CHAPTER 7: HISTORY & PRINCIPLES

from ‘Basic Homeopathic Therapeutics’ by Karen Johnson

Samuel Hahnemann MD (1755-1843), born in Meissen, Germany is the father of modern homeopathy. He trained as a physician, chemist, studied several languages, married twice, had a large family and was reportedly a very difficult person! He was very outspoken on the ignorance and dangers of orthodox treatment. He alienated many in the medical and educational fields, necessitating his moving many times during his life.

Medicine at this time was very barbaric and primitive, the medical profession having not yet fully recovered from Galen’s theories on humors and fluids which had prevailed for several hundred years. Much of the medical training at this time consisted of learning the classics! Treatment of this period basically consisted of purging (by inducing vomiting, diarrhoea, or sweating) and bloodletting. Highly toxic drugs such as Mercury, Arsenic and Antimony were commonly used in treating the major epidemic disease of the time, Syphilis. Unfortunately, the side effects of the treatment were just as likely to kill the patient as the disease. If the patient survived, they could be left with serious physical damage, particularly from the use of Mercury.

This situation was a prime factor in Hahnemann’s decision to give up medical practice and to take up the translation of medical texts to support his growing family. While translating a materia medica, Hahnemann came across a claim by a Professor W. Cullen. The professor said Cinchona (Quinine) cured Malaria due to its bitterness. Hahnemann considered this illogical and decided to take some Cinchona himself and see what happened. Surprisingly he developed an intermittent fever, persistent numbness, rigidity of the joints and other symptoms characteristic of Malaria, though not the shaking chills or rigors associated with Malaria. When he stopped taking the Cinchona all his symptoms cleared up.

This experiment formed the basis of Hahnemann’s Law of Similars. (Like Cures Like- see Principles of Homeopathy). Hahnemann carried on experimenting with other drugs on himself, family, and friends. In total he carried out 98 “provings” noting down carefully all the symptoms the drugs produced in these healthy people. This data formed the first homeopathic materia medica. Provings are still being done today.

Hahnemann returned to medical practice, but this time using drugs according to the Law he had developed. He compared the patient’s symptoms to those symptoms the medicines caused in the healthy people he had tested the medicines on. He then gave the patient that medicine whose symptoms most closely matched those exhibited by the patient. He gave the medicine as a tincture or small dose of the crude substance. However, the patients still suffered from side effects. To try and minimise these he began reducing the dose given and experimenting with a process of serial dilution and extremely thorough mixing. He found that this process diminished the side effects of the medicine, leaving only the curative effects, for the patients improved with none of the previous side effects occurring.
In 1810 Hahnemann published the first edition of “The Organon of Medicine” and a materia medica of 67 homeopathic medicines. At the time of his death, in Paris in 1843, Hahnemann was using between 140-150 homeopathic medicines and had begun work on the 6th edition of “The Organon” a task which fell to his second wife Melanie to complete. (This edition was not published until many years after her death.)

Hahnemann’s followers spread across Europe and to North America, most notably Dr. Constantine Hering (1800-1880) who arrived in the USA in the 1830’s. He worked on refining guidelines for the order of Cure (see Principles of Homeopathy) based on his observations in practice. He also published “Herings Guiding Symptoms”, 10 volumes based on 50 years of clinical practice. Also, there was Dr. James Tyler Kent (1849-1916) whose influence is still very much felt in homeopathy today. He is the author of the Repertory we still use.

After a period of quiescence, Homeopathy is growing rapidly in popularity, especially in England, where it survived, in part, due to the patronage of the royal family. It is also practiced in Europe, New Zealand, South Africa, America, and India among other countries.

PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY

(This is a brief summarisation of the important principles in homeopathy.)

Law of Similars
Similia Similibus Curentur or “like cures like”. This idea was first propounded by Hippocrates but developed by Hahnemann into a system of medicine. A substance that causes symptoms in a healthy person can cure those symptoms in a sick person. Hahnemann found when dosing himself with Cinchona, he developed the symptoms of Malaria. Cinchona (Quinine) is used to treat Malaria.

Order of Cure
Often referred to as Hering’s Law of Cure after Constantine Hering MD who developed this principle based on his clinical observations. There is considerable debate about this principle, but a case is considered to be progressing in a curative manner if:

Symptoms start to move downward, e.g., from the head down the torso, shoulders to fingers.

Symptoms move from more internal and important organs to more external and less important organs, e.g., Asthma that improves, then a skin eruption such as eczema flares up. A state of mind such as chronic anxiety eases and a skin eruption occurs.

A return of old symptoms occurs in reverse order of appearance, e.g. In a patient whose symptoms started with skin eruptions, then headaches and currently asthma, you would expect that as the person was treated homœopathically, the asthma would improve, then that the headaches, followed by a skin eruption would each make a mild and temporary return, finally clearing and leaving the patient in a much improved state of health.

Individualisation
In homeopathy we treat the patient not the disease. Each patient is a unique individual in a unique state of health represented by the totality of their symptoms. Each patient’s case history must be taken carefully and fully. This data must then be matched to the symptom picture of the homeopathic medicine that produced symptoms most closely resembling those of the patient, which had originally been tested (proved) on a healthy person. For example, 3 patients could present with the same orthodox diagnosis such as indigestion, and after taking their full case histories, each person’s symptoms could be found to resemble a different homeopathic medicine. Therefore, they would each get a different prescription, a different potency, and a different number of doses. A full case taking for a chronic condition could take 1-2 hours. With acute conditions however, it is possible to select a remedy based on the acute and local symptoms rather than take the whole case. Also, in some situations e.g., a trauma such as a fall, we find that people tend to react in a limited number of ways thus narrowing the group of remedies we need to select from down even further.

Single homeopathic medicine
All provings of homeopathic medicines were carried out using a single homeopathic medicine at a time. It would be difficult to prescribe a combination medicine as few, if any provings of combinations have been carried out. Knowing the symptomatology of the individual constituents does not give an accurate basis for prescribing a combination as the effects of each, when in combination, can be altered in ways difficult to ascertain unless a proving had been done on the combination.

Minimum dose
In homeopathy we use the minimum amount of the homeopathic medicine required to stimulate a response in the patient i.e. The minimum in potency, quantity, and repetition of the dose. This obviously can be a variable amount. In one case a single dose of a 200C may be sufficient. In another case, 4 doses of 200C may be required. In treatment of long term conditions, a dose of a homeopathic medicine may be given at very infrequent intervals. Once a response has occurred it is not necessary to carry on stimulating the body’s curative power. In acute conditions e.g., Colds, Influenza, more than one dose is often required to completely clear up the situation. Since a “therapeutic blood level” is not trying to be attained, as in orthodox drug treatment, it is not necessary to give regular doses over a prolonged period of time. Obviously patient compliance is much improved!

Provings
The systematic method in which the symptom picture of a medicinal substance is developed by testing the substance on healthy human volunteers and noting its effects on all levels of the participants. Sensitivity to the substance varies depending on the provers susceptibility to it, some provers produce very few symptoms, while other more sensitive and susceptible subjects produce a wide range of clear symptoms. The data collected in this way forms the homeopathic materia medica. Provings are now carried out using double or triple blind trial methodology.