16/04/2025
Homeopathy in History...
In 1813, when Napoleon’s Grande Armée retreated from Russia it was estimated that it lost 220,000 men solely to epidemic typhus, which was spread throughout Germany in its retreat. During this epidemic, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, treated 183 such cases in Leipzig without losing a single case, “while the mortality under the ordinary treatment was considerable.” He wrote, “Of 183 patients whom I treated for this affection in Leipzig, I did not lose one, which excited a great sensation among members of the Russian Government then occupying Dresden, but was taken no notice of by the medical authorities.”
Dr. Constantine Hering of Philadelphia wrote, “In 1813, after the battle of Leipzig, the streets were full of dead horses, wounded men suffering thirst and hunger, and an entirely different war typhus broke out. Hahnemann having remained in town, suffering with his large family, his youngest daughter being eleven years old, all the torments, wants, even pure water, now attended the sick, a hospital being entrusted to his care …” Hering said regarding the repercussion of Hahnemann’s success, “His official report to the Russian authorities (governing Saxony at the time) made quite a sensation, and was followed by investigations. In such a manner, homœopathy was introduced to the Russian nobility. Hahnemann’s reports and papers, deposited in Dresden, disappeared after the Russian had left, and Hahnemann’s personal enemies superintented the archives.”
Sources:
*RKD Peterson. Insects, disease and military history. American Entomologist 1995; Fall: 147-160.
*Samuel Hahnemann. Materia Medica Pura. Vol. 2. Liverpool : The Hahnemann Publishing Society, 1881, 401.
*William Burt. Physiological Materia Medica. Chicago : Gross & Delbridge, 1881 : 788.
*Samuel Hahnemann. The Lesser Writings of Samuel Hahnemann. Compiled and Edited by Robert E. Dudgeon. London : W. Headland, 1851 : 635.
*Constantine Hering. How to treat prevailling diseases. A historical review. North American Journal of Homœopathy 1872; 21 : 308-309.