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Organon of Medicine
Hahnemann, Samuel
Printed in India, paperback, 253 pages
ISBN8170210852Size138 x 218mm
Weight0.49kg
RRP£9.00
Price£9.00
From the cover:
The Organon developed slowly out of Hahnemann's thinking and experimentation... The sixth edition was readied for printing in 1842, but Hahnemann died before it could be printed... [It] appeared in print in Germany in 1921 and in the United States in 1922.
From the introduction:
The sixth edition of the “Organon” as left by Hahnemann ready for publication, was found to be an interleaved copy of the fifth, the last German edition, published in 1833. In his eighty-sixth year, while in active practice in Paris, he completed the thorough revision of it by carefully going over paragraph by paragraph, making changes, erasures, annotations and additions.
Hahnemann himself had apprized several friends of the preparation of another edition of his great work as is evident among other from a letter to Boenninghausen, his most appreciative follower and intimate friend. Writing to him from Paris, he states: “I am at work on the sixth edition of the ‘Organon,’ to which I devote several hours on Sundays and Thursdays, all the other time being required for treatment of patients who come to my rooms.” And to his publisher, Mr. Schaub, in Dusseldorf, he wrote in a letter dated Paris, February 20, 1842: “I have now, after eighteen months of work, finished the sixth edition of my ‘Organon,’ the most nearly perfect of all.” He further expressed the wish to have it printed in the best possible style as regards paper, perfectly new type and in short desired its appearance to be unexceptionally fine as it would most likely be the last. These wishes of the venerable author have been carried out perfectly by the present publishers.
All these annotations, changes, and addition I have carefully translated from the original copy in my possession. Hahnemann made these in his own wonderfully small, clear handwriting, perfectly preserved during all these years and as legible today as when first written. For those extensive parts in which he made no changes whatever, including his long Introduction, I have adopted Dr. Dudgeon’s fine translation of the fifth edition, which has the distinction of perfect English with a remarkable, faithful adherence to the peculiar Hahnemannian style and setting.
The following are some of the more important changes noted in this final edition.
In a long footnote to Paragraph 11 he gives a consideration of the important question: What is dynamic influence – dynamis – and in Paragraphs 22 and 29 will be found his last views on the life principle, which term he uses throughout, preferably to vital force as in former editions.
Paragraphs 52 to 56 have been wholly rewritten and long footnotes are added to Paragraphs 60-74. Again, Paragraph 148 is practically wholly new and concerns itself with the origin of disease, denying a materia peccans, as the prime etiological factor.
Of greatest importance are Paragraphs 246-248 in regard to dosage in the treatment of chronic diseases. He there departs from the single dose and advises repetition of dosage but in different potencies. Paragraphs 269-272 are devoted to technical directions for the preparation of homoeopathic medicines especially according to his latest views.
The vexed question of double remedies other than chemical compounds is fully and definitely settled in Paragraph 273 and all doubts as to the impropriety of, such procedure removed.
Wholly new is the footnote to Paragraph 282 and of greatest importance. Here his treatment of the chronic diseases under psora, syphilis, and sycosis departs absolutely from that advised in former editions. He now advises to commence treatment with large doses of their specific remedies early and, if necessary, several times daily and gradually ascend to higher degrees of dynamization. In the treatment of figwarts, local application is considered necessary with the internal use of the remedy.
The book as now presented is Hahnemann’s last work concerning the principles advanced by him in the first and subsequent editions, illuminated and enlarged by his vast experience in the latter part of his medical career in the treatment of both acute and chronic diseases. Historically, the book in its sixth edition is of greatest interest and importance, completing as it does the marvellous array of Hahnemann’s philosophic insight into the practice of medicine. Hahnemann’s “Organon” is the high water mark of medical philosophy, the practical interpretation of which produces a veritable mountain of light and will guide the physician by means of the Law of Cure to a new world in therapeutics.
This edition is favored with an introduction by Dr. James Krauss, of Boston, the learned and scholarly student of Hahnemann, to whom I herewith desire to express my grateful appreciation for both the introduction and other valuable aid.
WILLIAM BOERICKE.
San Francisco, December, 1921.
About the author:
Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843)
The founder of homeopathy Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann was born in Meissen, Saxony, in Germany on April 10th, 1755. Hahnemann had a natural aptitude for learning languages so that by the age of twenty he had mastered English, French, Italian, Greek and Latin. From this he was able to earn a living as a translator and teacher of languages. Hahnemann later went on to learn Arabic, Syriac, Chaldaic and Hebrew.
In 1775 Hahnemann enrolled at the University of Leipzig to study medicine but early in 1777 he transferred as a medical student to Vienna. Due to lack of finances he was forced to leave his studies. Fortunately he had made an impression on the physician to the Royal Court, Professor von Quarin (1733-1814), so that he was offered and accepted a position to practice for the Governor of Hermannstadt (1721-1803).
Hahnemann's next big change was to move to Dresden in 1784. By this time he had a great unhappiness and frustration with the ineffective and detrimental practices in medicine. He gave up medicine altogether and took up full-time work as a translator. It was through this work that he became noted for his scientific and medical translations.
Hahnemann was to become an increasingly restless spirit, so that in between 1792-1804 he lived in fourteen different towns. During these times something was gestating for the future father of homeopathy. He wrestled internally a great deal finding peace only when the workings of his mind were accomplished.
In 1790 Hahnemann was translating William Cullen's Materia Medica and he questioned some of the author's conclusions on Cinchona. This led Hahnemann to take a dose of the substance and then observe its effects. This was the first proving to be conducted in homeopathy. On noticing that Cinchona produced fever symptoms in himself this prompted Hahnemann towards the breakthrough medical principle of the perennial truth of 'like is cured by like'.
In 1804 Hahnemann's restlessness finally abated and he was to settle in Torgau for seven years. One year later he presented his Fragmenta De Viribus which contained the provings of 27 substances, among which were such currently indispensable homeopathic remedies as: Pulsatila, Ignatia, Aconite, Drosera and Belladonna. It was the fruit of many years spent experimenting on both himself and his family. In 1830 Hahnemann was to lose his first wife. He remarried in 1835 at the age of eighty to Melanie D'Herveilly Gohier, a rich and beautiful young woman.
Hahnemann's ideas on the philosophy and practice of medicine were set down in The Organon. The first edition saw the light of day in 1810 and the sixth and final edition was completed in 1842, however it was not to be published until 1921 with William Boericke as the translator. Hahnemann died in Paris of bronchitis, 2 July 1843.