Teaching the Organon
Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 10:05 pm
I was going to put this up on my web-site, but that will come later.
Here is the discussion at the AIH meeting in 1894.
Very interesting.
JW
***
The American Institute of Homeopathy Meeting
Denver, 1894
Question 5.
When should the Organon be taught and how?
Dr DUDGEON.-The Organon being the best exposition of the homeopathic
system, should be carefully studied by every one for himself and Its
teachings accepted and endorsed by every teacher of Homeopathy when
they are not inconsistent with the ascertained facts of modern
science.
Dr. HUGHES.-The teaching of the Organon does not seem to me to belong
to the chair of Materia Medica, but rather to that of Theory and
Practice of Medicine. From this I would have it at some time in ever
student's course, read and critically commented on. I recommend Dr
Dudgeon's latest translation.
Dr. SKINNER.-The Organon, in my estimation, should be studied from
the very first. In fact, I do not believe it possible for any man to
have any sound conception of what Homeopathy is until he thoroughly
understands and can take into his comprehension the vast and
important tenets and truths of the greatest work that ever was
published in Medicine, theoretically, doctrinally or practically.
Dr. BLAKE.-The Organon should be assimilated late in life probably.
Prof. MOHR.-The Organon should be studied during the first year so
effectually that its great or fundamental principles will be
indelibly fixed on the mind of the student. In the class-room, in the
clinic and at every opportunity its practical rules should be brought
to the attention of the students, for they cannot be too often
repeated.
Prof. DEWEY.--The Organon should be taught during the second and
third years of college course. And I believe in each homeopathic
college a separate chair should be made for the Organon and
Institutes of Homeopathy. Of course much of it can be taught in
conjunction with lectures upon Materia Medica; but as it contains the
philosophy of Homeopathy it seems to me that a separate chair for it
is preferable, and it should be a chair insisted on by the American
Institute, with two lectures a week at least.
Prof. HINSDALE.--The principles of homeopathy should be taught to
freshmen, well grounding them in the philosophy of the theory of
homeopathy. The Organon can be taught by class-room readings,
preferably by seniors. Comments can be made as the reading advances
and papers prepared by the students upon topics suggested by the
author. The teaching of this valuable book should be critical and
impartial. Adoration for Hahnemann should give place to admiration
for the truth to be taught.
Prof. McELWEE.-The Organon should be taught when the student's mind
is rested and fresh; consequently the first thing in the morning, one
or two paragraphs only at a time, those paragraphs being read by the
student, who gives his idea of it, and then later, under the
supervision of the professor, discusses it before the class.
Prof. GILMAN.-The Organon should be taught early and continually
until it is mastered. It is the mother's milk to the medical student.
It should be taught as the Bible is expounded-- text by text, and
explained and illustrated.
Prof. SNOW.-The Oganon should be systematically taught during the
first year of college, as it is the foundation work of Homeopathy.
Frequent reference should be made to it, however, during the whole
three years as occasion may demand. It should be committed to memory
as nearly as possible, so that its precepts may remain always
engraved on the mind.
Prot. MACK.-I do not use the Organon as a text-book. I think that one
can better teach Homeopathy without the Organon as a text-book than
with it.
Prof. COWPERTHWAITE.-The Organon should be taught by a separate
teacher. It has not fallen to my lot to teach the Organon to any
extent and I do not consider myself a competent judge as to how it
should be taught. My method is to take my old and much loved copy
which I held in my hand when I attended the lectures by Dr. Hering,
and which is profusely filled with annotations, comments and
underlinings according to Dr. Hering's suggestions. From this book I
talk to the class, giving them Hahnemann's ideas, Hering's comments
and my own views on each particular section as we take it up.
Prof. WOODWARD.-The Organon should be taught to beginners, not
without Judicious criticism.
Prof. ROYAL.-The Organon should be studied and taught throughout the
entire student's course.
Prof. LEONARD.-For six years I have tried to teach the Organon in
connection with Materia Medica and therapeutics; but whether from my
own inability to do it well or from an incongruity of subjects, the
results have not been satisfactory. A critical analysis of the
Organon with an exposition of its essential parts before senior
students, seems to me to be part of the work of the chair of Theory
and Practice, and it is so taught in the University of Minnesota.
