The Organon of the Healing Art

Organon of the Art of Healing (Organon der rationellen Heilkunde) by Samuel Hahnemann, 1810, laid out the doctrine of his ideas of homoeopathy. The work was repeatedly revised by Hahnemann and published in six editions, with the name changed from the second onwards to Organon of Medicine (Organon der Heilkunst), and has been so since the mid 19th century.

Hahnemann wrote this book in order to document his new system of medicine, "Homoeopathy". In 1796, some six years after Hahnemann first experienced the effect of Peruvian Bark Cinchona in 1790 he published an article under the title "Essay on a New Principle". After conducting personal observations and experiments, Hahnemann published his new account of homoeopathy in book form in 1810. The original title of the book was Organon of Rational Art of Healing. In 1819, the second edition was published, with the revised title Organon of Healing Art. The third edition (1824) and fourth edition (1829) kept this new title, while the latter introduced Hahnemann's "Theory of Chronic Diseases". The fifth edition was published in 1833, and included the doctrine of vital force and drug dynamization. The sixth edition, written in 1842, a year before his death, was retitled Organon of Medicine and not published until 1921.

The second edition of the Organon was published in the year 1819 when Hahnemann was living in Leipzig in Germany. Titled Organon Der Heilkunst, it had 315 aphorisms. In 1824, it was translated to French by Erneste George de Brunnow and was named Organon of the Healing Art. The couplet from Gallert's poem was replaced by the words Aude Sapere which mean Dare to be Wise. No English translation of this edition has ever been made. There is also an Italian translation of 1824 by Bernardo Quaranta "L'Organo della Medicina del dottor Samuel Hahnemann" printed in Naples.

The third edition of the Organon was published in the year 1824 when Hahnemann was resident in Köthen (Anhalt) in Germany. It contained 317 aphorisms. Though French and Italian translations exist, this edition has never been translated into English. On page 3 of the Italian translation of Organon 3, the following quotation from Seneca the Younger appears:

"Non enim cuiquam mancipavi, nullius nomen fero: multum magnorum judicio credo, aliquid et meo vindico." (Seneca the Younger, Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium – Epistle 45.4, Moral Letters to Lucilius)

"For I have sold myself to no one; I bear the name of no master. I give much credit to the judgment of great men; but I claim something for myself." This quotation does not appear in any of the other Organon editions or translations, and was probably therefore added by the translator of the Italian edition.

The fourth edition of the Organon was published in the year 1829 when Hahnemann was living in Köthen. It contained 292 aphorisms. An English translation by Charles H. Devrient was published in Dublin in 1833. Hahnemann's miasm theory, deriving from his two volume work, The Chronic Diseases published the previous year (1828), was first alluded to in this edition. Likewise, the 'vital force' theory makes its first significant appearance in this edition.

The fifth edition of the Organon was published in the year 1833 when Hahnemann was living in Köthen. It contained 294 aphorisms. It was later twice translated into English by Robert Ellis Dudgeon, first in 1849 and again in 1893. The fifth edition of the book was also translated to English by C. Wesselehoft. This fifth Organon departed significantly in style and content from the four previous editions by making numerous references to metaphysical notions like the vital force, miasms and potency energy.

The sixth edition of the Organon was not a full edition in the usual sense but merely a copy of the 5th Organon which Hahnemann had annotated in February 1842 with numerous revisions before his death in 1843 in Paris. In a letter from Paris dated June 1, 1841 he states, "I am preparing the sixth edition of the Organon, to which I can only devote a few hours on Thursdays and Sundays." However, in a letter to his publisher in Düsseldorf, dated 20 Feb 1842, he wrote, "I have now, after eighteen months of work, finished my sixth edition of my Organon, the most nearly perfect of all." The Sixth Organon was not published until long after his death, in 1921. It contains 291 aphorisms and was named Organon der Medizin. It was later translated into the English language by William Boericke and given the title, Organon of Medicine. It contained several new additions and alterations including the change of "Vital Force" to "Vital Principle", the introduction of the 50 Millesimal Scale of Potentisation, and changes in the preparation, administration and repetition of drugs.