History

Rising popularity

After his first experiments in 1790, Hahnemann tried many other substances, learning what symptoms they would produce and therefore, what symptoms they could cure. He taught others his new method of healing and soon homoeopathy spread from Germany to the rest of the continent. By 1829, Hahnemann was famous throughout Europe. He produced amazing cures in some of the worst epidemics of the time. During a typhus epidemic in 1813, Hahnemann cured 179 of 180 cases. During epidemics, survival rates in Homoeopathic hospitals far surpassed those in conventional ones. Because of its success in healing the most serious diseases without harm to the patient, homoeopathy was soon practiced all over the world. The wealthiest families and the royalty of Europe were early patrons of homoeopathy. The World Health Organization estimates that homoeopathy is used by 500 million people worldwide, making it the second most widely used medicine in the world. In England, France, Germany and the Netherlands, homoeopathy is included in the National Health Service.

In France, 18,000 physicians prescribe homoeopathic remedies. There are seven medical schools offering post grad degrees in homoeopathy and all 23,000 pharmacies carry homoeopathic remedies. In England, 42% of British physicians refer patients to homoeopaths. The Royal family has used homoeopathy for three generations. There are currently five homoeopathic hospitals, and the oldest, the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital, has been there for 100 years. India has over 70,000 board certified homoeopathic physicians, hundreds of homoeopathic hospitals and clinics and many homoeopathic medical schools. In Germany, 20% of Physicians prescribe homoeopathic remedies.

In the Netherlands, 45% of physicians consider homoeopathy effective. Homoeopathy is also practiced in Vienna, Scotland, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Pakistan, Greece, and Belgium.

The Principles Of Homoeopathy

1. Like cures like. Hahnemann believed that, in order to cure disease, one must seek medicines that can excite similar symptoms in the healthy human body. This idea is summarised in the Latin phrase similia similibus curentur, often translated as ‘let like be treated with like’. Thus a medicine such as Coffea tosta, made from toasted coffee beans, might be used to treat insomnia.

2. Minimal dose. When Hahnemann carried out his original work he gave substantial doses of medicine to his patients, in keeping with contemporary practice. This often resulted in major toxic reactions; fatalities were not uncommon. He experimented to try to dilute out the unwanted toxicity, while at the same time maintaining a therapeutic effect. Hahnemann found that, as the medicines were serially diluted, with vigorous shaking at each stage, they appeared to become more potent therapeutically. To reflect this effect he called the process Potentisation. The potentisation process is described in detail below.

3. Single medicine. Hahnemann believed that one should use a single medicine to treat a condition. Provings in all materia medicas relate to single medicines and there is no way of knowing whether or how individual medicine drug pictures are modified by combination with other ingredients. In later life Hahnemann did use mixtures of two or three medicines, and there are a limited number of such mixtures still used today, including Arsen iod, Gelsemium and Eupatorium perf (AGE for colds and flu), and Aconite, Belladonna and Chamomilla (ABC for teething). There is a growing tendency for the major manufacturers to combine mixtures of medicines and potencies in one product. These are known as complexes.

5. Theory of Chronic Disease. During the early age of homeopathic practice Hahnemann observed that in spite of best homeopathic treatment some cases would return with a recurrence of symptoms at intervals. This failure led him to investigate thoroughly a large number of chronic cases and after 12 years of observations he reached the conclusion that the chronic diseases are caused by chronic miasms. The miasms are Psora, Syphilis and Sycosis.Psora is the real fundamental cause and producer of innumerable forms of disease. It is the mother of all diseases and at least 7/8th of all the chronic maladies spring from it while the remaining eighth spring from Syphilis and Sycosis. Cure is only possible by proper anti-miasmatic treatment.

6. Theory of Vital Force. It is Homeopathy which stresses the existence and operation of the vital force in a living organism. The human organism is a triune entity consisting of body, mind, and spirit. This spirit which is responsible for different manifestations of life was termed by Dr. Hahnemann as ‘Vital Force’. Hahnemann speaks of the vital force in Aphorism 10 of his Organon of Medicine as: “The material organism without the vital force is capable of no sensation, no function, no self preservation; it derives all sensations, and performs all functions of life solely by means of the immaterial being (the vital force) which animates the material organism in health and disease.

7. Doctrine of Drug Dynamisation. Homeopathic dynamisation is a process by which the medicinal properties which are latent in natural substances while in their crude state, become awakened and developed into activity to an incredible degree.