Prof. EDGERTON.-The Organon should be taught to first course
students. A text-book should be gotten up containing the essentials,
and the student should commit the same to memory and recite in class.
Prof. PRICE.-- In my opinion the Organon should be taught from the
chair of Institutes, first omitting the psoric theory, dynamization,
primary and secondary drug action, alternating drug effects, etc.
There is too much difference of opinion upon these subjects amongst
the best minds in our profession to make a belief in them a point of
vital necessity. Of course the chair of Materia Medica and
Therapeutics should teach the fundamental principles of Homeopathy
whether the Organon be quoted or not.
Prof. CHEESEMAN.--The Organon should be taught by at least two
lectures each week during the entire college course by a competent
lecturer .
Prof. HAWKES.-The Organon should be taught from the "cradle to the
grave" of medicine. In my judgment it should be taught as the good
preacher teaches his congregation: select a portion for a text (and
each section of the Organon is a sermon in itself) and elaborate to
the student and explain its philosophy. Then make him explain it to
me.
Prof. ALLEN, H. C.-The Organon should be taught every year of the
entire course and taught by one who practices what he preaches. It is
the foundation of our system, and no student can ever practice
Homeopathy who does not know, and know most thoroughly, its
principles.
Prof. PEMBERTON DUDLEY-I hold to the view that every student should,
first of all be made acquainted with the methods--perhaps in courtesy
I should say "principles"-on which unhomeopathic treatment is applied
to diseases and injuries by the various sects of physicians, and that
his induction into the mysteries of Homeopathy should come later. I
am quite sure that the uncompromising adhesion to the homeopathic law
manifested by the "Homeopathic Fathers" was due to the fact that they
knew from both study and experience all about allopathic methods and
what these methods could and could not do for their patients; and
holding this view it would naturally follow that the way to make
staunch as well as intelligent homeopathists is to make them quite
fully acquainted with the effects and defects of the other modes of
medical practice first of all.
Having accomplished this we proceed as follows: We endeavor to
discover how the phenomenon known as "cure" is to be investigated.
(The allopath never concerns himself on this matter save only as to
the fact of its occurrence and the nature of the agencies by which it
seems to be brought about. The phenomenon does not present itself to
his mind as at all requiring investigation). This study forces us to
the bedside as the only place where our curative studies can be
pursued-- the only "Laboratory" where principle of cure can be made
known. Then having learned the reasonableness and practicability of
this method of finding out how to find out cures for diseases, we
turn to the Organon and there discover that the author of that book
has been before us and has made the way plain for us. So we take up
point after point in the development of curative science-- first
reasoning it out as well as we can and then turning to the book to
find it all in Hahnemann's own words. One of the things that our
students discover and often mention in this course is that the author
of the Organon was anything but the dreaming visionary he has been so
often represented to be. In these studies of Homeopathy both the
student and the teacher are expected to have the open book before
them. In last winter's class of about eighty first-year men I have
counted over seventy copies of the Organon in the room at one time,
and all of them in use. We call it our "Sunday School Class in the
Organon."
Prof. MONROE.-- It is a question in my mind whether the Organon
should be taught during the student years; that is systematically. It
should be referred to by the professor frequently, and the student
should be taught that he cannot regard himself as a well-rounded
homeopathic physician until he is familiar with the Organon. To my
mind, however, the book is not of such a character as will admit of
its being properly digested during the rushing, cramming gallop that
marks the career of a student during his last year; and previous to
that time, he is not sufficiently far advanced to comprehend it.
Dr. GRAMM.-- Hahnemann's Organon should be read thoroughly by every
student before entering a homeopathic college, and there it should be
used by the regular professor of theory and practice as the
foundation and guide for his teachings during all the four years.
Every section should be properly read and carefully explained, and
its teachings as much as possible illustrated by cases from actual
practice from beginning to end.
Dr. PECK.--The Organon should be the first book placed in the hands
of a medical student. If he has not sufficient sense and knowledge to
understand and to appreciate it he never can become a trustworthy
physician. The youth should be told to read it slowly and
deliberately, stopping at any (to him) obscure point, or at any
utterance that does not commend itself to his sober judgment and
refer it at once to his instructor for their joint investigation.
