Organon 6th ed. (Boericke)

From the Book

The sixth edition of the "Organon" as left by Hahnemann ready for publication, was found to be an interleaved copy of the fifth, the last German Edition, published in 1833.

In his eighty-sixth year, while in active practice in Paris, he completed the thorough revision of it by carefully going over paragraph by paragraph, making changes, erasures, annotations and additions.

The book in this sixth edition is of the greatest interest and importance, completing as it does the marvelous array of Hahnemann's philosophic insight into the practice of medicine.

Hahnemann's "Organon" is the high water mark of medical philosophy, the practical interpretation of which produces a veritable mountains of light and will guide the physician by means of the Law of Cure to a new world of therapeutics.

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Details

Samuel Hahnemann finished the 6th edition of the Organon in 1842. He died in 1843 before it could be printed. His wife Melanie kept the manuscript and attempted to have it published but European wars and lack of funds thwarted these efforts.

By the turn of the century the manuscript had passed on to the Boenninghausen family. Dr. Richard Haehl arranged the purchase and Dr. William Boericke and James William Ward paid $1,000 for it at the end of World War 1.

Boericke & Tafel published the first English translation of the 6th ed. Organon in 1922. Working from Dudgeon's 1893 revision of the 5th edition, William Boericke added in all of Hahnemann's newest information. This was not a 'from scratch' translation but it spotlighted the last iteration of Hahnemann's grand work.

Most importantly, the 6th edition introduced the preparation and management of the 50 millesimal potency, Hahnemann's 'perfected method'. Many of our greatest homeopaths such as Hering, Boenninghausen, Kent, etc., had no knowledge of the 6th edition.

This legacy of ignorance still permeates the homeopathic world today but is slowly being eroded through the efforts of David Little, Dr. Luc de Schepper, and others. The 6th edition of the Organon should not be relegated to some bibliographical footnote. Instead, its dissemination to student and practitioner alike would mean a quantum leap forward in homeopathic practice.

See all editions of the Organon

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Heritage

The 6th edition. Not a full re-translation.

William Boericke began with the 5th edition (the Dudgeon 1893 revision), and simply corrected it where Hahnemann had made changes.

The philosophical questions raised by the differences found between the fifth and sixth edition are too complex to be detailed here.

Nevertheless, Hahnemann made a number of changes and proposed a new method of remedy preparation and administration (the fifty millesimal potencies).

The method was unknown to the great practitioners (Hering, Kent, etc.) who followed in his steps. The book was re-published in 1935.

From:
The Heritage of Homoeopathic Literature
copyright 2001 by Julian Winston
Reprinted with the permission of the author

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Author

Dr. Samuel Christian Frederic Hahnemann, M.D.

(1755 - 1843)

Samuel Hahnemann was the founder of Homoeopathy. He established the fundamental principles of the science and art of Homoeopathy.

He is called the Father of Experimental Pharmacology because he was the first physician to prepare medicines in a specialized way; proving them on healthy human beings, to determine how the medicines acted to cure diseases. Before Hahnemann, medicines were given on speculative indications, mainly on the basis of authority without experimental verification.

Hahnemann discovered the remedial powers of drugs and inert substances such as gold, platinum, silica, vegetable charcoal, lycopodium, etc. By preparing the medicines through potentization, these inert and insoluble substances became soluble in alcohol or water and were charged with medicinal force.

Dr. Hahnemann espoused the law of cure known as "Similia Similibus Curentur", or "Like Cures Like". This means that a remedy that produces symptoms in a healthy person will cure those same symptoms when manifested by a person in a diseased state. This law of cure has been verified by millions of homoeopaths all over the world since the time of Hahnemann.

Hahnemann discovered the primary and secondary actions of remedies. The primary action results from the first encounter between the vital force and the external agent, and the secondary action is a result of the vital force's reaction to the symptoms of that primary encounter. This discovery led him to the curative powers of poisonous substances.

Dr. Hahnemann described the different aspects of 'acute' and 'chronic' diseases. Acute diseases are transitory; they have a beginning and an end, whereas the chronic diseases are co-existent with life. Either they are present in a manifest or a latent state. From this work came the chronic miasms of Psora, Syphilis, and Sycosis.

Dr. Hahnemann was the progenitor of several modern medical approaches. Deeming the treatment of insane patients to be cruel and harmful, he advised a humane treatment for the insane. He cured many insane patients with homeopathy, and became famous for this success.

Dr. Hahnemann was quick to recognize poor hygiene as a contributory cause to the spread of disease. His success with cholera and typhoid fever was in part due to this recognition.

Hahnemann also emphasized the importance of nursing, diet, bed rest, and isolation of patients during epidemic diseases. Hahnemann described 'Noxious' principles as the precursors of certain disease states.

Hahnemann's three major publications illumine the development of homeopathy. In the 'Organon of Medicine' (revised six times), we see the fundamentals laid out.

'Materia Medica Pura' records the exact symptoms of the remedy provings. In his book, 'The Chronic Diseases, Their Peculiar Nature and Their Homoeopathic Cure', he showed us how the natural diseases become chronic in nature when suppressed by improper treatment.

Dr. Hahnemann treated thousands of difficult and chronic cases that defied the best care from allopaths all over Europe. Thus, he became so famous that physicians from Europe and America came to him for coaching in the new science and art of healing, called Homoeopathy.

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