Simple · Forever · Similar

iSiPS Testimonials/Case Reports

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The conversion of a botanist to Homœopathy.

Clemens Maria Franz, Baron von Boenninghausen, Doctor of Civil and Criminal Laws and of Medicine, was born March 12, 1785, on the ancestral estate of Heringhaven in Overyssel, a province of the Netherlands.

His ancestors. whose names and arms may be traced back into the thirteenth century and one of whom was made an Austrian Field Marshal by Ferdinand II., in 1632, belonged to the oldest nobility of Westphalia and the Rhine.

Inasmuch, however, as for three hundred years past, they had devoted themselves exclusively to the profession of arms, their property always remained quite moderate in amount.

Von Boenninghausen’s early youth was passed in the country, where his bodily vigor was fostered by riding, swimming, hunting and other manly exercises, while his mental faculties were but sparingly cultivated.

When, therefore, in his twelfth year he entered the high school in Münster (Rhineland Westphalia, Germany) he found his place at the foot of his classes. But his diligence during the first half year was so great that, at the end of that period he had reached the head, a position he always retained.

After remaining six years at this school, von Boenninghausen went to the University of Groningen (the Netherlands), where he spent three years, devoting himself not only to the studies proper to the profession of law, to which he intended to devote himself but also, and with great zest, to the study of Natural History and of Medicine.

On the 30th of August, 1806, he received the degree of Doctor of Civil and Criminal Laws, and about the 1st of October in the same year he began his career as advocate.

This career was destined to be brief. In August, 1807, von Boenninghausen accompanied his father to Utrecht (the Netherlands), whither the latter was sent as delegate from the Electoral Committee of Overyssel to the then king of Holland, Louis Bonaparte (father of Napoleon III) who at that time. resided at Utrecht.

Being more familiar with the French language than his companions, the young von Boenninghausen was admitted to the audience to act as interpreter. In consequence of this circumstance he soon received the quite unexpected appointment of Auditor to the State Council.

From this time on, his career at the Court of Holland was a remarkably rapid one.

Within a year he was promoted over the heads of some colleagues much older than himself, to the post of Auditor to the King, and a fortnight afterwards to that of Secrétaire général des requêtes.

This laborious but influential office, to which were subsequently added the duties of royal librarian and chief of the topographical bureau, he continued to hold until the abdication of the King of Holland, July 1, 1810.

After the loss of his very kind and benevolent chief, of whose council he was the youngest member, under circumstances so very painful to him, von Boenninghausen declined every position that was offered him in the service of Holland, and returned in 1810 to the paternal estate to devote himself to the study of agriculture and of the auxiliary sciences, especially that of botany, which gradually became his favorite pursuit.

He married in 1812, and in 1814 removed to his inherited estate of Darop.

Here he gradually entered into correspondence with the most prominent agriculturists of Germany, especially with Thaer and Schwerz. Several essays from his pen appeared in the Moglischen Annalen.

He endeavored by advice and example to improve the agriculture of Westphalia. Among his efforts of this kind was the founding of the Agricultural Society for the district of Munster, which still exists in a more extended form and which was the first association of the kind in the western part of the Prussian Monarchy.

On the organization of the Prussian provinces of the Rhine and Westphalia in 1816, the position of Landrath for circle of Coesfeld, in which his estate of Darop lies, was offered to von Boenninghausen.

He accepted it and filled it until 1822. During this period the necessity of an appraisement of the two above-named provinces of the Rhine and Westphalia was recognized, and von Boenninghausen being the only Landrath, was summoned to the conferences held on the subject at Godesburg, near Bonn, in order that he might testify, as both a theoretically and practically educated agriculturist, on the technology of the appraisements.

He was subsequently, in 1822, appointed General Commissioner of Appraisements for the two provinces.

This new office involved almost constant traveling about in these provinces ; but this, again, gave him increased opportunities for the study of their flora.

He published in 1824 a “Prodromus Forae Monasteriensis” which contained much that was new, and which showed the similarity between the Westphalian flora and the English.

At this time also was entrusted to him the direction of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Münster, which he conducted for many years and through which he came into relations with many of’ the first botanists (scientists who study botany) of Europe.

In consequence of his agricultural and botanical writings, he received many diplomas from learned societies, and C. Sprugel (Syst. veg,, III., 245), and Reichenbach (Uebers, des Gewachsreich, 197), awarded him the highest honor known to a botanist, by each naming a genus of plants after him.

