Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Hempel, Charles Julius

HEMPEL, Charles Julius, physician, b. in Solingen, Prussia, 5 Sept., 1811; d. in Grand Rapids, Mich., 25 Sept., 1879. After completing his collegiate course at Solingen, he attended lectures at the “Université de France,” in Paris, and assisted Michelet, who succeeded Guizot in the chair of history, in the publication of his “History of France.” He came to the United States in 1835, and for ten years resided in the family of Signor Maroncelli, the intimate friend of the revolutionist Silvio Pellico, where he imbibed an ardent love for music and Italian literature. While attending medical lectures at the University of New York, where he was graduated in 1845, he became associated with several eminent homœopathic practitioners, and soon after his graduation he began to translate some of the more important works relating to homœopathy. He was appointed to the chair of materia medica and therapeutics in the Hahnemann medical college of Philadelphia in 1857, and afterward removed to Grand Rapids, Mich., where he engaged in a large practice. His health failing, he went abroad; but the change was not beneficial, and he returned to Grand Rapids, where he died. Dr. Hempel was one of the earliest honorary members of the British homœopathic society, and was the recipient of diplomas and certificates of membership from many medical colleges and associations. He wrote a work on the “Life of Christ” in the German language, another on “The True Organization of the New Church,” also a “New Grammar of the German Language.” He published numerous translations, including Hahnemann's “Chronic Diseases” (5 vols., Philadelphia, 1846); Hartmann's “Acute and Chronic Diseases” (4 vols., 1849); Jahr's “Mental Diseases and their Homœopathic Treatment” (1853); and “Diseases of Women and Children” (1853); and was the author of “Christendom and Civilization” (1840); a “System of Materia Medica and Therapeutics,” his chief work (1859); “Homœopathic Theory and Practice in Surgical Disease,” with Mr. J. Beakly (1865); and “The Science of Homœopathy” (1874).