Dr.Hahnemann is a translator, well versed in seven languages, had contributed many articles, books and other findings. After inspiring the principles in 1790 and declaring the discovery in 1796, he had contributed his major works to Homoeopathy. The Homoeopathic principles, guidelines, application in practice are outlined in Organon of Medicine. “Materia Medica pura “ the proving recorder was contributed along with it. The “Theory on chronic disease” was contributed to the world to understand the miasms in depth. He also contributed his lesser writings.

Organon of Medicine

     The instrument of thought and method of scientific investigation was contributed by Dr.Samuel Hahnemann as “ Organon of Medicine” in six editions. The five editions were published during his lifetime and the sixth edition was published after his death. Hahnemann presented these editions in his own language German and translated to English by many physicians. The fifth edition is so popular, translated by R.E.Dudgeon. Dr.William Boericke translated the sixth edition.

    Besides this great contribution Dr.Hahnemann has contributed to the medical community by his lesser writings on different topics, articles, essays and thesis.

     The sixth edition of the Organon has had a clouded history. Hahnemann published the fifth edition in 1833, which was translated into English by Dudgeon in 1849, six years after Hahnemann’s death. This was the last edition of Hahnemann’s work available in any part of the world until 1921. Hahnemann’s closest associates knew through personal correspondence that he was working on a 6th edition at the end of his life. Initially written in French, it remained unpublished, and subsequently disappeared without a trace. He then wrote a sixth edition in German, but did not publish it. His widow admitted to possessing it and getting it ready for publication, but she kept it unpublished for unknown reasons, and it passed to the Boenninghausen family at her death.

     The Boenninghausens guarded it “almost as a sacred relic” and would let no one even see it, according to Dr. Richard Haehl, a German homoeopath and biographer of Hahnemann. In this way the homoeopathic world was denied any knowledge of the sixth edition for nearly 80 years after its writing. On a visit to Haehl in 1891, Dr. James Ward and Dr. William Boericke, having read allusions to Hahnemann’s later correspondence of his being at work on a 6th edition, inquired about the work, and when Haehl told them of its possession by the Boenninghausens, they offered to purchase it.

     Twenty-nine years later the Boenninghausens, ruined by World War 1, accepted their offer and in 1920 gave up the manuscript to Haehl, acting as intermediary. Haehl apparently kept if for some time, then had it delivered to Dr. Boericke. The manuscript, which is now in the library of University of California San Francisco, is a printed German fifth edition with handwritten additions and corrections neatly placed in the margins.