RSS 2.0 Feed
April 2006. The Phoenix Rises: How Homeopathy Continues to Survive & Thrive (Vol. 11, #1)
Gleanings from the Archives of Library Homoeopathia
Doctor A. O. H. Hardenstein. He was Samuel Hahnemann’s student. Some twenty years later, he became the only homoeopathic physician to have known and studied with Hahnemann and to have practiced medicine in California.
Hahnemann’s Student Goes West!
He was Samuel Hahnemann’s student. Some twenty years later, he became the only homoeopathic physician to have known and studied with Hahnemann and to have practiced medicine in California.
The student was Doctor A. O. H. Hardenstein. Hardenstein arrived in California in 1849; the same year that Dr. Benjamin Ober arrived. Ober, however, has the designation of being the first homoeopathic physician in California.
Once Hardenstein set up his practice, he began treating many patients showing symptoms of an “intermittent character.” In his correspondence, he noted that a good part of his “practice was treating patients with Cholera,” and this was documented in a letter to Dr. Constantine Hering in 1851.
Hering considered Hardenstein’s letter important enough to publish in his (Hering’s) journal. Hardenstein’s letter to Hering became the first published and recorded mention of homoeopathic therapeutics and outcomes from a California practitioner.
Before we review his letter to Hering, a brief history of how Dr. Hardenstein found his way to Hahnemann and homoeopathy is in King’s “History of Homeopathy,” Vol. # 1. Dr. Thomas L. Bradford mentions that, “Hardenstein was a native of Greece, but was educated in Germany, receiving his medical diploma at the University of Berlin. In 1828, his duties took him into Russia to study the treatment of cholera, and an investigation of allopathy as applied to this disease proved that more than seventy-five percent of the cases proved fatal. While in Russia, he was led to investigate homoeopathy by observing the cures wrought by the wife of a missionary, who had been a pupil of Hahnemann.” On Hardenstein’s return to Prussia, “he also became a student of Hahnemann and adopted his system.” Hardenstein’s letter to Hering can be found in The North American Homoeopathic Journal, Volume 1.
I have clipped the first part of this letter as follows: Homoeopathy in California. – (Extract of a letter from Dr. Hardenstein to Dr. Hering, dated Sacramento City, April 26, 1851.)
“Diseases here are all of an intermittent character, which corresponds to the low, marshy kind of land. The most successful remedies are chin. 3.30, ars. 3.30, quinine. 1.3, rhus-tox. 12.30, hep. 3, ign. 12, calc. 30, 50, ipec. 30, nux. 30, in intermittents. In diarrheas merc. s.3, merc-cor. 3, 6, chin. 30 ars. 30, oleand 12, rhus. 12, bry. 12.
“Gastrises yield mostly to puls., nux, ipec., scurvy to ars., lach., natrmur. Anasarca is frequently connected with scorbutus.
“Cholera has been here in a terrible form. I saw the first cases in Russia in 1828 and have been well acquainted with it since; it was more fatal here in the hands of allopathic physicians than anywhere; they lost 19 out of 20. In fact I never saw a case of true Asiatic Cholera recover where opium had been administered. Veratrum controlled all symptoms, in some cases instantly; cuprum was seldom required; cham. several times, in cases of adults and males, acted admirably. One case, indicating cham., was obstinate, but cham. and silic. brought on the suppressed habitual sweat of the feet and the patient recovered. Jatropha acted energetically in several cases, and sulph. 200 was followed by an aggravation in the case of a lady but proved curative. Out of 120 cases I lost 5, and among them a son of Dr. S. G., of Boston. A host of cases of Cholerina yielded easily to ac-phos., ipec., nux, ars., and merc. A great many of the fatal dysenteries here are nothing more than haemorrhoidal dysenteries, if I may so call them, caused by colocynth pills and other drastics.”
A few years later, Hardenstein left California and we find him in Ohio in 1857. In 1858, he moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi. It was in the Mississippi Valley where he finally settled and made good use of his many years of treating epidemics and plague.
In 1879, Hardenstein co-authored with his son, Ernest, his only published, work; “The Epidemic of 1878 and its Homoeopathic Treatment;” A General History of the Origin, Progress, and End of the Plague in the Mississippi Valley. by Ernest Hardenstein, Vicksburg, Miss. To this is added, “A Treatise on the Disease,” by A. O. H. Hardenstein, and other valuable papers and statistics from the most reliable sources. New Orleans. J. S. Rivers. 1879. 105 pp.
Hardenstein died in Vicksburg, Mississippi the year following the publication of this work. He was 73 years old.
References from Library Homoeopathia
1851: The North American Homoeopathic Journal. Editors: Constantine Hering, E. E. Marcy, J. W. Metcalf. Vol. #1. Wm. Radde. NY. Pages 405-406.
1873: Cleave’s Biographical Cyclopedia of Homoeopathic Physicians and Surgeons. Egbert Cleave. Galaxy Publishing. Phila. Page 495.
1879: The Epidemic of 1878 and its Homoeopathic Treatment. Ernest Hardenstein. To this is added, A Treatise on the Disease. A. O. H. Hardenstein. Rivers. New Orleans. 105 pp.
1892: Homoeopathic Bibliography of the United States, from the Year 1825 to the Year 1891, Inclusive. Thomas Lindsley Bradford, M. D. Boericke & Tafel. Phila. Page 134.
1896: The Biographical Cyclopedia of Homoeopathic Physicians and Surgeons. Temple Hoyne, M. D. American Homoeopathic Biographical Association. Chicago. Page 139.
1905: History of Homoeopathy and Its Institutions in America. William Harvey King, M. D. Lewis Publishing Co. NY. Vol. #1. Page 396.