Rarely will this happen a half dozen times. One or two more rapid
re-readings will do no harm.
Since many alleged homeopath physicians do not provide their pupils
this instruction it becomes necessary for the college to teach the
Institutes of Medicine. These should be taught at the very beginning
instead of at the close of a course of study, for it is as important
that a doctor should know what he believes, and why, as for the
preacher, or any other man; and the sooner he ascertains this the
better. After a little talk on Hahnemann and his times, display on
the blackboard or in other convenient manner singly and successively
the various propositions. As each is exhibited ask the class if it
accepts that assertion, then call for reasons pro and con.
Dr. NIELSEN.--The Organon should be taught especially to the advanced
student, but by a competent teacher and one able to read between the
lines.
Dr. KRAFT.-The Organon, like the bible, should be read through not
less than once a year; its reading and study should not cease with
the medical man's commencement exercises. During school-life it
should be listened to from the chair of therapeutics at least once a
week. Not read by the teacher but talked. The professor of
therapeutics should have naught to do with Materia Medica; in him
should be combined the present highly ornamental chair of Organon,
and the rare chair of Institutes of Medicine. To him should be given
the duties of explaining the homeopathic law, the therapeutical
application of Materia Medica, the Organon, and the potencies.
Dr. BOJANUS.--According to my opinion I should think that the Organon
should not be given before the end of the third year of study and
must be explained and commented in a special course of lectures, and
not before the students have visited the homeopathic and allopathic
clinics and hospitals for at least two years. In the lectures upon
the Organon, the whole homeopathic literature, with all its different
tendencies, must be passed in review and particular attention must be
paid that the youthful students should not prefer the literature
which has given itself the task of clothing homeopathic therapeutics
into a form more or less like allopathy. Such compilations are a
comfortable implement in the hands of those who wish to convert
science into a milking cow; they are useful to establish a position
and keep their disciple in the broad way of the beaten track, but
this is preparing the ruin of homeopathy.
Here is the discussion at the AIH meeting in 1894.
Very interesting.
JW
***
The American Institute of Homeopathy Meeting
Denver, 1894
Question 5.
When should the Organon be taught and how?
Dr DUDGEON.-The Organon being the best exposition of the homeopathic
system, should be carefully studied by every one for himself and Its
teachings accepted and endorsed by every teacher of Homeopathy when
they are not inconsistent with the ascertained facts of modern
science.
Dr. HUGHES.-The teaching of the Organon does not seem to me to belong
to the chair of Materia Medica, but rather to that of Theory and
Practice of Medicine. From this I would have it at some time in ever
student's course, read and critically commented on. I recommend Dr
Dudgeon's latest translation.
Dr. SKINNER.-The Organon, in my estimation, should be studied from
the very first. In fact, I do not believe it possible for any man to
have any sound conception of what Homeopathy is until he thoroughly
understands and can take into his comprehension the vast and
important tenets and truths of the greatest work that ever was
published in Medicine, theoretically, doctrinally or practically.
Dr. BLAKE.-The Organon should be assimilated late in life probably.
Prof. MOHR.-The Organon should be studied during the first year so
effectually that its great or fundamental principles will be
indelibly fixed on the mind of the student. In the class-room, in the
clinic and at every opportunity its practical rules should be brought
to the attention of the students, for they cannot be too often
repeated.
Prof. DEWEY.--The Organon should be taught during the second and
third years of college course. And I believe in each homeopathic
college a separate chair should be made for the Organon and
Institutes of Homeopathy. Of course much of it can be taught in
conjunction with lectures upon Materia Medica; but as it contains the
philosophy of Homeopathy it seems to me that a separate chair for it
is preferable, and it should be a chair insisted on by the American
Institute, with two lectures a week at least.
Prof. HINSDALE.--The principles of homeopathy should be taught to
freshmen, well grounding them in the philosophy of the theory of
homeopathy. The Organon can be taught by class-room readings,
preferably by seniors. Comments can be made as the reading advances
and papers prepared by the students upon topics suggested by the
author. The teaching of this valuable book should be critical and
impartial. Adoration for Hahnemann should give place to admiration
for the truth to be taught.
