About the Organon of 1810

Abstract

200 years after its publication, this article reveals a misprint on the title page of the first edition of the Organon der rationellen Heilkunde by Samuel Hahnemann. This error is the connecting thread of this study that focuses on the making of the book, mainly of its title page, in its first edition. While setting the sociohistorical context of its publication, wondering about the sales of the book and the number of copies printed, this article informs readers about the amount still in circulation today, as well as the present value of the work on the rare-book market.

Key words

Organon - Misprint – 1810 Organon title page - Christian Fürchtegott Gellert - Johann Christoph Arnold

1 Most of the elements of this paper are taken from a work as yet unpublished: Fournier, Denis, Le corpus hahnemannien de langue française. Une étude de l'œuvre publique de Samuel Hahnemann, fondateur de l'homéopathie, Montréal.

1 Most of the elements of this paper are taken from a work as yet unpublished: Fournier, Denis, Le corpus hahnemannien de langue française. Une étude de l'œuvre publique de Samuel Hahnemann, fondateur de l'homéopathie, Montréal.

2 Let's keep in mind these documents, in their English titles: Æsculapius in the Balance – that criticizes the medical models; The Medicine of Experience – that leads directly to the Organon; What are poisons? What are Medicines?; Indications of the homeopathic employment of Medicines in ordinary Practice – that directly inspires the introduction of the Organon; Extract from a letter to a Physician of High Standing on the great Necessity of a Regeneration of Medicine; On the Value of the Speculative Systems of Medicine, especially as viewed in connection with the usual methods of practice with which they have been associated.

3 Hahnemann CFS. Organon de l'art rationnel de guérir. First édition published in Dresden in 1810 by Samuel Hahnemann, translated from German into French by Olivier Rabanes. Boiron; 2007.

4 The expression is found in Cure and Prevention of Scarlet-fever – Heilung und Verhütung des Scharlach-Fiebers, Gotha: Becker; 1801.

5 Haehl R. Samuel Hahnemann. Sein Leben und Schaffen. Leipzig: W. Schwabe; 1922, Band I: 81. (Samuel Hahnemann. His Life and Work. New Delhi: B. Jain Publishers; reprint 1992, vol. I: 72).

6 Ibid, 1922, Band I: 104. (1992, vol. I: 95).

7 Schoers FD. Lexikon deutschsprachiger Homöopathen. Stuttgart: Haug; 2006: 49.

8 Stahl M. Der Briefwechsel zwischen Samuel Hahnemann und Clemens Bönninghausen. Heidelberg: Haug; 1997: 150.

9 Schmidt JM. Bibliographie der Schriften Samuel Hahnemanns. Rauenberg: Verlag Franz Siegle; 1989.

10 Haehl, op. cit. 1992, vol. I: 80.

11 www.britannica.com

12 Organon der Heilkunst. Aude sapere; zweite vermehrte Auflage. Dresden: Arnoldischen Buchhandlung; 1819: 10.

13 Hahnemann CFS. Gesammelte kleine Schriften, edited by Josef Maximilian Schmidt and Daniel Kaiser. Heidelberg: Haug; 2001.

14 Schmeer EH. Zur Bibliographie von Hahnemanns Organon. Zeitschrift für klassische Homöopathie 1983; 27: 92–98.

15 Schmeer, op.cit. See also: Jütte R. Samuel Hahnemann. Begründer der Homöopathie. München: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag; 2005: 112.

16 Delon M et al. Dictionnaire européen des Lumières, published by Michel Delon, Presses universitaires de France, 1998; and also Fierro A, Palluel-Guillard A, and Tulard J, Histoire et dictionnaire du Consulat et de l'Empire, Paris: Robert Laffont; 1995.

17 A facsimile, with some words of Jost Künzli (1915–1992), has been made of this unique copy: Organon der rationellen Heilkunde. Faksimile-Ausgabe der 1. Auflage, erschienen 1810, mit den handschriftlichen Änderungen des Verfassers zur 2. Auflage, aus dem Besitz von Marie Melanie Hahnemann d'Hervilly, Stuttgart: Homoion, 1976. However, it has to be noticed that Hahnemann gave his editor some other changes to the first edition that are not in that copy.

18 In 1800, for example, Hahnemann is placed in the middle of controversies he himself created. Twice, in periodicals, he will ask for a prepaid subscription to send, to whom wants it, either a “specific” for the scarlet fever, or the new chemical he had just both discovered. But, in the first case, his way to proceed will raise general outcry from medical doctors and apothecaries. The reproach will be triple: he will be accused of trying to get rich, to keep a remedy secret that could be a possible means of medical care and to offer this medicine as a “secret”, even if it will be judged ineffective! In the second case, the “discovery” will prove to be only borax; jeered at, his explanations will do nothing at all. Again in 1806 and also in 1808, from Torgau, he will have to come back on these issues.

19 Haehl, op. cit., 1922, Band I: 98 (1992, vol. I: 90).

20 The bibliographers that report the Refutation with the attack of Hecker about the Organon of rational medicine (Wiederlegung der Anfälle Hecker's auf das Organon der rationellen Heilkunde, Dresden, Arnold, 1811), agree to assign to Hahnemann the father the 128 pages signed by the son, Friedrich.

21 Haehl, op. cit., 1922, Band II: 97 (1992, vol. II: 93).

22 Haehl, op. cit., 1922, Band I: 107 (1922, vol. I: 98).

23 Hahnemann CFS. Organon of the rational art of healing, translated by CE Wheeler, M. D., London and New York: J. M. Dent and E. P. Dutton; 1913. (“Everyman's Library” Collection edited by Ernest Rhys).

24 Bradford TL. Life and Letters of Hahnemann. B. Jain Publishers; reprint 1992; 82.

25 Haehl, op. cit., 1922, Band II: 117 (1992, vol. II: 112).

26 Treatment of the Typhus of Hospital Fever at present prevailing – Heilart des jetzt herrschenden Nerven- oder Spitalfiebers, Allgemeiner Anzeiger der Deutschen (1814), Gotha: Becker, Bd. 1, Nr. 6, p. 49–54. Some years later, in the introduction of the pathogenesy of Rhus toxicodendron found in his treatise of pure materia medica (vol. 2, 1816), Hahnemann will comment that, in the 183 cases of typhus treated in Leipzig, he did not lose one, “which excited a great sensation among the members of the Russian Government occupying Dresden at that time, but was taken no notice of by the medical authorities”! This shows, in spite of the results, how little value is granted to the man and his method.

27 Tischner R. Geschichte der Homöopathie. 4 volumes, Leipzig: W. Schwabe; 1932 à 1939; 1 volume, Vienne and New York: Springer; 1998: 723.

28 Baur J, Schweitzer W. Ein Buch geht um die Welt. Die kleine Geschichte des Organon des Dr. Ch. F. Samuel Hahnemann. Heidelberg: Haug; 1979.

29 http://www.christies.com/

30 http://www.whonamedit.com/

31 Probably because this Organon was also bound with the Refutation with the attack of Hecker […] already mentioned in the note 20.

32 Reiss & Sohn, Buch- und Kunstantiquariat, Königstein im Taunus; Auktion 109-Medizin, Bücher des 15.–19. Jahrhunderts, 25 October 2006/Auction 112-Medizin, Wertvolle Bücher – Handschriften, 26 April 2007.

33 Haehl, op. cit., 1922, Band I: 162 and II: 179 (1992, vol I: 149 and vol II: 175).