Letters from Samuel and Mélanie Hahnemann

At a recent auction, the Institute for the History of Medicine was able to purchase three exceptional originals that impressively complement the collection. The first item is a handwritten letter from Samuel Hahnemann – with the seal still intact – to the Magdeburg merchant Heinrich Weigel, dated 27 July 1831. The letter is a response to a letter from Emma Weigel (wife of Heinrich Weigel), which is already in the Institute's possession. Hahnemann sends a powder and also recommends the book ‘Allopathy: A Word of Warning to the Sick of Every Kind’. The work was published in 1831. The recommendation shows that Hahnemann gave his patients advice on the pure use of medicines. The second letter from Samuel Hahnemann, dated April 1838, when Hahnemann was already living in Paris, is addressed to a homeopathic friend, whom he assures: ‘and so you will always remain one of my best students, above all the braggarts.’ The letter is stamped with the initials of his wife Melanie Hahnemann at the top. The third letter is dated much later (30 August 1850), in which Mélanie Hahnemann writes to the physician Johann Wilhelm Wahle in Rome and introduces him to Abbot Tripi, who was committed to spreading homeopathy in Sicily and Italy. Here, too, the institute preserves the counter-tradition with the estate of Johann Wilhelm Wahle. The letters have been digitised and can therefore also be researched externally.