Encyclopedia of Homeopathy

HISTORY OF HOMEOPATHY • 15intellectual climate encouraged important developments in the study of medicine,including the isolation of active ingredients from herbs, such as the extraction ofmorphine from the opium poppy in 1803. It was in 1790, while translating A Treatise onMateria Medica by a Scottish teacher, physician, and chemist, Dr. William Cullen, thatHahnemann began an investigation which was to prove paramount to the subsequentdevelopment of homeopathy. In his treatise Cullen argued that quinine, when isolatedfrom Cinchona officinalis (see page 49), was a good treatment for malaria because it wasan astringent. Hahnemann knew that other, more powerful, astringents had no sucheffect on malaria. He dosed himself with quinine, recording the results and effectivelybeginning the first “proving” (see page 22). Although he did not have malaria, he foundthat he began to develop symptoms of the disease one after the other. With each doseof quinine, the symptoms recurred and lasted for several hours, but if hestopped taking quinine his symptoms began to disappear. Hahnemannwent on to test quinine on other people, noting their reactions ingreat detail. The test subjects were not allowed to eat or drinkstrong foods such as spices, alcohol, or coffee, which he feltmight distort the results. He repeated the proving process onother substances that were in use as medicines, such asarsenic and belladonna, and used the results to build upa “symptom picture” of each remedy’s effects (see page 23).After conducting provings for six years, Hahnemannextended his research to the sick. Prior to prescription, he gavehis patients a thorough physical examination and noted anyexisting symptoms. He questioned them closely regarding theirlifestyles, general health, outlook on life, and other factors thatmade them feel better or worse. Following the principle of likecures like, Hahnemann then matched individual symptoms asclosely as possible to the symptom picture of a remedy, andprescribed accordingly.Development & definitionHahnemann’s work gradually brought about the establishment of new type of medicine.In 1796 he published his first book on the subject, entitled A New Principle forAscertaining the Curative Powers of Drugs and Some Examinations of Previous Principles. Hecalled his new system “homeopathy,” from the Greek homeo meaning “similar” andpathos meaning “suffering.” In 1810 he set out its principles in The Organon of RationaleMedicine, and two years later he began teaching homeopathy at the University of Leipzig.During the course of his lifetime, Hahnemann proved about 100 remedies, and alsocontinued to develop and refine the theory and practice of the system (see page 18).SAMUEL CHRISTIAN HAHNEMANN Born in1755 in Meissen, Germany, Hahnemannstudied at the universities of Leipzig,Erlangen, and Vienna before qualifying inmedicine and chemistry in 1779. Abhorrenceof the medical practices of the time led himto devise a new system of medicine, whichhe called homeopathy.