What if the story you’ve heard about Samuel Hahnemann’s final years isn’t quite the whole story?
When Hahnemann left Germany for Paris with his much younger wife, Mélanie d’Hervilly, he was entering one of the most remarkable chapters of his life. Their busy homeopathic practice attracted clients from across society, and Mélanie played a far more significant role than many accounts of homeopathy’s history acknowledge.
But what happened after Hahnemann’s death in 1843? Why was his body moved more than 50 years later? What really happened to the sixth edition of the Organon? And has Mélanie’s reputation been shaped more by historical evidence or by the people who told her story?
Recording from Paris after visiting Hahnemann’s grave at Père Lachaise Cemetery, Denise and Alastair turn to historical letters, eyewitness accounts, and original documents to explore the controversies, relationships, and unanswered questions surrounding his final years.
Go Back to the Source
- Official Account of the Exhumation of the Body of Hahnemann at the Cemetery Montmartre, and of Its Removal to Père Lachaise — The Homoeopathic Physician, August 1898, Vol. XVIII, No. 8.
- Samuel Hahnemann: His Life and Work, Volume II — Richard Haehl.
- In Search of the Later Hahnemann — Rima Handley.
- The Life and Letters of Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, Chapter 71 — Thomas Lindsley Bradford. Includes Anna Cora Mowatt’s account of visiting Hahnemann and Mélanie in Paris.
- Organon of Medicine, Sixth Edition — Samuel Hahnemann. Online text includes the fifth edition translated by Robert Ellis Dudgeon and the sixth edition translated by William Boericke.
Listen to Episode 136 of Strange, Rare & Peculiar for the full conversation:
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Strange Rare Peculiar is a weekly podcast with Denise Straiges and Alastair Gray of the Academy of Homeopathy Education discussing everything you REALLY need to know about homeopathy. We’ll look at philosophy, practice, research,and education–all with a little bit of history. If you want to know why we still can’t get enough homeopathy after a combined 50+ years of study and practice, we invite you to join the conversation!
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