazardous
experiments, for the purpose of perfecting his system, that its
author was formed to the stuff that the world’s worthies are made
of, and that if heroic constancy, amid the most discouraging circumstances
to one grand aim-that of benefiting humanity-constitutes a hero,
Hahnemann eminently deserves to rank with the greatest of them,
and the system originated by such a man merits the attention and
study of all who are occupied with the cure of disease. When the passions and prejudices engendered in the atmosphere of controversy shall have subsided, can we, who know the excellence of his system, doubt that the judgment of an impartial posterity will reverse the condemnation of the packed jury of prejudiced contemporaries, and award a niche in the temple of Fame, among the greatest of the world’s heroes and benefactors, to the father Rational Physic SAMUEL HAHNEMANN? * *Introductory
lecture delivered by Dr. Dudgeon at Hahnemann, Hospital London during
the sessions 1852-53. |
||||
| <-- Previous -- | ||||
|
||||
