Smyrna times., 1867-07-03
NJ l S C ELAN US.
DR.. HAHNEMANN,
The Founder Of Homeopathy.
RY JAMES PARTON

Samuel Christian Frederick Hahnemann was
born in Germany, in 1855 His father was a
porcelain painter in limited circumstances, who,
however gave his son all the advantages of edu-
cation which his native province furnished
The boy was precocious, diligent, serious, and
full of curiosity When his father wished to
take him from school and apprentice him to a
trade, the rector of the academy which he at
tended opposed the scheme, and offered to
support the youth at school if his father would
permit him to embrace learned profession
This offer was accepted, and Hahnemann con-
tinued his studies.
At twenty years of age, he went to the uni |
versity of Leipsic to study medicine. AS the |
! bounty of the schOolmaster ceased when the
student left the academy, and Hahncmann
| had no resources of his own, he was compelled
to gain his livelihood by translating medical
works from English into German. With this
double labor to PERFORM to acquire his
profession and earn his living,-he was COM
PEELED to put forth the most extraordinary ex-
ertions He declares that, for some years he
slept only every other night.
In his twenty-third year. he went to Vienna
! where he was so fortunate as to obtain the
place of physician and librarian to wealthy
! nObleman, and thus, for the first time in his
life, accumulated a little money. He soon,
however, returned to his native place and at
ter many removals. be settled at DRESDEN "a
married man, thirty years of age.
At Dresden he had considerable success as q
physician During the sickness OF the princi-
pal doctor Of the town, he performed the duties
OF physician in-chief to the public hospitals,
and he enjoyed also respectable private prac-
tice Suddenly, to the astonishment Of his
friends and the CONSERVATION of his family, he
abandoned his patients and his rising prospects
at Dresden, and repaired again to Leipslc,
where he lived in solitude employing his time
in study and translation, as of old. The rea-
son of his strange proceeding was his dlssatis-
faction with the practice and theory OF medl-
cine which then prevailed
ut was" wrote he, to one of his friends,
" always a torture to me to walk in darkness
when had to attend the sick. My conscience
bitterly reproached me for treating the un
known diseases of my brethren by medicines
equally unknown, which, being active Substan.
ces, could kill the sick or produce new and
worse diseases. To become thus the murderer
of my fellow beings was for me so frightful anC
so overwhelming, that | renounced medicine.
He now devoted himself to Investigations il
"a chemistry, in which he made some importan
acquisitions, He invented plan Of discovering
authorizations in wine, and Ofdetecting the pres
J, ence of arsenic in the dead body. Recalled t.
w the practice of medicine by the dangerous i'll
ness of his children, he was torInented by tn
necessity in which he found himself, of givin
nd them medicines in which he had lost conf
ut. dence, without having discovered better.
,Ih At this period OF lite he continued to ear
'nns. his livelihood by the translation of Englis
''' works. One day, when he was transating
passage descriptive of the various effects {
Peruvian bark, in its usual form of quinine, b
was struck with the ignorance displayed by th
md writer in his attempts to explain why thi
ses medicine was so eficacious in the cure of fl
ord vers. He perceived that the author knew n
on more of the matter than he did himself.
49,. had occurred to him some time before that pc
sa. haps the best way of studying the effects
J. medicines would be to try them on persons
- good health, and he resolved now to max
such an experiment with quinine. According
ly, he took for several days in succession
. large dose of this powerful medicine as
had been accustomed formerly to prescribe
fac. patients afflicted with intermittent fever. III
effect was truly remarkable the medicil
which cured intermittent fever produced inte
mittent fever. He repeated the experime
D OF upon some of his friends Interested IN medic
are science. and in every case with the same I
suit. He soon began to suspect that quini
cured the fever precisely because it had t
property of producing fever. In 9th
ma words, he began to see afar off the great tu
"3 damental principles of homeopathy, which
that IKE cures like He proceeded to try OF
lred er medicines, and he says that in every ca
ON he found that the medicine which could cur
|. o9 disease could also produce II.
ne6t He next experimental upon the best mo
,sire OF administering medicines WHICH IeoI'Iu
van length, in his adoption of inhnltesslmal dos
He discovered, or thought he discovered IL
Il. infnitessimal doses of active drugs have mt
.,ob effect upon the cure of disease than the qui
q titles usually given. Whether his theory ur
this point is valuable truth or a ridiculC
a fallacy, L am not competent to decide. Eve
III reader is either a bOmeopathist or an al
L. pathist, and has formed his own opinion
d at the subject. For my part never take q
medicine, and should be perfectly willing
u be treated for any disease by compet
nurse. Believing that drugs may be dispe
ed with, and are generally injurious, | Ieio
P in the spread of homeopathy, because
meopathic dose of medicine is the near
I thing to do medicine st al.