Homœopathy
Discovered by Dr. Samuel Christian Frederic Hahnemann in 1796, Homœopathic medicine involves treatment “which is capable of producing symptoms similar to those of the patient in their illness”, believing that by stimulating the innate healing ability of the body, it will be able to regain its healthy balance. Although the basic principles of Homoeopathy are devised by Dr. Hahnemann, its assumptions date back to ancient Greek physician Hippocrates (460-377 BC), who thought that “like cures like” and symptoms were specific to an individual.
An example of a Homœopathic treatment, then, is as follows: a patient experiencing a cold or hay fever (symptoms including watery eyes, irritating runny nose, and sneezing) may be prescribed the activity of preparing an onion (which often causes watery eyes, irritating runny nose, or sneezing when it is peeled).
Onions: an example of Homœopathic treatment for hay fever or the common cold
Homœopathic methods were developed through extensive experimentation by Dr. Hahnemann in which he tested substances on himself in order to discover that “in each case…a drug which produced certain symptoms in the healthy was capable of removing similar symptoms in disease”. Although the principles of Homoeopathy are often disregarded in today’s medical landscape, many famous people have reported used Homoeopathic treatments including Charles Darwin, Mark Twain, the British Royal family, Paul McCartney, and Usain Bolt.
Dr. Samuel Christian Frederic Hahnemann
Born on the 11th of April, 1755, in Meissen, Saxony, Germany, Dr. Samuel Christian Frederic Hahnemann was the son of a porcelain factory worker and grew up in a poor family. He was forced to help pay for his education by the age of 12, which he did so by tutoring his fellow students in Latin and Green. Eventually, Dr. Hahnemann’s brilliance was recognized by one of his professors, who arranged for him to acquire an education free of tuition. He left for Leipzig in 1775 in order to study medicine, supporting himself by tutoring students in French and German in addition to translating various treatises on chemistry, medicine, and botany.
Dr. Hahnemann received his degree in 1779 before moving to several small German villages in order to practice medicine, although he ceased his practice within five years of starting it. Instead, from 1785-1789 Dr. Hahnemann supported his wife and children through his writing and chemistry in Dresden. The family moved to Leipzig again in 1789, although they often struggled to survive and lacked bare necessities.
As a German physician, experienced orthodox doctor, a competent chemist, botanist, and fluent in eight different languages, Dr. Samuel Christian Frederic Hahnemann found himself increasingly dissatisfied with conventional medical practices of his day. Medical treatments in the eighteenth century included a variety of what would today be considered barbaric measures: blood-letting, purging, and giving patients large doses of toxic substances such as mercury, arsenic, and lead. Dr. Hahnemann was not alone in his skepticism, as many European doctors during the late eighteenth century found themselves searching for new methods and reform in their medical practices.
Dr. Samuel Christian Frederic Hahnemann (1755-1843)
It was precisely through Dr. Hahnemann’s skepticism that he made his discoveries: upon translating a treatise by William Cullen that he found he disagreed with the document’s opinion that a drug known as Cinchona (or “China bark”; a treatment for Malaria) contained bitter and astringent properties that acted as the active medical ingredient to cure Malaria. Cullen’s reasoning was that these properties formed a “potent tonic” in the stomach which was where its healing powers derived. Dr. Hahnemann disagreed on the account that he could combine many other solutions into even more bitter and astringent creations, yet these new concoctions had no healing effects on Malaria. Through further experiments of this sort, Dr. Hahnemann noticed a pattern that lead to his formulation of Homœopathy.
In addition to the symptoms of medicines resembling symptoms of the diseases they treat, Dr. Hahnemann also believed that an illness could be treated with small amounts of substances that, if consumed in a larger quantity, could cause the illness. To avoid this undesired outcome, Dr. Hahnemann diluted his remedies significantly, finding that in spite of their dilution the treatments had even greater potential to cure illnesses quickly and harmlessly.
However, Dr. Hahnemann was not without his critics. He adopted a notorious reputation that was accompanied by ridicule and rejection by his colleagues, including accusations that the Homœopathic doctor was a murderer for depriving his patients of the benefits of blood-letting.
Dr. Hahnemann published his most important work, Organon of the Healing Art, in 1810, which described his new methodology of healing. Shortly afterwards, he was able to gain some legitimacy including a following which includes some of his earliest dicsiples: Gustav Wilhelm Gross (1794-1847), Johann Stapf (1788-1860), Franz Hartmann (1796-1853), and Ernst Ferdinand Rueckert (1795-1843).
In 1813 Dr. Hahnemann gained more attention when he used Homœopathic remedies to treat a typhus epidemic ravaging Napoleon’s soldiers following their invasion of Russia, before spreading to Germany. This attention was not without backlash for the poverty-stricken Homœopathic doctor, however, as he was ordered by the Leipzig city council to cease practice in 1820.
As time went on, Hahnemann’s methods were still popular with certain people, and patients travelled from all over Europe to visit his practice. The first Homœopathic hospital opened in 1833 in Leipzig, with Dr. Moritz Müller as director. The proximity of the hospital to Dr. Hahnemann (who was internationally famous by this time) was believed to be beneficial to the institution. However, Dr. Hahnemann lost enthusiasm in financially supporting and performing inspections on it and left Leipzig in favour of Paris in 1835, at which point the hospital began to suffer financially and eventually closed in 1842.
Dr. Hahnemann passed away at the age of 88 in 1843, survived by his second wife and a number of his children.