Oscar D Tietze 1799 - 1847

Oscar D Tietze 1799 - 1847 was a German orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy.

Tietze was a member of the Silesian Society of Homeopaths.

In 1851, Tietze was experimenting with minute doses of small pox and cow pox to treat the Small Pox.

In the list of contributors to the Samuel Hahnemann celebration of 1829 appears the names Tietze, Wundarzt and Geburtshelfer…

Ernst Ferdinand Rueckert published the following memoir in the Neue Archiv, vol. 3 (vol. 23, pt. 3 in continuous numbering):

”The subject of the memoir was born at Celsa, near Lobau, where his father was a schoolmaster, July 29, 1799. In the year 1812 he went to the gymnasium at Bauzen, where he underwent the necessary preliminary studies for his subsequent medical education.

”In the year 1817 he went to the medico chirurgical academy of Dresden, distinguished himself above his compeers for diligence and desire of acquiring knowledge, and after undergoing his examination for surgeon and accoucheur in 1820 he the same year entered upon his practical career. Never resting activity and devotion soon procured him a considerable practice, especially as an accoucheur.

“Soon after him I commenced my practical career as a homeopathic physician in his neighborhood, where I not unfrequently met with him. Although intimate friends in our youth, we now stood in scientific respects diametrically opposed, as he, still unacquainted with the nature of Homeopathy, and brimful of the wisdom of the old school, whose animosity towards the new doctrine he had imbibed, viewed me as an opponent in my capacity as physician, though his honest and upright character induced him to esteem me still as an old friend.

“It was not till the year 1828 that he ventured to make himself acquainted with homeopathic writings, and he began to make cautious experiments, which succeeded in spite of his unbelief.

“Once convinced of the truth of the homeopathic law of cure, he followed it out with untiring ardor; he hesitated not a moment to appear before the public as a converted Saul, patiently enduring the harassing persecutions of his colleagues, and submissively bore what must have been to him as a fortune’s father of a family, a hard lot, that of seeing himself suddenly descend from a widespread practice to a small number of patients; but so much the more diligently did he study homeopathic works, convinced that after he had passed this crisis a happier future lay before him.

“And he was not deceived. With his practical skill he soon succeeded, by means of ever increasing cures, in forming a fine line of practice. He would now, however, not submit to be despoiled by means of his hard won conviction and experience; and, as was consistent with his straightforward character, he boldly confuted by word of mouth, and by writing, all the calumnies of the enemies and the self styled friends of Homeopathy when they at all infringed on the truth, although some men of the opposite party in exalted positions occasionally made him feel, in no very agreeable manner, that he was not possessed of the doctor’s degree.

“He belonged to the small section of medical men who on the 13 of June, 1832, founded our Lusatian Society; he was one of our most active members, was beloved by all on account of his candor, was honored as a zealous partisan of the new school, esteemed as a practitioner devoted to his patients, and he filled with great fidelity to the end of his life the post of treasurer to the society.

“Of late years he took great interest in the high potencies, which he employed with much success. He made himself useful to Homeopathy by many valuable articles in the Archiv, and in the practical communications of the Lusatian Silesian Society.

“In the spring of 1847 a typhus abdominalis that had been spreading slowly in our neighborhood for several years approached his sphere of operations and as soon as he discovered that Belladonna and Arsenicum in high potencies were the chief remedies for it he boldly encountered it, cured an immense number of those affected by it (in one family seven persons), little thinking that he was to fall a sacrifice to his own usefulness.

“Several circumstances, especially a cough that gave his robust frame a severe shock, some depressing mental emotions, and exposure to cold, after being engaged in protracted labors at a distance from home, acted injuriously on his health, so that the contagion found in him a fruitful soil in which to take root.

“After several days of slight indisposition, he took seriously ill on June 11th, 1847, and suspected that he was about to be afflicted with typhus; he saw and prescribed for his numerous patients until the 13th, although excessively weak in body, but at last, on the 14th, he was forced to take to his bed.

“Hitherto he had treated himself. He now sought my aid with the utmost confidence. But more vexations awaited him. I only returned from a distant journey on the 18th and found my patient in a despairing condition of mind, that I, although I could not avoid it, had left him so long in his extremity.

“All the remedies exhibited remained without effect: the disease increasing day by day indicated the approach of death, which occurred after several days of delirium, on the evening of the 23th of June.”

The following is from the Zeitung:

“A distinguished physician and obstetrician, Oscar D. Tietze, in Ebersbach, died June 23rd 1847, deeply Iamented, not only by his sadly afflicted family, but also by his numerous adherents, friends and admirers.

“Typhoid fever, from the attack, of which he had previously saved several patients, put an end to his active life. Before he could assist his daughter, the disease seized on himself.

“On the 27th of June his body was laid to rest, in the 48 th year of his life. He was the pioneer of Homeopathy in this district, and for twenty years he has assisted with indefatigable faithfulness a great number of patients, acting at the same time as a skillful and experienced obstetrician.

“His unselfishness and faithfulness, his modesty and kindliness obtained for him the affection of all. Not only his skillful cures, but also his excellent literary works, mostly printed in the homeopathic Archiv, so much distinguished him that on account of his abounding knowledges and his penetrating acumen in the choice of remedies he was valued and recommended by the most prominent homeopathic physicians of our time.

“A thorough homeopath would find many friends of this curative method in this densely populated region, for although Altgersdorf, Duerrhennersdorf, Ebersbach, Friedersdorf, Kottmarsdorf. Neugersdorf, Neusalza, Spremberg, Spreedorf, Schoen. Bach etc., have experienced allopaths living in them or near them, they have no homeopath.

“We hope that the loss through the decease of Tietze will at least, in this respect, he alleviated soon by a competent successor in his work.

“By his family and friends the prematurely departed will be ever remembered, and to them his loss is irretrievable.” Neue Archiv. f. d. hom. Heil., vol. 3, pt. 3, page 128. Kirby’s Am. Jour. Hom., vol. 3, page 93. Allg. hom. Zeitung, vol. 33, page 95. Pierre Augustus Rapou, vol. 2, pp. 416, 481, 542. Atkin’s Hom. Direct., 1855, page 212.)

Oscar D Tietze’s Obituary is in The British Journal of Homeopathy in 1848.

Of interest:

C A Tietze contributed cases to The Homeopathic Examiner in 1846.

Emil Tietze (possibly Oscar’s son?) was a German who immigrated to America, and he wrote Scrofulous Affections and the Advantages of Their Treatment According to the Principles and Experiences of Homeopathy in 1872, and Pathogenetic Outlines of Homeopathic Drugs with Carl Heinigke in 1880.