What Is Homeopathy?
Carrie A.Hall
The term homeopathy was coined by the Saxon physician Samuel
Hahnemann (1755–1843) and first published in 1796. Homeopathy
is a system of medicine that is based on the Law of Similars.
The truth of this law has been verified experimentally and
clinically for the last 200 years.
Homeopathy is derived from the Greek words hómoios (similar).
It is a system of alternative medicine that treats like with
like, using remedies that it is claimed would, in healthy
individuals, produce similar symptoms to those it would treat
in an ill patient.
Classical homeopathy originated in the 19th century with Samuel
Christian Friedrich Hahnemann as an alternative to the standard
medical practices of the day, such as phlebotomy or
bloodletting. Opening veins to bleed patients, force disease
out of the body, and restore the humors to a proper balance was
a popular medical practice until the late19th century.
Practitioners believe that the potency of a remedy can be
increased by systematically diluting the dosage, along with
succession or shaking, to a point where it is unlikely that
even a molecule of the original ingredient is present.
Homeopathy is reported to be growing in popularity, growing in
popularity in the United States faster than any other method of
alternative healing, and as increasingly being endorsed by
doctors.
Homeopathy is founded on the Law of Similars, first expressed
by Hahnemann in the exhortation similia similibus curentur or
let likes cure likes. The law of similars is based on
Hahnemanns conclusion that a given constellation of symptoms
ellicited by a given homeopathic remedy in a group of healthy
individuals will cure an ill individual exhibiting a similar
constellations of symptoms. Symptom patterns associated with
various remedies are determined by provings, in which healthy
volunteers are given remedies in homeopathic form, and the
physical, mental and spiritual symptoms they develop are
recorded and compiled by observers. Homeopathic practitioners
rely on two types of reference in prescribing.
Homeopathic remedies are prepared by dilution of a substence
with succussion, or shaking, between dilutions. The remedies in
homeopathy are often so dilute that they are statistically
unlikely to contain any molecules of the original substance. At
first, Hahnemann tested substances commonly used as medicines in
his time and poisions in homeopathic provings.
He recorded his findings in his Materia Medica Pura. Kents
Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica lists 217 remedies, and
new substances are being added continually to contemporary
versions. Homeopathy uses many animal, plant, mineral, and
chemical substances of natural or synthetic origin. Examples
include Natrum muriaticum (sodium chloride or table salt),
lachesis muta (the venom of the bushmaster snake), Opium, and
Thyroidinum (thyroid hormone). Other homeopathic remedies,
(isopathic remedies) involve dilutions of the agent or the
product of the disease. Rabies nosode, for example, is made by
potentizing the saliva of a rabid dog.
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