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It is rarely in the history of any
art or science that there arises a figure of such gigantic stature, such prodigious achievement, of such strong character
and creative force, who seems to have incorporated in his own life, all that his predecessors had for years, been blindly
seeking after, and to give the inspiration and impetus to the efforts of his successors in generations to come. Such a man
was the founder of homeopathy.......
..The
immortal Hahnemann
Samuel
Hahnemann was a German physician who earned his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1779. At the time of his graduation,
Scientific advances were beginning to be seen in the fields of chemistry, physics, physiology and anatomy. The clinical
practice of medicine, however, was rife with superstition and lack of scientific rigor. The treatments of the day, such
as purgatives, bleeding, blistering plasters, herbal preparations and emetics lacked a rational basis and were more
harmful than effective. Hahnemann recognized this and wrote critically of current practices in several papers on topics such as Arsenic poisoning, hygiene, dietetics and
psychiatric treatment.
While translating William Cullen's A treatise of the materia medica into
German, Hahnemann was struck by a passage that deal with cinchona bark, which was used to treat malaria. Cullen described its mechanism of action as a function of its
stomach-strengthening properties. Hahnemann did not accept this explanation and took "four good drams of Peruvian bark,
twice a day for several days" to attempt to characterize the action of the quinine-containing bark. Hahnemann reported
that he began to develop symptoms identical to those of malaria. He concluded from this experience that effective drugs must produce symptoms in healthy people that are
similar to the diseases they will be expected to treat. Today this principal is known as the "Law of Similars" and is the basis for the use of the term
homeopathy ("similar suffering").
Hahnemann and colleagues began to test various substances to determine the
types of symptoms they produced. These results suggested to Hahnemann what the drugs would be useful to treat.
Hahnemann reasoned that doses of these substances that produced overt symptoms would be inappropriate for treatment of diseases
with the same symptoms. Thus he advocated reduction of the dose to infinitesimal levels by multiple serial dilutions
of ten or hundred fold . Soluble compounds or liquids were diluted in alcohol; insoluble materials were serially
diluted by grinding with lactose. (more specific descriptions of his reasoning can be found in the "philosophical basis" section. He compiled his results into a treatise called the "Organon of rational therapeutics" which he first published in 1810. The sixth edition, published in 1921, is still used today as
homeopathy's basic text. Hahnemann practiced Homeopathic medicine for almost 50 years until his death in 1843
Homeopathy had a large impact on the practice of medicine. The first homeopathic
hospital opened in 1832 and homeopathic medical schools opened all over Europe. Homeopathic hospitals and practitioners
often had better outcomes compared to their allopathic counterparts. These improved outcomes were undoubtedly due to
the harmful nature of allopathic remedies of the time compared to the non-toxic nature of homeopathic remedies. Thus
the general public began to tout the benefits of homeopathy and demand better treatment from all physicians.
Allopathic medicine began to develop rational approaches to the study of
disease, partially due to the competition offered by homeopathy and began to make significant gains by the end of the 19th
century. By the early part of the twentieth century, homeopathy was in serious decline. The last pure homeopathic
medical school in the U.S. closed in 1920, although Hahnemann Medical School in Philadelphia continued to offer homeopathic
electives until the 1940's. Homeopathy began to enjoy a resurgence in the US in the 1970's as the public took a greater
interest in holistic and natural approaches to medicine.
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