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1.1.
Homeopathy, Its Beginning
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The American Institute of Homeopathy defines a homeopathic physician as
"one who adds to his knowledge of medicine a special knowledge of homeopathic
therapeutics and observes the Law of Similars. All that pertains to the great
healing art is his by tradition, by inheritance and by
right."
Homeopathy is a system of therapeutics based upon the Law of
Similars as expressed by the maxim "Similia Similibus Curentur" -- let likes be
cured by likes. When a patient presents a group of symptoms similar to those
produced by the administration of a certain medicine to a healthy human, that
medicine is homeopathically indicated and if prescribed in correct dosage will
relieve or cure.
Calomel by its physiological action produces diarrhea,
frequent bloody mucus stools, increased secretion of bile and salivation. When
these symptoms have been produced by any other cause other than the
administration of calomel (Mercurius dulcis), very small doses of this medicine
will be curative.
Again, Belladonna is indicated homeopathically when
the patient presents dilated pupils, violent congestion of blood to the head
with throbbing headache, high fever with hot red skin, cerebral excitement,
dryness of mouth and throat, muscular twitchings (symptoms such as are
frequently met with in scarlet fever). Any physician will recognize the above
symptoms as well known toxic effects of Belladonna.
There are many
outstanding examples of this dual action of drugs in common medical practice,
but the observing student will note as he reads the Lessons of this Course that
the Law of Similars applies to all substances possessing medicinal
properties.
Homeopathy, or the "New School" of medicine, was founded by
Samuel Hahnemann. He did not discover the Law of Similars, but he was the first
to give it practical application to the art of healing. He collected and
translated from previous writings of all ages a mass of evidence to show that
others before him, including Hippocrates and Paracelsus, were aware of this
law.
Samuel Hahnemann was a celebrated scientist and chemist and one of
the leading physicians of his time. He had graduated from the best medical
schools and received personal instruction under the physician to the Austrian
Emperor, Freiherr Von Quarin. He was a translator of note. He practiced
successfully in several of the leading cities of Germany and was looked upon as
an eminent physician.
Hahnemann was a thinker. He perceived that for the
practice of medicine to be successful it must be guided by law. Up to his day no
definite law of prescribing for the sick had been announced or followed. The
practice of medicine was chaotic. Each physician prescribed according to his own
ideas or those of some "shining light" of the profession.
Hahnemann at
last became discouraged. Day after day his doubts grew stronger. He said to
himself, "It is not I who am at fault, it is the art of medicine which is wrong.
I know that I can prescribe as well as the best of those who now give medicine,
but if I am convinced that the sick will do better with no medicine at all --
God help me! I will practice no more!"
Finally he gave up the practice
of medicine in disgust and turned to the translation of medical and scientific
books for a livelihood. While translating a chapter of Cullen's Materia
Medica from English to German, it appeared to him that the author's
explanation of the action of peruvian bark was fanciful and irrational. So he
set about to determine in his own way the modus operandi of the drug. He tried
it on himself. He found it produced typical symptoms of malaria for which it was
recommended and used.
From this time on he conducted his investigations
along new lines. He did what others had not done before. He studied medicines
systematically by testing them on healthy humans. After repeated experimentation
upon himself and others, he eventually proved the Law of Similars to be the
basic law of cure. {It is a tribute to the genius of Hahnemann that he was
unaware that the homeopathic relation between disease and medicinal effects was
taught and practiced by Hippocrates and Paracelsus, until it was brought to his
attention by Trinks in 1825 (Vide: Life and Letters of Hahnemann, by
Haehl).}
One by one the medicines then in general use were "proved" by
this indefatigable worker and his associates. In medicine Hahnemann was what
Edison has been in electricity. He had vision as well as scientific knowledge.
Outside the beaten path he went in search of new medicaments and found that each
one tried was capable of producing its own peculiar and typical symptom picture
when given to healthy humans; and when administered to the sick, who presented
the same symptoms, was found to be curative.
Early in his career,
Hahnemann complained of the untrustworthiness of pharmaceutical preparations,
which no conscientious doctor could prescribe. And in his contributions to
medical periodicals which were always read with interest, he frequently
advocated the use of simple measures and the single remedy in the treatment of
disease. He was one of the first to teach that accurate and definite prescribing
could be accomplished only by giving one substance at a time and observing the
effects. He condemned as unscientific the customary mixtures which in his times
often contained twenty or more drugs. He based his belief on the results of
experience.
He went further and found that clinically a very small dose
of a remedy, prescribed according to the Law of Similars produced better results
than larger doses. In fact, he found that large doses aggravated the sickness
when exhibited in accord with the Law of Similars. Continued experiments along
this line led eventually to potentiation.
This briefly is the history of
the origin of the prescribing of minimum doses of medicine in accord with the
Law of Similars, guided by signs and symptoms of the sick individual
corresponding to similar signs and symptoms produced experimentally by the
remedy upon many healthy humans.
These experimental or clinical
observations of drug action called "provings" by Hahnemann were made under
controls and in a most painstaking way. This was the introduction to the medical
world of "animal experimentation" and led the way to all of the more recent
developments of drug testing and standardization.
Among the outstanding
early professional accomplishments of Hahnemann we shall mention but one. During
the scourge of Leipsic, when tens of thousands were dying "like flies" from the
Plague, and when every victim of the epidemic was committed to the "dead house,"
Hahnemann with his homeopathic prescribing saved 183 consecutive cases (most of
which were considered moribund).
Hahnemann did not work alone, nor were
his discoveries accidental. He had as associates many doctors who, like himself,
had an intense yearning for the Truth and who hoped to effect a change in the
haphazard and futile methods of medicine prevalent in their
time.
Hahnemann and his associates were eminently successful in
practice, and as might be expected, jealousies and unjust criticism were not
lacking. Traditional medicine, then as now, was intolerant of new ideas and
human welfare was secondary to medical politics.
Throughout his long and
busy life (he lived to be eighty-nine) he continued to study, develop and
practice the healing art according to the Law of Similars.
Hahnemann's
loyal and devoted students continued his researches. Remedies were "proved" on
thousands of subjects and many volumes were added to the numerous works of the
originator.
To France, Italy, Spain, England, and the United States went
homeopathic physicians, each one an apostle and a teacher. Later to Brazil,
Colombia, Argentina and other South American countries this "New School" found
its way: to Mexico and Central America it advanced with higher civilization: to
Egypt and other civilized parts of Africa; to Australia and to Asia; to India
where today it clalms millions of adherents. With higher civilization and
broader learning Homeopathic medicine has kept pace.
At the present time
there is an unprecedented demand for doctors trained in homeopathic prescribing.
Although the graduates from homeopathic medical colleges are doubling in numbers
annually, demands are not one-tenth supplied. Answer the question "why?" in your
own way.
That people fundamentally believe in the internal
administration of medicine in sickness cannot be successfully contradicted; that
they are always ready and anxious for the more harmless, the more pleasant, the
more certain and effective is also true.
Homeopathic prescribing does
not conflict with surgery, physical therapy, manual therapy, suggestion or other
non-medical measures. However, homeopathic prescribing of properly prepared and
standardized remedies is supreme in the field of internal medicine.
You
shall soon be led to see the raison d'etre of Homeopathy and to understand how
it must be adopted by any physician fully awake to his responsibilities and
possibilities.
As the Course unfolds it will reveal a broader conception
of disease and its management, and help you to become more proficient in your
chosen profession.