Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), né Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann, was the German doctor who invented homeopathy. Wary of the medical establishment, Hahnemann mistrusted the medicines doctors ordered from pharmacists, which often contained dozens of ingredients. He left the medical profession, fearing he was doing more harm than good. He began to make a living by translating medical texts called Materia Medica, books that listed medical ingredients and what these ingredients cured, a study which today is known as pharmacology. It was as a translator that he began to develop his own theory of medicine, which would eventually become homeopathy.
Hahnemann Establishes the Theory of Like Cures Like
Hahnemann had a breakthrough moment when translating the work of Scottish doctor William Cullen. The doctor claimed that the bitterness of cinchona bark cured malaria (in fact, cinchona bark contains high levels of quinine). Hahnemann thought to himself, "I can think of 50 things bitterer than cinchona bark, and they don’t cure malaria." So he ordered cinchona bark and took it himself. He experienced the shakes and chills symptomatic of malaria. Hahnemann postulated that maybe cinchona cured malaria because it could create similar symptoms in a healthy person.
Inspired, Hahnemann began to test on himself more substances in the Materia Medica, taking note of his own symptoms. He began to practice medicine again, matching patients’ symptoms to his own notes in order to prescribe a cure. And unlike before, Hahnemann began to cure people. He began to attract followers who wanted to learn his new methods.
"Like cures like" is the essence of homeopathy. Literally, “homeo” and “pathy” means similar suffering.
Hahnemann as Enemy of the Medical Establishment
Samuel Hahnemann was disliked by the pharmacists of the time, who were the traditional suppliers of medicines to doctors. Hahnemann only required one ingredient at a time, whereas their usual methods included upwards of 100 different ingredients. In short, Hahnemann’s inventions were threatening their business. As a result, Hahnemann was banned from working in different regions. He moved his family from village to village to escape the legal threats and injunctions of the medical establishment.
Despite years of poverty, escaping the medical establishment, Hahneman eventually enjoyed much fame and success. A widower later in life, he remarried a young Parisian woman and died in Paris, practicing medicine, well respected.
At the time of his death, Hahnemann had just finished his sixth edition of his work, the Organon. As a result, this more complete work was not released for a long time and has created a schism among homeopaths today, those who follow the sixth edition of the of the Organon and those who follow the previous editions as there are some important differences between the two.
Homeopathic Remedies Are Minute Dilutions of the Original Substance
Many substances can be diluted by being crushed and mixed with alcohol; however, many do not dissolve while others are poisonous. Hahnemann, a chemist as well as a doctor, discovered how to grind substances like mercury or arsenic with sugar, then take a portion of that and grind it with more sugar until the ratio was 1/1000 and the substance could became soluble in alcohol and was no longer poisonous. Using this method, substances with which doctors had been inadvertently killing patients (like mercury and arsenic) now became safe medicines for such illnesses as syphilis and sepsis (blood poisoning).
By making poisonous substances harmless, Hahnemann and the followers of his methods could test a new range of substances for their curative powers and used, greatly expanding their own materia medica.
Homeopathy Today
Today, homeopathy often comes under fire for being unscientific because it does not correspond to the germ theory, the accepted theory that illnesses are caused by microorganisms. Homeopathy is in the vitalistic tradition: Rather than curing an affliction itself, homeopathic remedies are meant to work with the body to overcome illnesses. However, homeopathy is an inductive science in that it is based on observation rather than theory. It is still practiced throughout the world today.
Sources:
“Hahnemann Revisited” Introduction: A Brief Overview of Hahnemann's Life. Luc De Schepper http://www.wholehealthnow.com/homeopathy_pro/hahnemann_rev1.html.
 |
