Dr. PIERRE SCHMIDT (1894 – 1987)

A TRIBUTE

K.S.Srinivasan

In the death of Dr. Pierre SCHMIDT, on the 15^th October 1987 at 93 years of age, the world of Homœopathy has lost one of its great masters.  For well nearly 70 years he has been the greatest exponent of Hahnemannian Homœopathy.

Dr. Pierre SCHMIDT was born on 22^nd July 1894 and after obtaining his medical degree studied Homœopathy under great homœopaths like Dr. Francois CARTIER, Leon VANNIER, John H.CLARKE, Margaret TYLER, Sir John WEIR, Cyrus M.BOGER, William DEWEY and others but mainly under Dr. Alfonso Eugenia AUSTIN and Dr. Fredrica GLADWIN of the USA.  In turn, Dr. SCHMIDT has trained many homœopaths; the foremost among them are the late Drs. Elizabeth WRIGHT-HUBBARD, Jost KÜNZLI, Jacques BAUR and Will KLUNKER.  We still have with us others trained by Dr.SCHMIDT, like Diwan HARISH CHAND.

HAHNEMANN’s 50 millesimal potencies came to light to the English-speaking world only through Dr. SCHMIDT through his essay “The Hidden Treasures Of The Last Edition Of Organon.” published in the British Journal of Homœopathy in July/Oct. 1954.

Dr. SCHMIDT has lectured and written extensively and has always held on to HAHNEMANN’s teachings and KENT’s expositions.  His lectures in French on homœopathic philosophy are well known and excerpts in English have come in the old ‘Recorder’.  A complete translation of all his works in English is yet to be available.

Dr. SCHMIDT has contributed most to the homœopathic Repertory; he has given many additions obtained out of his extensive, world-wide homœopathic practice of many  years.  His “Defective Illness” gives many additions to the repertory. His lecture on the “Art Of Case-Taking And Interrogation” iswell-known and the questionnaire is so formed as to elicit response which would help us to locate appropriate rubrics in the KENT’s Repertory.  Many of his articles which appeared in the Cahiers du Groupement Hahnemannien were translated into English and published:  “Sports Injuries; Remedies For The Emergency Kit; The Concepts of Truth and Law in Medicine; Reactive Remedies of Organic Nervous Complaints; etc.”  Many therapeutic tips lie scattered in his writings, not all of which have found their entry into the repertories:

  “Lancinatingpains about the heart: 

  from base to apex at night:  Syph

  base to clavicle or shoulder:    Spig

  apex to base:    Med

  Constricting pains about heartregion:    Cact.,Spig., Carb-ac., Sulph.

  Trio in geriatric heart:  Aur-m., Bar-c.,Sec.

Dr. SCHMIDT though commended the ‘high’ potencies never said that lower potencies should never be used.  In one of his lectures he has said that the experienced homœopath would need the use of the entire range - from the mother tincture to the MM, DMM

Heallowed many to use his large library containing rare books, eg, H.C.ALLEN’sKey Notes used by Dr. AUSTIN with the additions made by him, BOENNINGHAUSEN’scopy of theTherapeutic Pocket Book his additions, corrections, etc. Hislibrary in Geneva contains over 2000 titles and is now administered by the ‘Foundation  homoéopathic Pierre Schmidt’.

One of his great acts was the building up of the LIGA in 1925.  After over 60 years of its founding the LIGA  hasnowsplit vertically.  FortunatelyDr.SCHMIDT did not live to see the ‘split’.  However, the LIGA is still active.

Perhaps the greatest loss of Dr.P.SCHMIDT was the theft - by Dr. K.C. MITTAL of India, it is said - of his copy of Kent-hand-corrected repertory.  This stolen copy could not be restored to Dr. SCHMIDT despite complaint to the Interpol.  Subsequently, however, different ‘revised’, ‘enlarged’ editions of Kent Repertory have been published - within the last 15-20 years - all said to be based on the‘Kent-hand-corrected’ copy of the repertory!  Dr. Ahmed CURRIM of the USA has said inthe Washington Congress of the LIGA in 1987 that he traced the ‘stolen’ copy inIndia and succeeded in taking possession of it in much mutilatedcondition.  Strictly speaking thisretrieved copy, however mutilated etc., should have been restored to Dr. SCHMIDT as it is hisproperty.  Anyway, this theft of the valuable treasure from Dr. SCHMIDT by a homœopath (Indian) to whom it was entrusted to work with, and the claim of the many new editions said to have been based on‘Kent-corrections’ will remain a very mysterious and shameful part of the history of Homœopathy.

Dr.SCHMIDT’s insistence on genuine Homœopathy and homœopathic organisation isreflected in a letter he wrote to the editor of the ‘Journal of the AmericanInstitute of Homœopathy’ (Dr. E.W.HUBBARD), in 1964:

“Ireceived the reprint of ‘Athletic Injuries’ .  I regret that the part about Acupuncturewas included, for I wanted only the strictest Homœopathy to appear in myarticles. I am ever very busy like yourself, and myobject now is to train pupils to transmit the torch of Homœopathy, trying to havemy colleagues profit by my precious library.

“I do not get away from the idea of  organizing a forum amongclassical homœopaths, probably in America where we can reunite all those whowere inspired by KENT and HAHNEMANN to exchange opinions in the domain where weneed clarification and precision: Repertory , Materia Medica, Teaching,Therapeutics, etc...”

Else where he says “Study the Materia Medicathoroughly and diligently, study the Organonagain and again and the philosophy of KENT.  One of these days you will becompensated richly for that. Because Homœopathy makes great demands of coursebut it compensates with high rewards.  It is certain: Homœopathy, practiced by earnest, persevering physicianswho take pleasure in their work produces full satisfaction of material,intellectual and spiritual respects.”

The proper way to pay homage to Dr.SCHMIDT is by keeping the torch of genuine Homœopathy burning with brilliance and to have a forum as envisioned by him, free from politics.

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