Organon of the Rational Art of Healing, according to the laws of Homœopathy (first edition)

This is Charles Edwin Wheeler's English translation of the 1st edition of Hahnemasnn's Organon.

The first edition of Hahnemann’s Organon was published in 1810; Hahnemann was 55 and living in Torgau, and this was 14 years after his Essay on a New Principle, 20 years after his experiment on himself with Cinchona bark. He went on to pen 5 subsequent editions in 1819, 1824, 1829, 1833, and 1843. His 1805 essay The medicine of experience is often considered the precursor to the Organon.

Why is the first edition, presumably supplanted by subsequent editions, of interest?

Of course, for purely intellectual reasons, to document the history of the development of homœopathic medicine;

More importantly for the contemporary student & practitioner, to examine the core about which our practice has grown. Preparing this text has involved reading it multiple times, and engaged in this shortly following writing my commentaries on the 4th-6th editions, I’ve been impressed by how consistent Hahnemann is on the central points of principles & practice over the 33 years between the 1st and 6th editions. Although I’d advise that a dog-eared copy of the 6th edition have an honored place on the consulting room desk, the 1st edition would serve nearly as well.

Robert Ellis Dudgeon, the patriarch of British homœopathy, believed the 3rd edition of the Organon to represent the pinnacle of Hahnemann’s teachings. Sadly, the 2nd & 3rd editions have not been translated into English.

Major changes subsequent to this 1st edition include:

The title Organon der rationellen Heilkunde nach homöopathischen Gesetzen (Organon of Rational Medicine According to Homeopathic Laws) and the choice of aphoristic structure was in accordance with the means by which knowledge was believed to be gained in Hahnemann’s era; i.e., by deductive reasoning from basic principles, in line with Classical Greek and Cartesian thought. This was in tension with Hahnemann’s commitment to develop a “medicine of experience,” discovering consistent principles inductively from observation rather than attempting to reason deductively from presumed basic principles, and subsequent editions were titled Organon Der Heilkunst (Organon of Medicine). The inclusion of Aude Sapere {ed. “dare to taste knowledge for yourself.”} on the dedication page of the 2nd-6th editions reflects this transition from Cartesian to Kantian philosophy.

Notably missing from this 1st edition are 

- references to Dynamis, Lebenskraft (life power/force), and Lebensprinzip (life principle), first introduced in the 4th edition c. 1829. These were introduced as explanatory principles in the 4th and subsequent editions.

- Specific directions for the preparation of attenuated medicines. Serial dilution in the centesimal (1/100) scale was adopted c. 1820, as was the use of medicated pellets to dispense medicines. In 1810, Hahnemann was relying on small material doses ranging from those in use in conventional practice to attenuations equivalent to 1/100^9 (dilutionally equivalent to 9C), achieved by varied approaches to dilution, given in solution or as medicated powders.

- Reference to “dynamization/potentization.” Although this is presaged in §s 250-252 in the 1st edition, Hahnemann first addressed it c. 1825, and included it in the 4th edition in 1829.

- References to the Miasmatic (infectious) nature of chronic disease. Hahnemann introduced this in The Chronic Diseases in 1828 and referenced it in the 4th edition of the Organon in 1829. He addressed chronic disease and described this as often “incomplete” (“defective,” one-sided”) in the 1st edition, and, according to Dudgeon, initially introduced homœopathy for the treatment of chronic disease, relying on palliation for acute disease.

- In this 1st edition, intermittent & alternating disease is not included as a special case of “incomplete” (“defective,” one-sided”) disease; specific instructions for working with intermittent & alternating disease are added in subsequent editions (§231-244 in the 6th edition).

- Magnets/Galvanism, Mesmerism, and Hydrotherapy are addressed in subsequent editions, but not in this 1st edition.

Included in this 1st edition, but removed from subsequent editions are:

- Hahnemann’s multiple examples of historical cures that could, in retrospect, be attributed to the principle of similars (in a preface, & sadly omitted by Wheeler in the English translation)

- Elaboration on the distinction between the proximate cause(s) of disease and dynamically-maintained disease (§6 in this 1st edition) {ed. - I wish Hahnemann had included this, with his splendid metaphor of a bullet [I tend to recall this as an arrow] in flight, in subsequent editions).

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