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The
origins of the Idea
- Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine was the first
person to recognise the principle of 'Like cures Like' in the 5th
Century BC.
- However the use of medicine in this way goes back even to the
ancient Egyptians.
- the idea was then ignored until the 16th Century when
Paracelsus advocated it
By the 18th Century, medical practice had become
increasingly invasive and toxic. Homoeopathy
arose as a reaction to this.
Samuel Hahnemann: The Founder of
Homoeopathy
- was a German doctor and chemist, working in the 18th Century.
- he loudly protested against the medical treatments of the time
and advocated improved public hygiene and housing.
- he understood that good nutrition, fresh air,
exercise and hygiene was essential to promoting
health.
Hahnemann's Eureka moment
- he translated a text written by Dr. William Cullen, a
leading Scottish physician considered an expert on medicinal
substances.
- Cullen claimed that quinine cured malaria because it
was bitter.
- Hahnemann knew that there were many other bitter
substances which did not cure malaria and set about
experimenting himself.
- Firstly, he dosed himself with quinine and recorded
what happened.
- to his surprise he developed symptoms very similar to
malaria, which disappeared when he stopped taking the
remedy.
- he postulated that a substance that causes a disease, will
cure that a similar disease.
- he went on to develop the first clinical trials,
testing the herbal pharmacopoeia on groups of healthy people.
- the testing of a homoeopathic remedy in this way is
called a proving.
Development of Homoeopathic Remedies
- after 6 years of collecting information from provings,
Hahnemann began testing his theory: if he matched a
patient's symptoms to those produced by a remedy and used this
remedy to treat that person, they should show a beneficial
response.
- he found this to be true and started practicing.
- many of the remedies he was using were highly toxic so
he diluted them to reduce their toxicity.
- he discovered that this also increased their healing
effects.
Homoeopathy: Hahnemann's medical
model
- with practice Hahnemann developed an elegant theory of
health and disease and it is this that forms the basis
of all Classical Homoeopathy practiced today.
- this theory has been developed by homoeopaths since
Hahnemann's time and is still developing.
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Homoeopathy means 'treatment by the same'. Conventional
medicine is referred to as allopathy and means treatment by
the opposite.
Samuel Hahnemann
(1755-1843)
The
doctor who developed the holistic system of medicine known as
homoeopathy.
Chinchoma bark, from which quinine was extracted
Hahnemann needed to dilute extracts of deadly plants such as
Aconite to reduce its toxic effects. |
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