Hahnemann Case Books
Hahnemann Case Books
Hahnemann Case Books
Peter Morrel is a Homoeopathic historian from Northern England and have done extensive
research on Homoeopathic history which are well acclaimed.
Allen College is obliged to the Journal "Similia" and "The Australian Homeopathic
Association" for giving us the opportunity to publish this article for our readers, thank you.
I would request my readers to observe that towards the end of the article, under section:
"Strange, Rare and Peculiar Remedies", Hahnemann used different small/ herbal/
organopathic medicines.
Readers are familiar to Subrata's approach of prescribing Organapthic Medicnes in this drug
dependant world.
In aphorism §91 of Organon, Hahnemann clearly mentions prescribing for natural disease
and not for conjoint disease (where the drug induced artificial chronic disease is super-
imposed on natural disease and patient cannot give us a clear picture e.g. modalities,
sensation or characters of pain etc.). For example, in a pain-killer dependant igraine case,
you ask the patient about the character of the pain (e.g. whether it is stitching, tearing,
throbbing, dull aching, bursting, numbness, fullness etc) or you ask the modalities (e.g. if
the pain is better by cold or warm application; how about the open air, warm room etc.) and
the patient replies, 'whenever I have the pain, I take the pain killer; so I don't know!'
Therefore, you cannot frame an un-contaminated picture of the disease, as you are unable to
complete the symptoms with sensations, modalities and characteristics in order to prescribe
your powerful polychrest.
So in pain killer dependent Migraine cases, the following medicines can be selected on the
basis of few available symptoms, e.g., Acetanilidum, Amyl. nit., Anagyris, Coccinella,
Epiphegus, Melilotus, Menispernum, Menynanthes, Oleum Animale, Onosmodium,
Scutellaria, Usnea Barbata, Yucca Filamentosa etc. Accordingly the conventional allopathic
pain killer may be gradually withdrawn and after approximately 50% weaning off of the
conventional medicine, suppressed symptoms surfaces and now the patient can give much
clearer modalities.
For details:
https://www.homoeopathy-course.com/about-us/our-prescribing
Thank you,
Peter Morrell
Abstract
Having recently bought a range of Hahnemann’s transcribed Casebooks (2), I realise what a treasure they have turned out to be!
This article gives the reader an introduction to what the Casebooks contain and what their contents reveal about Hahnemann’s
methods, his consultation style, prescribing habits and thus some insights into his ideas and his reasoning. In addition, of
course, one can also see how these methods and ideas change and evolve across the entire span of his medical career. This
article serves merely as a brief introduction to the Casebooks, and in a future article, I intend to explore in more detail further
aspects of Hahnemann’s cases and methods.
summary Percent
Year KJ 7c or less 9c to 18c 24c to 30c >30c
1817-18 D16 98 2 0 0
1819-20 D19 96 4 0 0
1830 D34 84 15 1 0
1833-5 D38 5 11.8 82.5 0.7
1836-42 DF2 2 11.8 85 1.2
1838-41 DF5 1.7 10.8 80.6 6.3
We might interpret this in relation to his growing con idence
potency summary (%) by casebook and year
in prescribing and perhaps also to the growing con idence
Journal D16 D19 D22 D34 D38 DF2 DF5
patients had in him as a doctor. It may also re lect the af luence
1817- 1819- 1820- 1833- 1836- 1836- of some of his clients who presumably were inancially able to
Years 18 20 21 1830 5 42 42 undertake repeat consultations. One imagines, for example, that
potency Leipzig Coethen Paris such repeat consultations would not have occurred if con idence
1x 2.3 0.9 1.1
in Hahnemann as a doctor had been low or if patients were
1c 4 1.1 0.35
inancially unable to make them. One also imagines that patients
2c 7.1 0.47 0.09
who returned for several consultations must have been drawing
3c 1.7 1.3 2.5 48.1 0.13 0.28
6c 4 5.2 4.6 32.6 9.22 1.92 1.30
some bene it from each appointment. Otherwise, it seems hardly
13x 7.1 3.3 4.6
likely that they would keep going back repeatedly. Some patients,
7c 61.3 79.4 75.4 5.6 even in the early days, saw him 40 or 50 times in the same year.
9c 9.9 0.13 0.38 Clearly these patients must have done so for valid medical reasons
12c 2.2 10.1 3.33 4.11 while also drawing some bene it from seeing him. It is hardly
15c 0.16 0.38 1.96 likely that such patients would keep going back to see him if they
18c 0.05 15.1 7.56 4.67 had no con idence in his medical skills or if they derived no bene it
21c 1.02 0.65 from seeing him.
24c 0.05 1.25 23.08 21.51
27c 0.26 0 His Consultation Style
30c 1.12 64.1 60.77 59.12
32c 0.13 When reading through several of the casebooks one cannot fail to
80-100c 1.30 be struck by the layout that he uses for almost every case. They
100- each follow a certain predictable pattern. He lists the date, name,
189c 0.46
190- age and town of origin followed by notes about the problem the
200c 1.03 4.49 patient is consulting him about. Almost anywhere in the text
remedy names appear, perhaps singly, sometimes several in a
These data show a clear trend in which Hahnemann shifts from a chain, either directly at the end of the text, in a line of their own, or
heavy reliance on the lower potencies (1c to7c) in 1816-17 and in brackets after a few words. Towards the end of the text a speci ic
1819-20, towards greater use of potencies 3c, 6c, 9c and 12c in remedy appears often with the potency given. That is the general
1830, and inally to a pattern of prescribing based mainly around layout but there are many variations of it.
