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History
of Homoeopathy
Homoeopathy is a system of medicine, which
was discovered and developed by a
German physician, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, between 1796 and 1842.
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 Cullen's 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.
To discover its true mode of action, he
himself ingested 4 drams of cinchona juice twice daily
for a few days. To his great astonishment, he very soon developed symptoms
very similar
to ague or malarial fever.
This unexpected result set up in his mind a new train of thought and he
conducted
similar experiments on himself and other individuals with other medicines
whose curative
action in certain diseases had been well established. He found that in
healthy persons
the medicines produce symptoms very similar to what they cure in diseased
individuals.
So he was led to the inference that medicines cure diseases only because
they can
produce similar symptoms in healthy individuals. The whole of Homoeopathy
derives
from this law. He developed from it the whole system of healing
--- Homoeopathy.
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."
He thus put forward his new doctrine of Similia Similibus Curantur (like
cures like) in contrast
to the age-old doctrine of Contraria Contraris Curantur (opposite cures
opposite).
1796 is considered to be the year
of birth of Homoeopathy. Doctrines of Homoeopathy
were attempted to be formulated, for the first time by Dr. Hahnemann in
his article
"The Medicine of Experience" published
in 1805 till the complete systematization of
the principles and practice of the Homoeopathyart of healing was effected
with the publication
of Dr. Hahnemann's Organon of Medicine in 1810. After he had laid a solid
foundation
for reconstructing medicine as a science by the publication of his Organon
of Healing Art,
and Pure Materia Medica, he issued his valuable Chronic Diseases.
The art of medicine was thus placed on a scientific
footing when
Dr. Hahnemann discovered the method of testing the positive action
of each individual drug and a law guiding the selection of drug to
cure diseases.