HAHN, August (1792-1863), German Protestant theologian, was born March 27, 1792, at Grossosterhausen near Eisleben, and after attending the Eisleben gymnasium, entered the university of Leipsic as a student of theology in 1810. After holding an educational appointment in Wittenberg for some time, he in 1819 was nominated professor extraordinarius of theology at Königsberg, and in the following year received a pastoral charge and a superintendency in that city. These posts, however, he soon τesigned on his promotion in 1821 to be professor ordinarius. In 1826 he removed as professor of theology to Leip3i'c, where, hitherto distinguished only as editor of Bardesanes, Marcion, and Ephraem Syrus, he came into extraordinary prominence as the author of a treatise, De rationalismi qn/i dicitur vera indole et qua cum naturalismo contineatur ratione (1827), and also of an Offene Erklärung an die Evangelische Kirche zunächst in Sachsen u. Preussen (1827), in which he endeavoured to convince the rationalists that it was their duty voluntarily and at once to withdraw from the national church. In 1833 Hahn was called to Breslau as theological professor and consistorial councillor, and in 1844 he became “general superintend- ent” of the province of Silesia. He died at Breslau on May 13, 1863. Though uncompromising in his “supranaturalism,” he did not altogether satisfy the men of his own school by his own doctrinal system. The first edition of his Lehrbuch des christlichen Glaubens (1828) was freely characterized as lacking in consistency and as detracting from the strength of the old positions in many important poflats. Many of these defects, however, he is considered to have remedied in his second edition (1857). Among the other literary labours by which Hahn is best ...

HAHNEMANN, Samuel Christian Friedrich (1755- 1843), the founder of the homoeopathic system of medicine, was born at Meissen in Saxony, 10th April 1755. He studied first at the “elector’s school” of Meissen, and thereafter as a student of medicine at Leipsic and Vienna. He took the degree of M.D. at Erlangen in 1779, and after acting as physician at various places he returned in 1789 to Leipsic, where he largely occupied himself in the translation of medical works. While working at Cullen’s Materia Medica, he was struck by the contradictory account given of the properties of Peruvian bark. He had previously meditated much on the unsatisfactory nature of the science of medicine; and, after much reflexion and many experiments, he became convinced of the truth of the principle similia similibus curantur (see Homoeopathy), i.e., the cure for a disease is the very drug that would in a healthy person produce the symptoms of such disease. Further experiments convinced him that the conventional doses produced symptoms of unnecessary and dangerous violence, and this led to another principle, that of minimum doses, according to which the benefit to be derived from a medicine can be fully obtained by the administration of a very small quantity. Firmly convinced of the truth of these principles, Hahnemann spent the rest of his life in making them known to the world. He encountered much opposition, and in 1821 was forced to leave Leipsic, as he was not allowed to dispense his own prescriptions. The grand duke of Anhalt-Köthen, however, appointed him his physician, and at Köthen he resided till 1835 when he removed to Paris. He died 2d July 1843. Hahnemann was a man of remarkable courage and perseverance. He not only sacrificed his immediate interests for the sake of his ...