ABSTRACT
The Sage of CöthenAlthough most of medicine’s critics stayed within the boundaries of orthodoxy, a few chose routes that took them far from the medical mainstream. Typically, these individuals placed greater value on making a break from the past than holding to its threads, however fragile. Samuel Christian Friedrich Hahnemann (1755-1843), the founder of homeopathy, was just such an apostate, born in Meissen, a small village northwest of Dresden in the state of Saxony. Little is known of his grammar education, but by the age of twelve he was identified as a pupil with exceptional abilities, particularly in languages. Informed that Samuel was a gifted student, his father, at first hesitant, eventually allowed him to further his studies at a private school under the gratuitous instruction of rector Magister Müller, a teacher in languages and German composition.1