30c, 18c and 24c in his Paris period. The shift seems to have In some cases, the remedy name will appear at the top or halfway
occurred in the mid-1820s. In the Paris period, he also uses some
down and at other times no remedy names appear at all, there being
unusual higher potencies like 65c, 85c, 167c, 195c, etc; there are
instead references to north or south magnet and ‘mesmerismus’
no LM potencies in DF2 and DF5, but they do appear in some of or ‘elektricitas’. His practice of mesmerism seems to have been
the later Paris Casebooks. Not shown here but also visible in the
especially common during the Leipzig period (1811-21). One
Paris Casebooks, is his tendency to use descending potencies like
wonders on what criteria he based a decision to use mesmerism
30c followed by 24c, then followed by 18c. This pattern occursor magnets on a patient rather than homœopathic remedies. In
quite often in the Paris Casebooks but is not found in the earlier
some cases several remedies will appear, often with dates in the
patient journals. recent past when they were given. In some cases two or three
remedies are listed with no indication if they were all given or in
Trends what potency or dosage. There is usually an indication of several
Some patterns emerge from the data. For example, by comparing packets of placebo (sac lac) also given to the patient. Sometimes
the number of patients seen per year and the number of
10. K Schreiber, Samuel Hahnemann in Leipzig, Stuttgart: Haug, 2002, 34. Wood, 2017, p.479
pp.202-266 35. T Bartram, Bartram’s Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine, Hachette UK,
11. T L Bradford, The Life and Letters of Hahnemann, Philadelphia: Boericke 2013
& Tafel, 1895, pp.537-8; Materia Medica Pura, Dresden: Arnold. 6 vols. 36. John H Clarke, The Life & Work of Dr. Burnett, London: Homoeopathic
Vol. 1 1811 ; vol. 2, 1816 ; vol. 3, 1817 ; vol. 4, 1818 ; vol. 5, 1819 ; vol. Publishing Co., 1904
6, 1821.
37. Dr Schwa, Hahnemann’s Krankenjournale Nr. 2 u. 3 by H Henne,
12. These include the following: Dissertation on the Helleborism of the Buchbesprechungen (Book review), Allgemeine Homöopathische
Ancients. Leipsic. Tauchnitz. Thesis to the Faculty at Leipsic. 1812, also Zeitung (1963), 208 (11): p.655
in Lesser Writings.; Spirit of the homoeopathic doctrine of medicine. In
Allgemeine Anzeiger, March, 1813. Vol. 2 of Materia Medica Pura. Lesser Other Works Consulted
Writings. As a pamphlet in New York by Hans Birch Gram in 1825. Trans.
by Ad. Lippe in 1878, and published in The Organon, a journal. Hom. R E Dudgeon, The Lesser Writings of Samuel Hahnemann, New York:
Exam., Oct., 1840. Also trans. by G. M. Scott, London, Glasgow. 1838. Trans. William Radde, 1852
by Lund into Danish.; Treatment of typhus & fever at present prevailing. Samuel Hahnemann, The Organon of Medicine, combined 5th/6th
Allgemeine Anzeiger, No. 6. 1814, Lesser Writings.; Venereal disease Edition, translated by R.E. Dudgeon, and edited by William Boericke,
and its improper treatment. Allgemeine Anzeiger, No. 211. 1814, Lesser Philadelphia: Boericke & Tafel, 1893
Writings.; Treatment of burns. 1816; Answer to Dr. Dzondi. In Allgemeine
Peter Morrell, A Guide to Hahnemann’s Translations, published online,
Anzeiger, Nos.. -156, 204. 1816, Lesser Writings.; On uncharitableness
1998
to suicides. Allgemeine Anzeiger, No. 144, 1819. Lesser Writings.; On the
preparation and dispensing of medicines by homoeopathic physicians. http://www.homeoint.org/morrell/articles/pm_trans.htm
1820, irst published in Stapf’s Lesser Writings of Hahnemann. Also
in Dudgeon’s Lesser Writings.; 1821. Treatment of purpura miliaris. Peter Morrell graduated in Zoology at Leeds
Allgemeine Anzeiger, No. 26. 1821, and in Lesser Writings. University (UK), has taught Biology for many
13. Kathrin Schreiber, Samuel Hahnemann in Leipzig, Stuttgart: Haug, 2002, years and was a part-time homœopath
p.159 throughout the 1980s. He completed an MPhil
thesis on the history of British homœopathy in
14. See note 8
1998 and has written many articles on the history
15. Schreiber, p.156 of homœopathy and the life of Hahnemann since
16. Bradford, op cit, pp.66-69 the mid-1990s, which have been published in the USA, the UK, Sweden, Brazil,
Italy, Romania, and Australia. Apart from writing, he teaches Biology on a
17. Bradford, pp.56-7 part-time basis at three colleges in Central England. Peter was Guest Editor
18. Bradford, p.124 of issue 1 of Homœopathic Links published in March 2016.
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