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Samuel Christian Hahnemann

© Christine Wyndham-Thomas

The facts relating to Hahnemann's life and the birth of Homeopathy were first highlighted in Anthony Campbell's book 'The Two Faces of Homeopathy' (later re-titled 'Homeomythology').

Samuel Hahnemann was born in Meissen, south east Germany, on the 10th April 1755. He was born very close to the midnight hour, and in the church records his date of birth is shown as being the 10th April 1755; but Hahnemann has always maintained that he was born on the 11th April!

At the age of 20 he entered the University of Leipzig to study medicine. Because he was not happy with their teaching of medicine nor with its practice, he left after a year's study and took up the position of Librarian and Family Practitioner to the Governor of Transylvannia, Baron von Brukenthal at Hermanstaft, who was a Freemason. Hahnemann stayed with the Baron for three years and then left to obtain his Doctorate in Medicine at the University of Erlangen, which he got in 1779.

In 1782 he married Johanna Ruchler, and a year later she gave birth to their first daughter (the first of eleven children). They remained married for 48 years, until she died in 1830.

The years 1789-1799 were very traumatic for the family: two of their daughters were believed to have been murdered, three were divorced, and their son Friedrich suffered poor health - a ricketts-like disease, which left him high chested and caused curvature of the spine. And in 1799 the hostility of the apothecaries and physicians drove the family from Koenigslutter. The carriage in which they were travelling overturned, and one of their daughters broke her leg, and their baby son died of his injuries.

In 1785 he moved to Dresden, where he worked as locum tenens for the Medical Officer of Health. On the death of the incumbent, Hahnemann applied for that position but was unsuccessful - so, once again, he set off on his travels.

In 1789 Hahnemann moved to Leipzig, where he wrote, studied and translated. And it was in 1790, whilst translating the Materia Medica of the Scottish physician, Dr William Cullen, that he came upon the description of the Peruvian bark cinchona (quinine) that was already in use in treating malaria. He experimented taking the substance himself and made a note of its effects; however, it was not until 1796 that he wrote his first essay on Homoeopathy, which was mainly theoretical.

In 1805 Hahnemann settled in Tongau, on the Ebe, where he remained for nearly seven years. Numerous articles appeared by him. The Medicine of Experience appeared in 1806, and was the forerunner to his Organon. The name 'Homoeopathy' did not appear in print until 1807.