Dr. Pierre Schmidt  Pierre Schmidt was born on the 22nd of July 1894 in Neuchâtel. He was the oldest in a family of six children. From the age of 10 he wanted to be a doctor. When he was 17, his family moved to Geneva, where he studied. He was a brilliant student. He completed his studies at the age of 26, finishing top out of 40 examinees. His father was successfully treated by a homeopath, Dr Ubert of Neuchâtel, who was determined that the 2 oldest children, Pierre and Roger, should become homeopaths. He gave them Hahnemann's "Organon of the Medical Art". He was fascinated when he read this. He studied Latin, German, English and Sanskrit. He had to treat a serious case of pharyngitis in a 10 year-old child, which looked as though it could be diphtheria. He treated the child with merc. cyan., administering 6 drops with a potency of 9CH every 2 hours. The child made a spectacular recovery. This placed him in a dilemma. He had never seen a case of diphtheria whilst practising, and he noticed that homeopathic medicine gave him results that he did not obtain with traditional medicine. He resolved to put homeopathy to the test, after hesitating over allopathy. Dr Schmidt re-read the "Organon" and "Chronic Diseases" from start to finish. He went to visit about twenty homeopaths in Switzerland, and Dr Mende of Zurich insisted on his going to study homeopathy in the USA, passing through London to meet Dr John Clarke, Margaret Tyler and Sir John Weir, physician to the British royal family. He met society homeopaths in Paris, but they paid him no attention. In 1927 he set out for the USA. It took him 14 days to cross the Atlantic. It was his intention to complete his doctoral thesis, which he entitled "Laws and principles applied to current therapy by homeopathy". He went to the Flower Hospital, where he attended courses in homeopathy. He was lucky enough to be welcomed by Dr Austin, private physician to John Rockefeller senior, who took him on as a pupil. Over a period of several months, Dr Austin taught him Kent's philosophy, the Repertory and the Materia Medica. He taught him to work with high dilutions (XM). He sent him to do a course with Dr Gladwin in Philadelphia, where he attended consultations for 3 months. In her will, she left him a little book, the only copy in existence. Dr Austin left him his own copy of Kent's Repertory, and Kent's diamond ring. It is thanks to the generosity of these 2 American doctors that he returned to Switzerland with more than 1,000 different works, 4,000 high dilutions and a sound basis of knowledge. As soon as he returned, Pierre Schmidt began to promote homeopathy in Europe. At the age of 28, he married Dora Nagel, a pharmacist. They had two daughters, Gilberte and Yolande, both of whom sadly died at the age of 2 of encephalitis, in spite of the care with which they were surrounded. It was a difficult ordeal, and he greatly valued certain doctors who surrounded him during those grim days. He was very grateful to Dr Nebel, who came to try and cure them. However, nothing could save them. His wife also worked in the field of homeopathy, and set up a homeopathic laboratory. From 1921 on, Pierre Schmidt practised homeopathy in Geneva. In 1931 he headed an international homeopaths' congress in Geneva. He was fascinated by ophthalmodiagnosis and acupuncture. Dr Schmidt ran a great many courses. In 1946 he set up a homeopathy school in Lyon. 40 doctors attended the courses. He gave conferences in London, Barcelona and Brussels. He also trained Dr Künzli, who would go on to teach homeopathy in German-speaking Switzerland. In 1953 Pierre Schmidt became an honorary member of the Homeopathic Academy in Barcelona. In 1955, on the occasion of the jubilee celebrating the 200th anniversary of Hahnemann's birth, he was invited to go to Washington with the physicians of the Queen of England and the Pope to give a conference on the founder of homeopathy. He handed on the teachings that were dear to Hahnemann. His aim was to "use one arm to promote progress towards my ideal, and to keep the other behind my back to help future generations to achieve perfection in this unique method, the only one moving towards one law and a collection of principles for applying remedies to the sick," as Hahnemann used to say. Pierre Schmidt died in 1987. He left behind important works, such as the French translation of the 6th edition of Hahnemann's "Organon" and the French translation of Kent's "The Art and Science of Homeopathic Medicine". His wife, Mme Dora Schmidt-Nagel, died several years later. Her laboratory still exists under the name "Laboratoire Homéopathique D. Schmidt-Nagel SA" [D. Schmidt-Nagel plc homeopathic laboratory].