Samuel Hahnemann, M.D's view
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An illness may occur under one of the three following circumstances
1. An external invading factor of overwhelmingly increased strength or virulence may unconditionally override the body’s residence : an exogenous origin of illness irrespective of endogenous factor i.e. the susceptibility on the part of the human organism does not count here. This is how acute epidemic diseases occur.
2. One or several of specific resistance factors is weakened somehow there by allowing for the invasion of the corresponding outer infective agent: i.e. the exogenous factor joining hands with the endogenous factors. Here the question of susceptibility of the human organism comes in.
3. Any function of our system, of itself may be altered in such a way as to become similar instead of opposed to any of the outer extra
human process; thus it spontaneously would create an enslave as if it were of an extra human health inimical function; the endogenous factor predominating irrespective of the exogenous factor –here the question of susceptibility overrides all other considerations .
This may account for acute diseases attaching individually
Sporadic Disease- According to the dynamic principle (Homoeopathic Medical principles), invented by Samuel Hahnemann MD., conditions such as anthrax related physical ailments and small pox related ailments have a different outlook; Hahnemann talks about abnormal susceptibility of the individual person. Another aspect he mentions is sporadic diseases. According to Hahnemann MD, these are those acute diseases, which attack several people at the same time, here and there (Sporadically) due to exposure to some exciting cause.
Cause
1. Meteoric (i.e. heavenly, climatic or atmospheric, or Electro thermic) and telluric – (i.e. earthly, soil and water) factors influence injurious agents that can affect people to identical susceptibilities. from Hahnemann M.D’s time onwards, the causes of disease were known to include:
(1) Mechanical factors – Traumatic agencies- e.g Lesions, injuries, destruction of
tissues, resulting from physical force etc.
Epidemic diseases- are those acute diseases, which attack many people with very similar sufferings form the same cause
These disease generally becomes infectious (contagious) when they prevail among thickly populated masses of human beings.
Epidemic diseases are nothing but communicable sporadic diseases, as they are rightly called by Dr. Charles J. Hempel in his works.
(2) Chemical factors
Destructive action of certain chemical poisons, e.g Arsenic , Opium etc.
(3) Dynamic factors
(a) Mental or physical, atmospheric, thermic, telluric and climatic,
(b) dietetic, hygienic, contagious miasms etc.
Cause
The calamities of war, inudations, (floods), famines, etc to which a mass of human beings fall a victim to
Some times they are peculiar acute miasms which:
(a) Either attack persons only once in a life time e.g. small-pox,
measles, whooping cough etc or
(b) Which recur frequently in the same manner, that is more than once
in life time e.g plague, of Levant, the yellow fever of the sea cost, the Asiatic cholera etc.
| Epidemic Disease | Sporadic Disease |
| 1. It is a type of acute disease which attacks (i) Many persons (ii) At one time (iii) Very Similar sufferings (iv) from the same cause |
1. It is also another type of acute disease which attacks (i) Several persons (ii) At the same time (iii)Here and There |
| 2. They are excited by war, flood, famine and sometimes a peculiar acute miasms which may be recurring or non-recurring (fixed type) | 2. Meteoric and telluric influences and the injurious agents. It can affect only those persons who are morbidly susceptible, who posses an inclination of being affected |
| 3. Hahnemann M.D recommends to investigate each epidemic disease as a new and unknown one . after through investigation of several cases of an epidemic disease in a particular locality a ‘genius epidemicus’ can be employed for treating other similar cases of that locality | 3. Hahnemann M.D asserts to investigate each sporadic disease as a new and unknown case and select mediscine according to similarity of symptoms. |
| Individual Disease | Epidemic Disease |
|
1. The individual diseases are those acute diseases which affect human beings individually due to exposure to same exciting cause |
1. Epidemic diseases are those acute diseases in which many persons are attacked with very similar sufferings from the same cause |
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2. Here few persons suffer due to different causes from different symptoms in different localities |
2. Here many people suffer, with similar sufferings, from the same cause in one locality. |
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3. The causes of individual disease are |
3. The causes of epidemic diseases are |
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4. May be treated homoeopathically on the basis of the totality of symptoms of the individual patient |
4. May be treated by ‘ Genus epidemicus’ |
Thus we find that under average circumstances the exogenous factor is held in check
until somewhere our defense breaks down or something within us invites the invader
(i.e living germs). On the other hand in some exceptional circumstances the life force is so
permanently changed regarding its constitutional response that the physical environmental
factors (minus the contact and presence of microbes) are alone sufficient to bring about altered
internal functioning of the organism. This is similar to those known to be usually connected with
specific micro organisms or leading even to non infectious type of illness e.g insanity, epilepsy etc.