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Definition & Basic Principles of Homeopathy
Homeopathy (also spelled homopathy or homoeopathy), from the Greek words homoios (similar) and pathos (suffering), is a system
of medicine, notable for its practice of prescribing water-based solutions that do not contain chemically active ingredients.
The theory of homeopathy was developed by the Saxon physician Samuel Hahnemann (1843) and first published in 1796. It has
a wide and growing popularity in areas where it is practiced today, but the way homeopathy medicines work and many of the
fundamental principles of homeopathy like the theory of the vital force and chronic miasms are still hotly debated.
Homeopathy calls for treating "like with like" (law of similars). The practitioner considers the totality of
symptoms of a given case. He or she then chooses a remedy that has been reported in a homeopathic proving to produce a similar
set of symptoms in healthy subjects. This remedy is usually given in extremely low concentrations prepared according to a
procedure known as potentisation (see the Principle of Dilution below), because it is held that this process gives higher
dilutions more therapeutic power.
History of Homeopathy
Homeopathy was developed by Dr Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843) starting with his recognition of the Law of Simila as a general
therapeutic law. Although people like Hippocrates and Paracelsus (born around 1493), had proposed & used similar ideas
in their times, it was Dr. Hahnemann who first recognised & applied this therapeutic principle as a general law.
In the 18th century, the medical science was still very unscientific. The knowledge about human body, diseases and the
modalities of treatment were poor and vague. Methods like blood-letting, leeching, purging were the common treatments for
most ailments. Practically the whole of the 18th century in Europe was marked by a plethora of theories and hypothesis concerning
the nature of disease and its causation. Consequently methods of therapeutic practice were as numerous and diverse as the
theories propounded. The uncertainty and lack of any fixed principle of healing disappointed Dr. Hahnemann.
So Dr. Hahnemann relinquished his medical practice & devoted himself to the translation of great medical classics
of his time. In 1790, when Dr. Hahnemann was engaged in translating William Cullen's (a Scottish physician) materia medica
from English to German, his attention was arrested by the remark of the author that cinchona bark cured malaria because of
its bitterness & tonic effects on stomach. This explanation appeared unsatisfactory to him. In his youth he had travelled
in a particular area of Hungary where Marsh Fever or Malaria had been rife. He had used the herb, Cinchina Bark, but his experience
did not support the conclusion of Cullen's paper. He decided to carry out some experiments of his own.
He took a dose of the herb himself and he found that he developed symptoms very much like Marsh Fever. He realised that
the cure of the disease could cause the symptoms of the disease. He tried it on his family, friends and volunteers and they
all developed the same sort of symptoms. He experimented with this one drug on many people and the majority of them told the
same story. In 1796, after 6 years of Dr. Hahnemann's first experiment, he published an article in Hufeland's Journal volume-II,
parts 3 & 4, pages 391-439 & 465-561. "An essay on a new principle for ascertaining the curative powers of drugs
& some examinations of the previous principle."
Like Cures Like
So he developed the principle that a substance which will create the symptoms of a disease in a healthy person will actually
cure the symptoms of the disease in a sick person. Hahnemann called this principle "similia similibus curentur"
or "let like be cured by like". He went on to "prove", as it is called, some 67 remedies on his many healthy
students, family and friends. His findings were published in Materia Medica Pura of 1810. Many of the substances Hahnemann
used were highly poisonous, for example arsenic and mercury, and to avoid the toxic effect, he experimented with smaller and
smaller doses. By experimentation, he found that successive dilutions of a substance became progressively more medicinally
active, and less toxic.
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