Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/539

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
NAME
517
NAME

HERING 517 HERING Michigan, one of the first in the country. He was the founder of the department of nervous diseases in the university. The Psychopathic Hospital was largely tlie resuh of his thought and efficient work — preeminently his monu- ment for all time. Dr. Herdman enlisted in the United States military service April 5, 1865, as private, Company F, 198th regiment, Ohio infantry and was discharged May 8, 1865, by general orders. Herdman was about six feet high, perfectly proportioned with a large head covered with luxuriant brown hair, high forehead, bushy eyebrows shielding the deep set eyes, long curly mustache, a keen glance, a kindly man- ner and of remarkable dignity. On September 15, 1873, he married Nancy Bradley Thomas, who with three children survived him ; the son, Elliot Kent, became a physician. Dr. Herdman died December 14, 1906, in Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, follow- ing an operation for malignant disease of the abdomen. Some of his writings were: "Best Methods of Counteracting Psychoses, due to the Strain and Stress Incident to our Public School System, Journal American Medical As- sociation, vol. xli ; "Ascending Neuritis," The Physician and Surgeon, vol. xxvii ; "Primary Lateral Sclerosis"; (Translations Michigan State Medical Society, 1889) ; "Some Forms of Trophoneurosis," with illus- trations (Ibid., 1894) ; "Vascular Disease as a Factor in the Etiology of Epilepsy," Jour- nal Michigan State Medical Society," vol. iii. Leartus Connor. Hist. Univ. of Midi., The University Press, 1906. Hering, Constantine (1800-1880). Constantine Hering, scientist and, in a very real sense, founder of homeopathy, was born at Oschatz, Saxony, Germany, January 1, 1800; son of Christian Gottlieb Karl Hering, musician and author and Christiane Frieder- icke Kreutzberg Hering. The ancestors of the Herings came from Moravia where the name was spelled Hrinka. When eleven, Constantine was sent to the Classical School of Zittau, where he made a large collection of minerals, plants and bones of animals. His medical studies began at the Surgical Academy of Dresden. Coming upon an old copy of Euclid he was inspired to study mathematics and Greek, so he returned home and devoted himself to these studies until 1820. He then went to the University of Leip- zig, where he took courses in medicine and was associated with Dr. J. Henry Robbi, ' who being asked to write a pamphlet against homcopalhy, referred the matter to young Hering. Hering studied the works of Hahne- mann and after two years of study became convinced that Hahnemann was right and avowed his adherence to homeopathy. He entered the University of Wurzburg where Schoenlein was teaching and received his degree of doctor of medicine on March 23, 1826. One of the principles declared in his thesis was "Not to deliver individual men from particular diseases, but to deliver the whole human race from the cause of disease, is the ultimate goal of medical science." He married Theresa Buchbeim, who was born at Bautzen, Saxony. Hering was now appointed instructor in mathematics and natural science in the Bloch- man Institute in Dresden ; in a few months he was appointed by the King of Saxony to go to Surinam, South America, to make re- searches in zoology and botany. He remained in Surinam six years and continued there his study of homeopathy and wrote articles for the Homeopathic Archives. These arti- cles came to the notice of the King who di- rected him to attend strictly to the duties of his appointment, but Hering at once sent in his reports, accounts and specimens, resigned his position and began to practise medicine in Parimaribo. He continued to study natural history and sent contributions of plants, rep- tiles and animals to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, of which he was a corresponding member. In Surinam, Hering went among the lepers, doing much to relieve their sufferings: in 1831 he wrote a paper on "The Antipsoric Remedies in their Relation to Leprosy." He took up the study of snakes and deposited a specimen of the Lachesis Trigonoceptialus, or South American Surukuku, in the museum of the Academy at Philadelphia. Leaving Surinam, he sailed for Saxony, by way of Salem, Mass., but his ship, badly damaged upon the coast of Rhode Island, put into Martha's Vineyard for repairs in Janu- ary, 1833, when Hering went at once to Phila- delphia and began to practise medicine, living there for nearly fifty years. At this time— 1833— homeopathy was little known in the United States. There were no text books in English, no manuals of materia medica and the few practitioners were using Hahnemann's books in German. On April 10, 1835— Hahnemann's birthday- he, with Dr. Wesselhoeft and others, founded the first homeopathic medical college in the