[An unfulfilled wish of Hahnemann for a homoeopathic pharmacopoeia].

The collections of patient correspondence by Samuel Hahnemann in the Institute for the History of Medicine at the Robert Bosch Foundation in Stuttgart and the Deutsche Homöopathie-Union in Karlsruhe contain some letters written by the dispensing chemist, Theodor Lappe (1802-1882). These documents provide details of business affairs rather than illness topics. Hahnemann used the help of this pharmacist, who lived and worked in Neudietendorf/Thuringia, in trying to develop the homoeopathic medicine causticum. This gave rise to the idea of developing a homoeopathic pharmacopoeia which unfortunately failed because of the lack of self-confidence of this highly talented chemist.