HAHNEMANN, SAMUEL. 



HALDE, DU. 



261 



each other in affording him every facility in the prosecution of his 

 studies ; and his progress was so rapid, that in a short time he was 

 appointed an assistant teacher. 



Having chusen medicine for his profession, at the commencement of 

 1775 he left the High School of Meissen, and, assisted by the friend- 

 ship of his former teachers, he entered the University of Leipzig, 

 having, as a candidate, written a Latin thesis on the construction of 

 the human hand. 



Being wholly dependent upon his own exertions for subsistence, he 

 supported himself during his residence at Leipzig by giving lessons in 

 German to foreign students and by the translation of English and 

 French medical authors. The professors of the university, in admira- 

 tion of his zeal for knowledge and great acquirements, invited him to 

 attend their lectures gratuitously. Having passed two years in the 

 study of the theory of medicine, and saved a small sum of money, he 

 departed for Vienna, there being no clinical lecturer in the University 

 of Leipzig, and entered himself at the Hospital of Charitable Brothers, 

 with a view to the completion of his studies and to acquiring a practical 

 knowledge of his profession. 



His moderate pecuniary resources were almost exhausted, when his 

 talents and marked attention to his duties gained for him a firm friend 

 in Dr. Quaiin, physician to the emperor of Austria and chief physician 

 to the hospital, through whose recommendation, although he had not 

 yet graduated, Hahnemann obtained the situation of family medical 

 attendant and librarian to Baron von Briickenthal, governor of Sieben- 

 btirgen, then residing at Hermannstadt. He remained here for two 

 years, and being allowed to attend private practice saved a small sum 

 of money ; with this he removed to Erlangen, where, on the 10th of 

 August 1779, he took his degree of M.D.. and produced his thesis 

 'Conspectus Adfcctuum Spasmodicorum Etiologicus et Therapeutieus.' 



In the year 1781 he was appointed district physician at Gomern, 

 near Magdeburg, where he married the daughter of an apothecary 

 named Kohler. Previous to thin he had resided some time at Hettstadt 

 and Dessau, diligently pursuing, in addition to his professional labours, 

 the studies of chemistry and mineralogy. 



In the year 17S4 he removed to Dresden, where he gained a high 

 reputation in the hospitals as a judicious and skilful practitioner, but, 

 truck with the absence of a guiding principle in therapeutics, and 

 the great uncertainty of the healing art, he gradually withdrew him- 

 self as much as possible from practice, and endeavoured to support 

 his family by his old resource of translations of English and French 

 medical authors, pursuing at the same time his favourite study of 

 chemistry. 



During this period he published his pamphlets on Hercurius Sola- 

 bills; on the mode of detecting Adulteration in Wine; on Calcarea 

 Sulpliurati ; and on the Detection of Arsenic in cases of Poisoning: 

 be also contributed many papers to Crell's 'Chemical Annals,' and 

 gave to the world a number of minor medical works, which have since 

 been collected by Dr. Stapf and published under the title of ' Kleinc 

 Schriften,' Dresden and Leipzig, 1829. 



In 1790, while engaged upon the translation of the 'Materia Medica' 

 of Culleu, he was struck with the different explanations given of the 

 mode of operation of Peruvian bark in intermittent fever; and dis- 

 satisfied with them, he determined to try its effects upon himself. 

 Finding that powerful doses of this substance produced symptoms 

 strikingly analogous to those of that form of intermittent fever for 

 which it was an acknowledged specific, he determined to try further 

 experiments with other medicinal substances upon himself and upon 

 some medical friends. He obtained similar results : that is, he pro- 

 duce I by these agents factitious or medicinal disorders resembling the 

 diseases of which they were esteemed curative ; and thus, the first 

 dawn of the law of ' Similia Similibua ' gleamed upon him. In a work 

 ascribed to Hippocrates (lid. Basil, ap. Froben., 1538, p. 72) a similar 

 doctrine was enunciated, and the same doctrine, has since found 

 advocates in many eminent medical writers ; but Hahnemann was the 

 first who assumed it to be the guiding principle in Therapeutics, and 

 supported his position by a series of experiments. Confident that he 

 had discovered the long-sought-for law, he assiduously pursued his 

 proving of medicines, and adopted the new principle in the treatment 

 of bis patients with (according to his own testimony and that of his 

 <li-i;i].le) a success fully commensurate with the limited means then 

 at his disposal. Thus encouraged, he ventured in 1796 to address a 

 paper to Huf eland's 'Journal,' in which he announced his new dis- 

 covery to the medical world, pointed out the defects of the ' Materia 

 Medica' as then constituted, and the necessity of its reconstruction 

 upon the basis of pure experiment ; at the same time he earnestly 

 iuvited the co-operation of his medical brethren. The attention of 

 thn German physicians was then deeply engaged in the investigation 

 of the Brunouiau theory, and Hahnemann' a suggestions were coldly 

 received. 



In 1801 he published a short treatise on the efficacy of Belladonna in 

 tli i r. vtntion and cure of scarlet fever, and affirmed that its curative 

 IT '[..-rties were based upon the homoeopathic law. In 1805 he pub- 

 lished the results of a number of experiments in a work in two volumes, 

 entitled ' Fnigu.enta de Viribus Medicamentorum positivis sive obviis 

 in Corf ore Sano;' and in the same year his ' Medicine of Experience,' 

 in which he still more strongly expresses his objection to the old 

 sjstfin of medicine. In 1810 he brought out his great work, the 



' Organon of the Healing Art,' in which he developed his new system 

 of treating disease; and for the first time gave it the name of 

 ' HomoDopathy,' by which it has since been distinguished. lu 1811 

 the first part of the ' Materia Medica Pura' was published, six volumes 

 of which appeared in succession till it was completed in the year 1821, 

 since which time several other editions have been published. 



