Drexel University College of Medicine - Medic Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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CHRISTIAN

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REDERICK SAIVIUH HAHNEIVIANN HRISTIAN FREDERICK SAMUEL HAHNEMANN, one of the great figures in medicine, was born in Meissen, Germany, on April 10, 1755. Very early in his schooling he exhibited the brilliance that distinguished him throughout life. His skill as a linguist broadened his knowledge and facilitated his studies at Leipsic. From this school he graduated as a Doctor of Medicine in 1779. His perspicacity early revealed to him the chaotic state of therapy, then prevailing. Complacency in this matter was in- compatible with his disposition and learning. His quest for a solution drove him about Germany practicing Medicine and Psychiatry, experimenting in Chemistry-and in this he had few peers-but always studying, always writing. His work had already disting- uished him as a physician. In 1796 his travail terminated. The principles of homoeopathy were enunciated. He returned to Leipsic to teach Medicine. In the years that followed he elaborated, further applied, and taught his findings. He acquired followers who dis- seminated and modified his teachings yet cleaving to the principles and methods of Hahne- mann. His innovations were not received as manna. Very early the refractoriness of medical men even in his day was apparent. This served only to characterize the spread of his principles with a virile turbulence. With an arduous life behind him rest was vital. This he found for a short time in Paris where he died in 1843. In his bequest to Medicine was a lesson in the urgency for acuity of observation. and a rule of therapy, where for- merly none existed. T. R. COUNIHAN