Attomyr, Joseph, homeopath (1807-1856).

Correspondence archive of 154 letters to the physician and writer.

      Various places, 1830s and 1840s. 528 ½ pp. on 315 ff. Various formats. Several addenda. Copious correspondence archive of the Slavonian-born pioneer of homeopathy. His "Briefe über Homöopathie" ("Letters on Homeopathy") were first published in 1833 and have been reprinted often (a new edition is planned for mid-2008). The letters written to him by his correspondence partners, forming the bulk of the present collection, are unpublished. - Joseph Attomyr studied in Vienna under Emil von Marenzeller and in Budapest under Josef Müller; after having healed himself from tuberculosis, he was expelled from the Vienna Josephinum. After having lived in Munich, Köthen, and Leipzig, he settled in Budapest as a well-known homeopath from 1839 until 1845 (cf. ÖBL I, 34). - As might be expected, Attomyrs correspondence with his 21 colleagues Bernstein, Claudius, Fleischmann, Gulyas, Gutmann, Ivanovich, Jaekel, Kazinski, Keiller, Melicher, Müller, Necher, Pezval, Sator, Schellhammer, Scholz, Schwarz, Stantzky, Starovessky, Vattenchich und Wirkner as well as with the politician Gustav von Struve, the treasurer Count Karoly Csaky de Korosszeg et Adorjan, Count Emmerich Festetics and his patient Julie Szumrak concerns mainly issues of homeopathy and the treatment of patients as well as the dissemination of the homeopathic doctrine and the activity of the German Central Association of Homeopathic Physicians founded in 1829. Wilhelm Fleischmann (c. 1789-1868) for example, then one of Vienna's leading homeopaths, answers Attomyr's question regarding the cure of Typhus abdominalis (letter dated 11 March 1840); the Bohemian physician Georg von Necher (who introduced homeopathy to Naples and cured the Duke of Bourbon) thanks Attomyr for a diploma (letter dated 18 Feb. 1836). Gordianus Jaekel, surgeon at the Erlau convent of the Brothers Hospitallers, describes several case histories and suggests a chair of homeopathy at Pest University. His letter (dated 31 March 1833) also provides a detailed account of an interesting case of Mesmerism. Attomyr's correspondence with his teacher Josef Müller (1773-1852) in Budapest encompasses 13 autograph letters. - Among the numerous addenda, a letter by Dr. Haubold to Samuel Hahnemann and a ms. copy of his answer deserve special mention. Joseph Attomyr: Briefe über Homöopathie. Reprint of the 1833-1834 complete edition. Euskirchen, Verlag Homöopathisches Wissen, 1998 (= Klassische Werke der Homöopathie, vol. 6).