Milestones of Science Books

HAHNEMANN, Samuel.

Organon der rationellen Heilkunde.

Dresden: Arnoldische Buchhandlung, 1810.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #004070

8vo (192 x 115 mm). [2], xlviii, 222, [2] pp., including errata leaf at end. Title-leaf is a cancel as called for, printed on stronger paper. Half brown morocco over contemporary marbled boards, rebacked and recornered, spine with gilt decoration and lettering piece. Even mild browning of text throughout, little occasional spotting; light waterstain to fore-margin of final 6 leaves touching text. Provenance: C. Lessell (ex-libris stamp "Lessellii" to front pastedown), Bibliotheca Bavoroviana Leopoliensis (faded oval ink stamp to title). Very good copy.

RARE FIRST EDITION. 'Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, embodied his theories in the Organon. The minute doses set down by him did much to correct the evils of the polypharmacy of his time, in which overdosage was pervasive. He professed to base medicine on a knowledge of symptoms, regarding investigation of causes of symptoms as useless; he thus rejected all the lessons of pathology and morbid anatomy. There are several English translations, the first of which appeared in 1833' (Garrison-Morton).
"Hahnemann was convinced that minute doses of drugs in greatly attenuated concentrations were efficacious cures. When modern practice is compared with the indiscriminate and massive prescriptions of his own day it will be seen how much closer we are to his views than to those of his contemporaries. Certainly his treatment showed that the vis medicatrix naturae, given a chance, with occasional and gentle assistance, often suffices to effect a cure. He gave great prominence to therapeutics, introduced many new specifics, but ignored the growing science of pathology. In his emphasis on the importance of studying the patient as a whole, he foreshadowed the psychosomatic component of modern medicine." (PMM).
References & bibliography: PMM 265; Norman 964; Lilly Library, Notable Medical Books, p. 163; Garrison-M. 1966; Wellcome III, 191; Waller 3960; Tischner, p. 348, No. 14; Schmidt, Hahnemann 3; Müller, Hahnemann 122. - Visit our website to see more images!

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