The Conversation, Talks, Life & Times of Hering

Review

This book review is reprinted from The Homoeopath with permission from Nick Churchill of The Society of Homoeopaths.

Reviewed by Clare Palmer

Calvin Knerr was Constantine Hering's son-in-law and compiler of the Repertory of Hering's Guiding Symptoms. He graduated from the Hahnemann College in Philadelphia in 1869 and came to live with the family and to act as the doctor's assistant until Hering's death in 1880.

Realising that the years, in which I was to sit at the feet of the Master, were to he years of golden opportunity... I resolved, from the beginning, to record in a diary the conversations of the great teacher, his table talk, the daily incidents that occurred in the home life, and his interviews with other physicians who came to consult, or to be instructed and entertained, by the sage so widely known and respected.

The book is divided into four unconnected parts. The first part is selected excerpts from his diary, many of which are Hering's pronouncements and stories written down verbatim. It is an assortment of bits without any attempt at organisation or editing of the material, some of which is rather tedious and inconsequential. The stories of Hering's early life and conversion to homoeopathy are scattered among for example, his views on port wine, his passion for organising fairs on the German model, his decision to take a day off.

It takes some time to come to terms with the fragmented nature of this part of the book. The problem with an unedited diary is that you often do not have a due who or what is being written about. Gradually Hering and his circle come into view, and the complex personality and life story of the man begins to emerge. Hering was absolutely single-minded in his furtherance of 'the cause' and could be as judgmental and intemperate as his mentor Hahnemann.

Hering says he has written down a terrible curse against all persons who keep secret things that would be of benefit to the world... (it) condemns offenders to everlasting perdition, in the lowermost depths of hell, to the second and third generations. Hering calls it the most terrible curse ever pronounced.

The object of his wrath seems to have been Dr Fincke, who was keeping secret his process of potentization. It is salutary to realise that personal and professional rivalries among homoeopaths were as endemic then as they are now.

Most interesting are the stories of his early life and the glimpses of Hahnemann through the eyes of his pupil. Hering was finally converted to homoeopathy in the same way as many of us - by taking a remedy that really worked. In his case his life was threatened by infection after careless dissection of a corpse. He gave up the comfortable lifestyle of allopathic medicine, and lived at near starvation level while he studied homoeopathy. The attraction of this book is to hear this story and others told in his own words.

As a young man Hering had aspirations to become a poet and playwright and in his old age still enjoyed telling tales of a romantic or moralistic tone. A fairly typical story line is that of Peter Mertens, a shepherd, who sees beautiful maidens descending from the clouds on a sunbeam with buckets to fill and carry aloft.

Knerr comments diplomatically and, I fear, without a trace of irony.

Apparently the writings, though interesting, were too idealistic even for an age in which poetry of a sentimental kind flourished. While at this period of his fife he had a strong inclination to adopt literature as a profession, he was providentially moved to vary his course and devote his talents to medical authorship in the service of Hahnemann and homoeopathy.

There is a wonderful little story of a skit he wrote against Hahnemann when he was still an allopath.

The theatrical manager of the town could not get his company to play it. They were all staunch homoeopaths! Hering says he never told Hahnemann about this.

The second part is Hering's account of his three month journey to Paramaribo in Guyana in 1826-7 and some of his letters home, He was officially there on a botanical and zoological trip for the German Government. (This is the kind of detail that is irritatingly missing from Knerr's book- I found this information in Clarke's Dictionary). The last letter is dated October 1827 with promises of what would appear in the next one. No mention of the Bush master yet; Hering's first and dramatic proving of Lachesis took place in 1828, and no mention either of Mrs Hering's presence, although the story we know has her accompanying him to South America. There were three Mrs Herings altogether in his long life; was the one we know of the first or second, and when if at all did she arrive in Guyana? Reading Knerr's book has all the frustrations of trying to complete a jigsaw with the pieces missing. The letters themselves have the prejudiced attitudes towards the people of Guyana we might expect from a white European of the time.

The third part is a bibliography of everything Hering wrote. The fourth part is a reverent account of his death and a collection of a hundred or more eulogies and memorial addresses. The language of many of these sounds to our ears sentimental and flowery but the love, respect and admiration Hering inspired is apparent, and some more pieces of the jigsaw of his life and teachings can be found here.

The publishers' frontispiece calls this the first edition. This cannot be so. In his preface written in 1939 Knerr thanks 'the members of the Hering family for their kind offices in helping make the publication of this book possible'.

(This review has been reprinted as there were some errors in the original publication for which I offer my apologies. Ed.)

The Homoeopath Vol.13 No.1 1993