Constantine Hering

Constantine Hering (1800 to 1880) was a Saxony-born physician who became one of the founding figures of homeopathy in the United States. Trained in medicine, obstetrics and surgery at Wurzburg, he was first asked to write a book refuting homeopathy, but after reading Samuel Hahnemann and testing its claims himself he became a lifelong advocate and Hahnemann's personal friend. After six years collecting specimens and practising in Surinam he settled in Philadelphia in 1833. There he helped found the Hahnemannian Society, the first formal American homeopathic organization, started the North American Academy of the Homeopathic Arts in Allentown in 1836, and co-founded the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania. He held chairs of the institutes of medicine and materia medica, served as first president of the American Institute of Homeopathy, edited several journals, and added remedies such as Lachesis, Psorinum and Glonoinum to the homeopathic materia medica. He died in Philadelphia in 1880.