Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Hahnemann's 6th edition Organon - digital image on web now

Courtesy : Karen Allen, CCH , President,   Council for Homeopathic Certification

homoeopathic collections

Hahnemann's original copy of the 6th edition of the Organon (an interleaved copy of the 5th edition into which he wrote is modifications to create the 6th edition) is kept in the Special Collections archives at the UCSF Medical School library.

This original copy was brought to the US by homeopaths Richard Haehl, William Boericke and James Ward in the early 1920s; it was translated into English and published, with the original copy kept in an office safe, then in a bank deposit box, and finally in the care of the university's climate controlled library vault for special collections.  Homeopaths and researchers from all over the world come to the library here in San Francisco to view it, and see exactly what Hahnemann wrote.

This entire book has been digitally imaged, and is now available to everyone to view as part of the university's digital archive!!!  Here is the link:

http://www.library.ucsf.edu/collections/homeopathy

Viewers can turn pages, zoom in and out to see details of Hahnemann's spidery writing in German, French, Latin and Greek as he documents his changes, and in parts where there are additional pages he has attached with fold out sections (such as aphorisms about the LMs which was all new material) can click to fold out the pages to see them as if it were a pop up book!

Haehl's transcription of the entire text, which was found about a year ago at the site of the old Hahnemann Hospital in San Francisco, ( which has larger handwriting... and his understanding of German language that was 100 years closer to Hahnemann's time than we are now) is also digitally imaged on the same site, which should allow comparison, and ease the eyes trying to read Hahnemann's writing.  There is also a pamphlet on why one would want to study homeopathy, with a listing of schools across the country, very interesting to peruse.

The UCSF Library Special Collections unit has just completed this project; they have asked the homeopathic community to help spread the news about it's availability, and to encourage scholarly investigation of these materials.

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