Hering, Constantine

Hering, Constantine

(1800–80) homeopathic physician; born in Oschatz, Saxony, Germany. He studied medicine in Leipzig, Germany, under Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, namely, the theory that minute doses of a substance that produces disease symptoms in a healthy person will cure a person sick with the same symptoms. Hering came to America in 1831, settled in Philadelphia (1933), and organized the first school of homeopathy in the U.S.A. at Allentown, Pa. (1835). In 1848 he cofounded the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania, which merged with the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia when he founded the latter in 1867. He set forth the basics of homeopathy in English with his 10-volume work, Guiding Symptoms (1878–91).

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.