Prof. McELWEE.-The Organon should be taught when the student's mind
is rested and fresh; consequently the first thing in the morning, one
or two paragraphs only at a time, those paragraphs being read by the
student, who gives his idea of it, and then later, under the
supervision of the professor, discusses it before the class.
Prof. GILMAN.-The Organon should be taught early and continually
until it is mastered. It is the mother's milk to the medical student.
It should be taught as the Bible is expounded-- text by text, and
explained and illustrated.
Prof. SNOW.-The Oganon should be systematically taught during the
first year of college, as it is the foundation work of Homeopathy.
Frequent reference should be made to it, however, during the whole
three years as occasion may demand. It should be committed to memory
as nearly as possible, so that its precepts may remain always
engraved on the mind.
Prot. MACK.-I do not use the Organon as a text-book. I think that one
can better teach Homeopathy without the Organon as a text-book than
with it.
Prof. COWPERTHWAITE.-The Organon should be taught by a separate
teacher. It has not fallen to my lot to teach the Organon to any
extent and I do not consider myself a competent judge as to how it
should be taught. My method is to take my old and much loved copy
which I held in my hand when I attended the lectures by Dr. Hering,
and which is profusely filled with annotations, comments and
underlinings according to Dr. Hering's suggestions. From this book I
talk to the class, giving them Hahnemann's ideas, Hering's comments
and my own views on each particular section as we take it up.
Prof. WOODWARD.-The Organon should be taught to beginners, not
without Judicious criticism.
Prof. ROYAL.-The Organon should be studied and taught throughout the
entire student's course.
Prof. LEONARD.-For six years I have tried to teach the Organon in
connection with Materia Medica and therapeutics; but whether from my
own inability to do it well or from an incongruity of subjects, the
results have not been satisfactory. A critical analysis of the
Organon with an exposition of its essential parts before senior
students, seems to me to be part of the work of the chair of Theory
and Practice, and it is so taught in the University of Minnesota.
Prof. EDGERTON.-The Organon should be taught to first course
students. A text-book should be gotten up containing the essentials,
and the student should commit the same to memory and recite in class.
Prof. PRICE.-- In my opinion the Organon should be taught from the
chair of Institutes, first omitting the psoric theory, dynamization,
primary and secondary drug action, alternating drug effects, etc.
There is too much difference of opinion upon these subjects amongst
the best minds in our profession to make a belief in them a point of
vital necessity. Of course the chair of Materia Medica and
Therapeutics should teach the fundamental principles of Homeopathy
whether the Organon be quoted or not.
Prof. CHEESEMAN.--The Organon should be taught by at least two
lectures each week during the entire college course by a competent
lecturer .
Prof. HAWKES.-The Organon should be taught from the "cradle to the
grave" of medicine. In my judgment it should be taught as the good
preacher teaches his congregation: select a portion for a text (and
each section of the Organon is a sermon in itself) and elaborate to
the student and explain its philosophy. Then make him explain it to
me.
Prof. ALLEN, H. C.-The Organon should be taught every year of the
entire course and taught by one who practices what he preaches. It is
the foundation of our system, and no student can ever practice
Homeopathy who does not know, and know most thoroughly, its
principles.
Prof. PEMBERTON DUDLEY-I hold to the view that every student should,
first of all be made acquainted with the methods--perhaps in courtesy
I should say "principles"-on which unhomeopathic treatment is applied
to diseases and injuries by the various sects of physicians, and that
his induction into the mysteries of Homeopathy should come later. I
am quite sure that the uncompromising adhesion to the homeopathic law
manifested by the "Homeopathic Fathers" was due to the fact that they
knew from both study and experience all about allopathic methods and
what these methods could and could not do for their patients; and
holding this view it would naturally follow that the way to make
staunch as well as intelligent homeopathists is to make them quite
fully acquainted with the effects and defects of the other modes of
medical practice first of all.
Having accomplished this we proceed as follows: We endeavor to
discover how the phenomenon known as "cure" is to be investigated.