In the year 1812 he returned to Leipzig, where he was appointed 

 Magister Legens. To prove his qualifications for this chair, he wrote 

 an excellent treatise on the hellebore of the ancients, ' Dissertatio 

 historico-medica de Helleborismo Veterum.' At Leipzig he had au 

 extensive practice, and was assisted by a great number of friends and 

 pupils in the proving of his medicines. The apothecaries of that city 

 however rose against him, and appealing to an old law long dormant, 

 that forbade a physician to dispense his own prescriptions, they 

 eventually, after some litigation, succeeded in 1820 in obtaining a 

 decision in their favour. Hahnemann, unwilling to risk his own 

 reputation and that of his system upon medicines prepared and dis- 

 pensed by individuals avowedly hostile to his medical tenets, had 

 determined to retire from practice, when the Duke of Anhalt Cothen 

 offered him an asylum in his dominions, with the enjoyment of those 

 privileges of which he had been deprived at Leipzig. It was during 

 his sojourn at Cothen, in the year 1828, that he published in four 

 volumes his work on ' Chronic Diseases, their Peculiar Nature, and 

 Homoeopathic Cure.' Inl82^the disciples and admirers of Hahne- 

 mann caused a bronze medal to be struck to mark their attachment to 

 the new system and their esteem for its founder. It bore on the face 

 the head of Hahnemann, with the inscription, ' Samuel Hahnemann 

 natus Misenoe D.x Aprilis MnccLy. Doctor creat. Erlangoe D.X Augusti 

 MDCCLXXIX.' On the reverse, in the centre, ' Similia Similibus ;' the 

 inscription, ' Medicinse Homoeopathic Auctori, Discipuli, et Amici, D.x 

 Augusti MDCCCXXIX.' His adherents had at this period greatly increased, 

 and he enjoyed a very extensive practice among his own countrymen 

 and foreigners. 



Having been a widower for some years, he married in 1835 a French 

 lady, Melanie de Herville, who had visited Cothen for the benefit of 

 his advice, and at her desire he removed to Paris. In commemoration 

 of his arrival in the French capital, an admirably-executed medal by 

 David was struck in bronze, silver, and gold, bearing on its face the 

 head of Hahnemann. He' remained at Paris in the active exercise of 

 his profession, and surrounded by numerous followers of his system of 

 all nations, till the time of his decease, which took place on the 2nd 

 of July 1843, in the eighty-ninth year of his age. 



HAILES, LORD. [DA.LKTMPLE.] 



HAKLUYT, RICHARD, was born in 1553. Having studied at 

 Christ Church, Oxford, and applied himself particularly to the study 

 of geography, or cosmography, as it was then called, he was made a 

 lecturer on that subject at Oxford. In order to promote the study of 

 his favourite science he published narratives of several voyages and 

 travels, both English and foreign, which he afterwards brought 

 together in his great collection. About 1584 he went to Paris with 

 Sir Edward Stafford, ambassador of Queen Elizabeth to the French 

 court, where he remained five years. On his return to England he 

 was made by Sir Walter Raleigh a member of the company of gentle- 

 men adventurers and merchants of London, for the inhabiting and 

 planting " of our people in Virginia," as appears from his ' Collection 

 of Travels,' edition of 1589, p. 815, which he published in one vol. 

 foL, and which ho afterwards enlarged and published in 3 vols. fol., 

 1599-1600, under the title, ' The Principal Navigations and Discoveries 

 of the English Nation, by Sea or over Land, to the remote and farthest 

 distant quarters of the Earth, at any time within the compass of these 

 1500 year?.' The first volume embraces the discoveries by the English 

 in the north and north-east by sea, towards Lapland, the Straits of 

 Waigatz, Nova Zembla, and towards the mouth of the river Oby, and 

 also travels through the empire of Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Bactria, 

 Tartary, 4c. The second volume contains accounts of the discoveries 

 of the English by sea and land in the southern and south-eastern 

 parts of the globe ; and the third, their discoveries in the new world 

 of America. Hakluyt has inserted many curious documents, such as 

 letters of various sovereigns ; charters and privileges granted by the 

 Czars of Russia, the Sultan, and others, to English merchants ; tables 

 of weights, coins, and distances of different countries, &c. Most of 

 the voyages and discoveries contained in this collection were effected 

 in the 16th century, although a few are of a prior date. A new and 

 improved edition, in 5 vols. 4to, was published in London 1809-12. 

 Hakluyt published also or edited translations of several foreign 

 narratives of travellers, of which a selection has since been made : 

 ' A Selection of curious, rare, and early voyages and histories of inte- 

 rdsting discoveries, chieily published by Hakluyt, or at his suggestion, 

 but not included in his celebrated compilation,' 4to, London, 1812. 

 It contains among others La Brocquiere's ' French Narrative of a Visit 

 to Palestine,' in 1442-43 ; the ' Travels of Louis Vertomanus of Rome 

 to Arabia, Persia, and the East Indies ill 1502 ;' and ' Virginia richly 

 valued by the description of the mainland of Florida, her next 

 neighbour,' from the Spanish of Fernando de Soto. Hakluyt died in 

 1616 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. 



HALDE, DU, born at Paris in 1674, entered the society of the 

 Jesuits, and being distinguished for his information and laboriousness, 

 he was entrusted by his superiors with the care of collecting and 



