Dear Friend and Colleague,
I asked you, in your capacity as President of the Academy in Allentown, for a Doctor’s Diploma of the Homeopathic Medical Science for my dear wife, and you replied to me that the Academy would consider it an honour so to do. But time flies and I have not received any Diploma for her. Therefore, to-day I renew my request, and also add the grounds upon which I must urgently insist upon obtaining same.
My wife was, before our marriage, a celebrated painter and poetess, authoress of works which reaped for her a high standing. After her marriage she showed a lively appreciation of our Science, and I took all pains to instruct her in the same, because I could foresee how helpful she would be to me in my cases, and how much she could contribute to the spread of our Art.
To this, end, however, it was necessary for her to relinquish all attractions and all pleasure by which the Arts—practised by her up to then—had made her life happy. And now see!
She left all this, her former Paradise, to follow me into the lamentable den of the sick, to hear their complaints, to bring them help, and, with me, to fight bad men and pernicious healing methods. She made this sacrifice and gave up all her artistic fame, which she had secured by continuous strained work, a terrible sacrifice, which, notwithstanding her other present fame, even now occasionally stirs her to sorrowful retrospection for which I cannot blame her.
My conscience therefore urges me to give her some compensation for all this. She has now been working with me uninterruptedly for nine years, and see! Her firm, exalted character, her rare medical spirit of inquiry supported by a thorough study of our Science, and a remarkable knowledge of the true medicines in cases of sickness have made her a perfect Homeopath.
She has already alone, without my help, treated 6,000 poor invalids, with a courage and skill that promise her great success. She can now cure people as well as I can.
Therefore I now wish her to have this Diploma. Time passes quickly, and I should like to secure to her this trifle, and with the greater pleasure through your hands, as you have gained so much merit with regard to our Homeopathy.
The cost of the Diploma, also the fees for those persons who have the matter in hand, I shall immediately remit to you in a Bill of Exchange.
During these last nine years I have endeavoured to perfect my book, and in this form the 6th Edition will shortly appear.
Editor’s note:
The honorary diploma asked for by Hahnemann was granted to Madame Hahnemann. The sixth edition of the Organon, mentioned by Hahnemann, has now, thanks to the efforts of Dr. Richard Haehl, been brought to light. We trust that, under Dr. Haehl’s auspices, it will ere long be printed and published for the benefit of an expectant profession.
From The Homoeopathic World # 40. 1905