(The allopath never concerns himself on this matter save only as to
the fact of its occurrence and the nature of the agencies by which it
seems to be brought about. The phenomenon does not present itself to
his mind as at all requiring investigation). This study forces us to
the bedside as the only place where our curative studies can be
pursued-- the only "Laboratory" where principle of cure can be made
known. Then having learned the reasonableness and practicability of
this method of finding out how to find out cures for diseases, we
turn to the Organon and there discover that the author of that book
has been before us and has made the way plain for us. So we take up
point after point in the development of curative science-- first
reasoning it out as well as we can and then turning to the book to
find it all in Hahnemann's own words. One of the things that our
students discover and often mention in this course is that the author
of the Organon was anything but the dreaming visionary he has been so
often represented to be. In these studies of Homeopathy both the
student and the teacher are expected to have the open book before
them. In last winter's class of about eighty first-year men I have
counted over seventy copies of the Organon in the room at one time,
and all of them in use. We call it our "Sunday School Class in the
Organon."
Prof. MONROE.-- It is a question in my mind whether the Organon
should be taught during the student years; that is systematically. It
should be referred to by the professor frequently, and the student
should be taught that he cannot regard himself as a well-rounded
homeopathic physician until he is familiar with the Organon. To my
mind, however, the book is not of such a character as will admit of
its being properly digested during the rushing, cramming gallop that
marks the career of a student during his last year; and previous to
that time, he is not sufficiently far advanced to comprehend it.
Dr. GRAMM.-- Hahnemann's Organon should be read thoroughly by every
student before entering a homeopathic college, and there it should be
used by the regular professor of theory and practice as the
foundation and guide for his teachings during all the four years.
Every section should be properly read and carefully explained, and
its teachings as much as possible illustrated by cases from actual
practice from beginning to end.
Dr. PECK.--The Organon should be the first book placed in the hands
of a medical student. If he has not sufficient sense and knowledge to
understand and to appreciate it he never can become a trustworthy
physician. The youth should be told to read it slowly and
deliberately, stopping at any (to him) obscure point, or at any
utterance that does not commend itself to his sober judgment and
refer it at once to his instructor for their joint investigation.
Rarely will this happen a half dozen times. One or two more rapid
re-readings will do no harm.
Since many alleged homeopath physicians do not provide their pupils
this instruction it becomes necessary for the college to teach the
Institutes of Medicine. These should be taught at the very beginning
instead of at the close of a course of study, for it is as important
that a doctor should know what he believes, and why, as for the
preacher, or any other man; and the sooner he ascertains this the
better. After a little talk on Hahnemann and his times, display on
the blackboard or in other convenient manner singly and successively
the various propositions. As each is exhibited ask the class if it
accepts that assertion, then call for reasons pro and con.
Dr. NIELSEN.--The Organon should be taught especially to the advanced
student, but by a competent teacher and one able to read between the
lines.
Dr. KRAFT.-The Organon, like the bible, should be read through not
less than once a year; its reading and study should not cease with
the medical man's commencement exercises. During school-life it
should be listened to from the chair of therapeutics at least once a
week. Not read by the teacher but talked. The professor of
therapeutics should have naught to do with Materia Medica; in him
should be combined the present highly ornamental chair of Organon,
and the rare chair of Institutes of Medicine. To him should be given
the duties of explaining the homeopathic law, the therapeutical
application of Materia Medica, the Organon, and the potencies.
Dr. BOJANUS.--According to my opinion I should think that the Organon
should not be given before the end of the third year of study and
must be explained and commented in a special course of lectures, and
not before the students have visited the homeopathic and allopathic
clinics and hospitals for at least two years. In the lectures upon
the Organon, the whole homeopathic literature, with all its different
tendencies, must be passed in review and particular attention must be
paid that the youthful students should not prefer the literature
which has given itself the task of clothing homeopathic therapeutics
into a form more or less like allopathy. Such compilations are a
comfortable implement in the hands of those who wish to convert
science into a milking cow; they are useful to establish a position
and keep their disciple in the broad way of the beaten track, but
this is preparing the ruin of homeopathy.