A new beginning

- Following in hahnemann's footsteps : the the definitive years 1833-1843 (D. Little)
 After the death of his first wife, Samuel continued his practice of medicine at Coethen, where he wrote the 5th edition of the Organon. Although he was still in good health, he decided that he was going to retire from his active practice and remove himself from day to day involvement with homoeopathy. In the year 1835, the Founder was visited by a French woman named Mademoiselle Melanie D' Hervilly, who was destined to become his second wife, closest confidante, and apprentice. She was well known among Parisians as a philanthropist, poet, artist, and feminist, and she had been interested in the healing arts since her youth. She called on the doctor for the treatment of an ailment, and even though she was half his age, they instantly found themselves falling in love.

 The marriage of Melanie and Samuel took place quietly on January 18, 1835. It was a great surprise to most of his close friends, as they were not informed of the wedding, and the couple soon left for Paris. He wrote Hering that his new wife made him feel like a "younger man again," and that he had taken up a new life. Melanie learned the healing arts at his side and became the first in a long line of female homoeopathic doctors. So, instead of the old doctor retiring, he and his new wife built a very large practice in Paris. It wasn't long before Samuel began a new series of experiments in posology and pharmacy. We are grateful to Melanie for opening a new chapter of the old Master's life and inspiring him to reach new heights.
 Hahnemann was not completely satisfied with the medicinal solutions of 30C potencies, especially in the treatment of the chronic miasms and complex degenerative diseases. He had given his blessings to the high potency movement in the 5th edition, but he was raising his own potencies very slowly. It was in 1839 that he began to routinely administer the 200C potency in the clinic. In certain cases, he found the lower potencies to be too weak, yet at the same time, the higher potencies caused strong aggravations. He wondered if it was possible to make a remedy that acted deeply, but was gentler on the constitution. Even though the use of medicinal solutions had greatly improved the centesimal potency system, he still wondered how he could overcome aggravations in patients who were weak, overly sensitive, and, at present, incurable.
 The Founder would ponder these problems as he smoked his pipe, a lifelong habit that Melanie unsuccessfully tried to reform. If a low potency is too weak to act, and a high potency only aggravates, what are we supposed to do? How can we acquire the advantages of both a low and high potency in one remedy? Surely, the answer to this question did not lay in raising the centesimals to ever higher degrees. He had tested Jenichen's high potencies, but they were not suitable for chronic pathology in those with weakened vitality. It was Hahnemann's greatest desire to cure these complex diseases in those with an injured vital force. The only thing the old master could do was to begin a new series of experiments, even though he was in his eighties!