HAHNEMANNIAN MEDICINE

Background

Samuel Hahnemann, M.D., a German physician who lost faith in the orthodox medical practices of his time, developed this branch of medicine. He read and studied the early writing of Hippocrates (father of medicine) and ancient Sanskrit medical text, in which the “Law of Similars” were discussed as possible approaches of healing. After further study on Dr. William Cullen’s (Scottish physician and chemist) treatise on the actions of Cinchona Bark in Malaria, Hahnemann reasoned, after experimentation, that the fundamental principle of cure proceeds through similarity. Hahnemann came to believe that all effective drugs produce symptoms in healthy individuals similar to those of the diseases that they treat. He conceived the idea of the “law of similar”, otherwise known as “like cures like” (similia similibus curentur) and established this as one of the fundamental principles of healing in homoeopathic medicine. In addition, Dr. Hahnemann developed the principles of Infinitesimal Pharmacology, in which micro-dosage of medicinal substance is given to restore the individual’s health and prescribe a single remedy, when applying the Law of Similars. Furthermore, he developed “The Whole Person” concept in clinical medicine, emphasizing the mental, emotional, and physical plane when treating an individual. The word HOMOEOPATHY appeared for the first time in an article by Samuel Hahnemann, published in Hufeland’s Journal in 1807, entitled Homoeopathic Employment of Medicines in Ordinary Practice. Hahnemann coined the word ‘Homoeopathy’ from two Greek words:

• Homoios -‘similar’ or ‘like’.
• Pathos -‘suffering’.

As a result, ‘like suffering’ or ‘like disease’, the name homoeopathy itself encompasses Hahnemannian Medicine under the umbrella of the “Law of Similars”.