In the autumn of 1827, his health, which lead hitherto been very robust, became seriously impaired and his disease, which was pronounced by two most distinguished physicians to be purulent consumption, grew so rapidly worse that in the spring of 1828, all hope of his recovery was abandoned.

This was the first occasion of his acquiring a knowledge of Homoeopathy. Having given up all hope of recovery, he wrote a farewell letter to his old and cherished botanical friend Dr. August Weihe, of Herford, who was a homoeopathic physician, the first in the whole of Westphalia and the Rhine, a fact, however, of which Boenninghausen was not aware, inasmuch as their frequent correspondence had treated only of botanical subjects.

Weihe, much concerned at the intelligence of Boenninghausen’s illness, requested an accurate description of the case, expressing the hope that he might be the means of saving his valuable friend through the aid of the newly discovered method of cure.

Boenninghausen complied with his request, followed implicitly the directions he received, and gradually recovered, so that, by the end of the summer, he was regarded as cured. [He was cured with Pulsatilla, followed by an antipsoric course of Sulphur (J. Künzli)].

From this period, he was not only a decided adherent but an active and earnest advocate of Homoeopathy.

After ineffectual endeavors to arouse an interest on the subject among the physicians of Munster with whom he came into frequent intercourse as member and one of the founders of the Medical Society, he put his own hand to the work, revived the half-forgotten knowledge of medicine acquired at the University of Groningen, and had the good fortune to be of service to ninny (a stupid person) who sought his aid.

Boenninghausen began to practice Homoeopathy according to the practical rules laid down by Hahnemann.

He had not, however, a license to practice as a physician, a fact which might have subjected him to many impediments and disamenities had he undertaken to engage in a general medical practice.

For this reason, for a few years he expended his energies to a great extent upon literary labors which had for their object to study thoroughly the practical part of Homoeopathy and to facilitate and extend its application.

He perceived that the matter of prime necessity was such a study of the “materia medica” as should bring out into bold relief the characteristic peculiarities of each individual remedy, so that the practitioner might easily and surely single out that remedy which might be most similar in its symptoms to the disease under treatment. To such a study he devoted himself.

The success of his practice is the measure of the success of these studies as well as an indication of Boenninghausen’s sagacity in selecting this as the most important subject of study.

At length so generally were his learning and success acknowledged that, by a cabinet order of His Majesty King Wilhelm IV, dated July 11th, 1843, all the rights and immunities of a practising physician were bestowed upon him.

It was during the former period, from 1828 to 1843, that most of the systematic works, for which we are indebted to Boenninghausen, were composed and published.

These were of a practical nature, designed to aid the student of materia medica and the physician at the bed-side. They were cordially received, were preferred by Hahnemann to all others, and were used by him to the time of his death.

They have served as models, originals, or points of departure for most of the manuals, guides and repertories that have been published.

During this period too, Boenninghausen was a constant and prolific contributor to the of the new series of which, the Neues Archiv, he became associate editor along with Stapf, after the death of Gross to the Allgemeine homoeopathische Zeitung and to the Homoeopathe Belge.

In these labors and in the discharge of his functions as a practitioner, his days were filled with honorable toil. His fame as a successful practitioner and as the acknowledged master of our Materia Medica, brought him many visitors from among professional men. These his genial cordiality converted into warm and steadfast friends.

Boenninghausen was in constant correspondence with Hahnemann from 1830 till the death of the old master.

In 1848 he founded the Society of the Homoeopathic Physicians of Westphalia and the Rhine, the yearly meetings of which still continue.

Almost every homoeopathic society has elected him a member. The Homoeopathic Medical College of Cleveland, in 1854, conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine, and, on the 20th of April, 1861, the Emperor of the French, Napoleon III, whom, when a boy, Boenninghausen their, Councilor to Louis of Holland, had known, made him Knight of the Legion of Honor.

His interest in the history and progress of Homoeopathy in all parts of the world was very great. Especially was he interested in its development in America, a country from which he had received many tokens of esteem and admiration.

On receiving a copy of the volume of “Transactions of the Homoeopathic Medical Society of the State of New Pork” published in 1863 by the Legislature of the State, he expressed great pleasure, using the following language :

“I have been very agreeably surprised by the progress of Homoeopathy in your country. Your Government, indeed, does not cease to favor everything which is truly salutary to man kind.

On the 26th day of February 1864, the good and noble Baron Clemens Maria Franz von Boenninghausen, died at Münster, at the age of 78 (almost 79) years.

[From Pioneers of homeopathy. The story of the provers who assisted Hahnemann. – Pioneers of homeopathy by T. L. Bradford]

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