Samuel Hahnemann And The History Of Homeopathy

The founder of Homeopathy was a German doctor called Samuel Hahnemann. He lived from 1755-1835 and was an eminent physician and chemist. He was known as a medical reformer, an early advocate of good diet and exercise and a great believer in the importance of improving all aspects of hygiene. Samuel Hahnemann ahead of his time in many ways. He lived at a time in history when disease was thought to be the result of offending humours (fluids) in the body, which had to be drained. This was usually achieved by blistering, purging or bleeding by means of Leech or scalpel. Disillusioned with the brutal treatment of eighteenth century medicine, where the cure often seemed to be worse than the disease, Hahnemann gave up the practice of medicine and turned to translating medical texts in order to support his family. In the course of this work he came across a paper, written by a doctor called William Cullen on the treatment of malaria with Peruvian bark or cinchona. He was not satisfied with Cullens explanation of why Cinchona worked and he wondered why the treatment of malaria by this drug was so effective when other agues and plagues were untouched by the medicines of the day and so his life of experimentation began. He took four drams of cinchona (Quinine) twice a day to see what effect it would have on his own health. Within a few days he developed almost all of the characteristic symptoms of malaria. In his own words, "I grew languid and drowsy, my pulse grew hard and small; intolerable anxiety, trembling, prostration throughout all my limbs; then pulsation in the head, redness of my cheeks and thirst, and in short all these symptoms which are usually characteristic of intermittent fever made their appearance one after the other. When he discontinued the symptoms disappeared and he was in good health, when he took a further dose his symptoms returned. Hahnemann recognised clearly that by dosing himself with large quantities of Quinine he had suffered all the classical symptoms of malaria.

Like Cures Like

Hahnemann was aware of the idea that "like cures like"(similia similibus curentur) from teachings of Hippocrates and Paracelsus. Further experiments convinced him that the idea was valid, so from his studies came Homeopathy's first basic principle that "a substance that produces symptoms in a healthy person, cures those symptoms in a sick person.

Samuel Hahnemann spent the rest of his life testing hundreds of other substances for their healing properties; he not only took them himself but also administered them to his wife, family and friends. He recorded every change they experienced, noting how they affected the mood, what type of pains they produced and any changes in appetite or body temperature. The results of these tests he called provings  (from the German word preufung, meaning test or trial).  By the time of his death in 1843 Hahnemann had carried out provings on one hundred substances. Since many of these medicines were very toxic he tried to dilute them as much as possible. He discovered that if he succussed the vial (shook it vigorously or struck the vial against a firm surface) as well as diluting, contrary to expectation the substance seemed to work more quickly. The more he diluted and succussed, the more potent the medicine became. The word potency is still used to describe the strength of a homeopathic remedy. This gave him the second principle of Homeopathy. To "use the minimum dose required to return a sick person to health".

Hahnemann's brilliance lay not just in the exhumation of a centuries old idea, but in his experimentation with ever-smaller doses of the medicinal substance, so that the harmful effects of the medicine were removed and its healing powers enhanced. It is this pioneering work that has secured Samuel Hahnemann his place in history as the founder of Homeopathy.