About four years after the death of his wife, a most interesting, intelligent and estimable lady, applied to Hahnemann for advice for lung and heart disease. It has been humorously stated that though the lung disease was effectually cured, the trouble of the heart must have assumed a chronic form, for the fascinating Parisienne seemed deeply enamored with the great doctor. She was 35 years of age, the daughter of Louis Jerome Cohier, formerly Minister of Justice and President and Director of the French Republic, her name was Marie Melanie d'Herville Cohier. This lady of position and wealth offered her hand to the octogenarian, which he accepted, and after having divided his considerable fortune among his children, upon which his young wife insisted, he was induced by her to pass the rest of his life in Paris, where he enjoyed a great reputation till his death, which took place July 2nd, 1843. On the centenary of his birthday in 1855, a statute was erected to his memory at Leipzig.
To complete the picture of this great man, I have to cite from a letter written by Dr. Jahr in Paris on the fourth of July 1843, where he says:
"Hahnemann is dead! In fact, dear friends, our venerable father had finished his career. A pulmonary paralysis had set him free, after an illness of six weeks, finally liberating the great soul from its earthly tenement. To the last moment, he was in the possession of his mental faculties. *** In the commencement of that illness he announced that it would be his last, as his body was worn out. At first he prescribed for himself, and nearly to the period of his death delivered his opinion of the remedies offered him by his wife and Dr. Chartran. *** When his wife, on account of a fit of suffocation, said to him, 'Providence ought to exempt you from these sufferings, as you have relieved so many, and endured such numerous persecutions,' he replied, 'Me: why me? Every one works according to the abilities and powers which Providence has bestowed upon him. Superiority or inferiority exists only before the tribunal of men, not before that of Providence. Providence owes nothing to me, but I am indebted to Providence for all.'"
I leave these memorable words, for every one to deduce from them the natural conclusion, and especially as truly illustrative of the character of Hahnemann. The grand old man, at 80 years of age, launched himself upon a new career in the capital of France. In three years we find him making an income of 200,000 francs a year from his professional exertions, and giving gratuitous advice to crowds of the poor.
Year after year his wonderful successes brought him a rapid increase to even this large income. In his 89th year he died and left a fortune of 4,000,000 francs, nearly a million of dollars.
Seldom has a man ended his days in so glorious a sunset, or in a surer hope for the future.
The merit of Hahnemann, and that for which we ought to bless his name and cherish his memory, is his rejection of theory and the establishment of the curative art upon the solid foundation of science. All that was merely speculative he rejected as unsafe, and sought by pure experiment and objective observation, to find out Nature's law of cure. Taking nothing for truth that could not be proved by experiment, he, by careful and untiring observation, obtained from Nature the answer that Similia Similibus Curantur was the law of cure, the only scientific law to heal disease.
This science is not wafted to and fro by the winds of opinion and supposition. It is through its organic unity, as firm and unchanging as Nature itself. In it all medical men must agree, because the reign of supposition has been replaced by that of facts, and all animated by the spirit of progress will work actively and earnestly in promoting science and the art of healing for their own benefit, and that of suffering humanity in general. To get such a science recognized and spread over the world, is undoubtedly a noble problem of the age. Hahnemann also discovered by experiment and pure objective observation, that disease renders the organization wonderfully sensitive to their specific remedies, so that the mere smell of the specific drug can, in many cases effect a cure; and that in all cases, a very small dose of the true remedy is all that is required; so small as to have no effect whatever on the organism in a state of health; and further, that large doses, even of the proper remedy, are not only useless, but hurtful, being calculated to aggravate the disease and endanger vitality.
Time will not permit me to attempt here an elucidation of the principles and doctrines promulgated by Hahnemann; yet I wish to notice briefly some of the results following the introduction of Homœopathy into the medical world. It is now about seventy-five years since Hahnemann made public, and taught this new system of medicine. The bold reformer and his disciples were persecuted, ridiculed and scorned in every manner by the so-called orthodox doctors, who declared their principles so ridiculous and nonsensical, that it would be below the dignity of a scientific man to make himself acquainted with the laws and practice of Homœopathy. But Homœopathy in the theoretical and practical proofs of its universal importance, deserves to be ranked among the most important discoveries of the age, and as one of the most beneficial discoveries that humanity has ever been blessed with.