DISCOVERY OF HOMOEOPATHY

Richard Haehl, the biographer o Hahnemann says, "The Cullen's Materia

Medica established the first milestone on the new method of treatment of which
Hahnemann was the originator". In 1970, whilst translating Cullen's Materia
Medica from the English to German, he came upon an idea which was to be the
germ of this completely new system of Medicine-r Homoeopathy. Cullen was a
professor of Medicine at London University and had devoted twenty pages of his
materia medica to the therapeutic indications of peruvian bark and he attributed
its success in the treatment of intermittent fever to the fact it was bitter and its
tonic effects on stomach. Hahnemann was dissatisfied with this explanations so
much so that he did something quite extraordinary : he took the medicine
himself! Hahnemann says, "I took by way of experiment, twice a day, four drams
of good China". This was an action entirely out of keeping with the every
process of medical research that had hitherto existed. To his great astonishment
he was attacked by symptoms very similar to ague or malarial fever. This
unexpected result set up in his mind a new train of thoughts and he conducted
similar experiments on himself and other individuals with other medicines
whose curative actions in certain diseases had been well established. On the
basis of -such successive experiments, Hahnemann came to the conclusion that
medicines cure diseases because they can produce similar diseases in healthy
individuals. The whole of Homoeopthy derives on this law.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HOMOEOPATHY AND ALLOPATHY

HOMOEOPATHY
Word meaning : Homoeos' means 'similar', 'alike' and 'pathos' means 'suffering';
'disease'.
Axiom : 'Simiiia Similibus Curantur' which means 'likes cure likes'.
Definition : Homoeopathy is a method of curing the sufferings of a person by
the-administration of a drug which has been experimentally proved to possess
the power of producing simila sufferings in healthy human beings. In short, it is
therapeutic system of symptom-similarity.
Founder : The 'Law of Similar' was known to the medical world since an-
tiquity. But Hahnemann was the first who applied this law in the field of
therapeutics i.e., in the treatment of diseases in a systematized way
Dynamic approach about life
Homoeopathy appreciates the dynamic concept of life. It belives that apart from
the material existence of the organism, there is something immaterial, super-
sensual power which animates the material body and imparts life to it. According
to Hahnemann this spiritual power is termed as 'Vital Force'— the force of life.
Individualisation of the patient
According to homoeopathy, no two cases of the same disease are exactly alike.
Difference of manifestation in sysmptoms and modalities always exist in
individuals. It is these differences which give each case its individuality, and
create the need for an individual remedy. Apart from the disease diagnosis,
Homoeopathy proceeds further for the selection of appropriate homoeopathic
remedy. It takes note of uncommon, peculiar, striking symptoms for the
diagnosis of the patient i.e., for individualisation which leads to therapeutic
diagnosis.
Holistic concept of disease
Homoeopathy accepts the concept of the biological whole. So it tries to treat the
patient as a whole, not the particular diseased part-as is commonly talked about
in homoeopathic parlance.
Dynamic causes of disease : According to this system diseases are nothing but
the dynamic derangement of the vital force. Homoeopathy regards bacteria,
parasites etc. as the end-products of morbid vital processes and they come as
'scavenger' of disease. Kent says "Bacilli are not the cause of disease, they never
come until after the disease".
ALLOPATHY
Word-Meaning : 'Allopath' means 'dissimilar; heterogenous' and 'pathos' means
'suffering'; 'disease.'
Axiom : No fixed principle
Definition : Allopathy is a system of therapeutics which has no fixed relation
between drug and disease. In some places it prescribes the medicine bearing
opposite relation, sometimes similar relation (unknowngly) and sometimes
without any established relation between drug and disease. So it is a het-
erogenous mode of treatment.
Founder : It has no particular inventor. It has orginated from emperical meth-
ods.
Materialistic approach about life
The Orthodox school tries to study the human organism from a materialistic
view point. It tries to explain the vital operations of life in terms of chemico-
physical reactions.
Disease diagnosis on basis of common system of disease : The trend of
Orthodox medicine is to gereralise, to diagnose and to treat illness on the basis
of common symptoms of the disease. The allopathic school comes to an end of
their diagnostic labour by the time they determine a disease-condition and put a
label on it.
Local concept of disease: The Orthodox school concentrates its attention to the
pants of the organism and misses the whole. So it associates diseases with
particular parts of the body, i.e., tissues and organs and tries to treat those parts
—tissues or organs primarily and separately.

Material causes of disease : They consider diseases to be caused by some

material causes such as bacteria, parasites, viruses etc. On the basis of this
concept they have materialistic approach to their treatment. They consider that the
man is suffering from tuberculosis due to the infection of tubercle bacHli.