Organon 5th and 6th ed.

From the Book

In this new edition of the Organon the text has been completely revised, in order to make it a still more exact reproduction of the original.

In the Appendix there are given all the more important variations of the previous editions. The author has also indicated the corresponding views as set forth in the Essay on a News Principle and the Medicine of Experience, both of which essays may be regarded as the precursor of the Organon.

The fifth and last edition, published in 1833, contains several novelties, such as the theories of the "vital force" and "the dynamization of medicines."

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Details

The Organon of Medicine - 5th and 6th edition (R. E. Dudgeon, translator), by Samuel Hahnemann, was published in 1970. It is a combination of the revised 5th edition by Dudgeon (1893) and Boericke's 6th edition.

Dudgeon's revision was an effort to make a more exact reproduction of the original. Dudgeon also includes an Appendix wherein he features the important variations of the previous editions. This presents a detailed history of the origin, growth, and progress of the homeopathic system of medicine.

It's an excellent learning process to see the changes in Hahnemann's thinking from the 5th to the 6th edition. This is further facilitated by the side-by-side comparison that the text allows.

Some of the paragraphs were modified, some were re-written completely, and others were eliminated. As opposed to the view that the 6th edition is a late in the life aberration, Dudgeon's work clearly shows the evolutionary development that occurred.

See all editions of the Organon

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Heritage

A combination of the 5th edition by Dudgeon (the 1893 revision) with the 6th edition by Boericke. Essentially, one can see the changes that Hahnemann made to the text of the 5th. An appendix outlines all the changes made from the first edition on.

Julian Winston writes:
A valuable study guide. Of all the published editions, this remains my favorite, since it clearly shows the changes in Hahnemann's thinking as some paragraphs in the fifth edition were modified and others completely re-written.

This edition offers both versions interposed ("This paragraph was completely rewritten in the sixth...").

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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