CLARKE JH, Homoeopathy Explained - Classical Homeopathy Online

Discovering the Curative Powers of Drugs. In this he discusses the several ways in which
drugs had formerly been studied and used, and then describes the “similar” method, the
rule “likes by likes” (similia similibus) being first formulated in this essay thus :
“Every powerful medicinal substance produces in the human body a peculiar kind of
disease – the more powerful the medicine the more peculiar, marked, and violent the
disease. We should imitate Nature, which sometimes cures a chronic disease by superadding
another, and employ in the disease we wish to cure that medicine which is able to
produce another very similar artificial disease, and the former will be cured, - similia
similibus.”
In this essay he referred to his early note on Cullen, and said after mature experience he
could day that not only probably, but quite certainly, bark cured ague because it had the
power to produce fever. He quotes examples of well-known drug actions to support his
proposition, and sketched in a masterly way the characteristic features of a number of
drugs.
In 1805 – Hahnemann being no 50 years old – appeared two works of great importance :
first, his Aesculapius in the Balance, which takes a general survey of traditional medicine
and pronounces on it the verdict “weighed in the balances and found wanting” – a verdict
which has since received very ample endorsement. Second, in two vols. in Latin, His
Fragmenta de viribus medicamentorum positivis sive in sano corpore observatis
(Fragments on the Positive Powers of Drugs, - that is to say, their effects observed in the
healthy body). This contained the first effort towards the reconstruction of the Materia
Medica on a rational basis of pure experiment on the healthy human body.
In 1806 appeared his Medicine of Experience, in which is contained the first complete
exposition of the homoeopathic method now thoroughly thought out by him after sixteen
years of unremitting work – observation, experiment, and research. This was published in
Hufeland’s Journal – that is to say, in the leading professional journal of this time. The
same year Hahnemann published the last work he translated – Haller’s Materia Medica,
Haller being one of Hahnemann’s forerunners in recommending the testing of drugs on
the healthy body; but Haller did nothing towards carrying his recommendation into
effect.
In 1807 Hahnemann first used the word “Homoeopathic” in the title of a work – an
article also contributed to Hufeland’s Journal – on “Indications of the Homoeopathic
Employment of Medicines in Ordinary Practice;”
The year 1810 may be said to be the birth-year of Homeopathy, for in that year appeared
the first edition of the Organon, which is and expansion of the Medicine of Experience,
and a complete statement of the Homoeopathic method. The publication of Hahnemann’s
Organon marks an epoch in the history of therapeutics. It constitutes a complete,
practical, and philosophical statement of the art of cure. It sets out clearly with the
statement that the business of the physician is – not to “treat” but – to cure. “The
physician’s high and only mission is to heal the sick – to cure, as it is termed” – this is the
first aphorism of the Organon. Four other editions of the work followed the first; the fifth
edition appearing in 1833. The year following the first appearance of the Organon –
1811, that is, - saw the first part of the Materia Medica Pura, the third edition of which
appeared in 1830.
During these years of independent thought and action, as may easily be imagined,
Hahnemann had no very easy time of it with his medical brethren, whose ideas he was