Johann Jacob Reuter 1810 - 1967
April 11, 2009
Johann Jacob Reuter 1810? - 1867? was a German orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy, and
Johann Jacob Reuter 1810 - 1967
April 11, 2009
Johann Jacob Reuter 1810? - 1867? was a German orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy, and he was involved in one the earliest scientific clinical trials in 1835.
Reuter was a colleague of Paul Sigmund Karl Preu.
Reuter practiced in Nuremberg.
Stolberg M. Inventing the randomized double blind trial: The Nuremberg salt test of 1835. Commentary on: Löhner G, on behalf of a Society of Truth Loving Men (1835). Die homöopathischen Kochsalzversuche zu Nürnberg [The homeopathic salt trials in Nuremberg]. Nuremberg.
Control groups, randomization, blinding, placebos and related methods designed to eliminate bias have become widely recognized as key features of efforts to identify more effective and safer treatments. As others have shown (Kaptchuk 1998; Dean 2004), many of these methods were first developed and applied in the context of controversies between mainstream medicine and new, ‘alternative’ types of medicine.
A very early example of randomisation and double blinding was an evaluation of homeopathy conducted in Nuremberg in 1835 by a ‘Society of Truth Loving Men’ (Stolberg 1996; 1999).
At the time, homeopathy had garnered considerable support among the upper classes in the then Kingdom of Bavaria. In Nuremberg, one of Bavaria’s largest and most affluent cities, Paul Sigmund Karl Preu and Johann Johann Jacob Reuter had treated some of the most prominent families with homeopathy, including members of the high aristocracy.
In 1834, annoyed by homeopathy’s rising popularity, Friedrich Wilhelm von Hoven, the city’s highest ranking public health official and head of the local hospitals, published a devastating critique of homeopathy under the pseudonym ‘E. Wahrhold’ (Wahrhold 1834), which he had used previously in a way that allowed readers to identify the true author.
Von Hoven accused homeopathy of lacking any scientific foundation. He suggested that homeopathic drugs were not real medicines at all and alleged homeopathic cures were either due to dietetic regimens and the healing powers of nature, or showed the power of belief. He called for an objective, comparative assessment by impartial experts. If, as he expected, homeopathic treatment proved ineffective, the government would need to take drastic measures to protect the lives of deceived patients.
In 1835, as Karl Preu had died by this time, Johann Jacob Reuter was the sole remaining physician homeopath in the city. He reacted to Wahrhold/von H