Hering, Constantine

THE THERAPEUTICS OF TYPHOID FEVER BY CONSTANTINE HERING, M.D. Term of [18]66-7. Copied by E.A. Farrington, M.D., Philadelphia, Pa. [cover title]

NP [Philadelphia]: np, 1866-67. Manuscript notes, a homeopathic materia medica of Constantine Hering's treatments for typhoid fever, belonging to E.A. Farrington. 20 cm. 27pp. Stitched sheets of lined paper. A booklet, likely hand-made, using paper from the Mt. Holly Springs, PA paper mill [their embossed stamp on some pages]. A further note on the cover page indicates that, by 1868, this ms. copy was owned by R.R. Prentice, of Beverly, Ohio.
The manuscript is likely lecture notes written while Hering, "the father of American homeopathy," was teaching at the Hahnemann Medical College of Pennslyvania. Ernest Albert Farrington (1847-1885), who copied the notes, was a student of homeopathy and later a colleague of Hering. The notes include the names of homeopathic remedies such as flouric acid, iodine, calcarea, arsenic, phosphorus, lycopode, taraxacum, etc., their uses founded on the principles of allowing 'like to heal like." Observations of patients are included, with indications of cause and effect of treatments. Hering later published an expanded book on the subject, "The Treatment of Typhoid Fever," [NY: 1873].
Constantine Hering, MD, the "father" of American homeopathy, was born in Germany in 1800. In 1817 he attended the Surgical Academy of Dresden for three years and from 1820 he studied medicine at Leipzig University, graduating in 1826. A proponent of homeopathic treatments, he emigrated to the United States in 1833, settling in Philadelphia. In 1848 he founded the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania, along with two other doctors. An idealogical split in the faculty occured in 1867, between those devoted to homeopathy and those looking for a more scientific approach to medicine. The result was the founding of Hahnemann Medical College of Pennsylvania, a model for homeopathic teaching institutions. Item #64519

E.A. Farrington graduated from the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1866, and entered the Hahnemann Medical College the next term. He graduated from there in 1868, and began to practice homeopathic medicine in Philadelphia. He also taught at the college, eventually becoming chair of materia medica there. In 1877, he and Hering published a "Condensed Materia Medica," based on their careful research into homeopathic remedies and their reactions with the human body.
R[ichard] R. Prentice (1845-1874), of Beverly, Ohio was likely also a student at Hahnemann Medical College, though his early death leaves scarce records. His father was a doctor in Ohio.

Price: $750.00