Dr. Constantine Hering was born on 1st January
1800 at Oschath in Saxony. He is respectfully considered to
be one of the founders of Homoeopathy in America. At the age
of 17 years he became interested in Medicine and joined the
University of Leipzig, where he became the favorite pupil of
Dr.Henrich Robbi, an eminent senior Surgeon who used to criticize
Dr. Hahnemann and ridicule Homoeopathy.
Dr. Hering
In 1821 Dr. Hering was asked to write a book against Homoeopathy
which could finish the system. Dr. Hering was greatly pleased
with this mark of confidence and nearly finished that work in
1822. But when he was going through the writings of Hahnemann,
he came across famous “Not a bene for my reviewers”
in the preface of third volume of first edition of Materia Medica
Pura. The content had following points:
“The
doctrine appeals not only chiefly, but solely to the verdict
of experience.”
“Repeat
the experiments, repeat them carefully and accurately and you
will find the doctrine confirmed at every step.”
“It
does what no medical doctrine, no system of physics, not so-called
therapeutics did or could do, it insists upon being judged by
the results.”
As Hering was an ardent student of science, he wanted to confirm
the remarks made by Hahnemann and he repeated the Cinchona experiment.
In winter of 1824, Dr. Hering received a cut in his forefinger
of right hand while dissecting a dead body. The wound became
gangrenous and the modern medicines could not help him and he
was advised amputation. However, Dr. Kummer persuaded him to
take homoeopathy and with a few doses of Arsenicum-album, his
gangrene completely healed. Since then, Dr. Hering never looked
back and his journey in Homoeopathy could get a new and strong
direction.
Dr. Hering’s major contributions for Homoeopathy:
The Homoeopathic
Domestic Physician
Ten volumes
of ‘Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica’ and
many other books
Analytical
Repertory of the Symptoms of Mind
Condensed
Materia Medica
Proved
72 drugs, the most important of them are – Lachesis, Cantharis,
Colchicum, Iodum, Mezerium, Sabadilla, Sabina, Psorinum, Nux
mosch., Crotalus, etc.,
He enunciated
the Law of Direction of Cure popularly known as “Hering’s
Law of Cure”.
Dr. Hering
was the Chief Editor of ‘North American Homoeopathic Journal’,
‘The Homoeopathic journal of Materia Medica’ and
‘The Homoeopathic News’.
He introduced
Hering’s Law of Cure that is employed by practitioners
even today to assess their cures.
Hering began his medical journey as an orthodox medical practitioner
but later in life, excelled as a homoeopath by his own experimentation
and hard work. His journey ended on his demise in 1880, but
he will remain immortal because of his vast invaluable contributions
to the homoeopathic fraternity.
