 |
 |
Dr Samuel Christian Friedrich Hahnemann, one of the greatest physicians the world has ever known, was born on April 10, 1755. He aimed at bringing changes in the way medicine was practiced by inventing drugs that were not harmful. After obtaining his MD degree, Hahnemann was disturbed about the uncertainty and harmful effects of the prevalent medical science. He recalled later. "After the discovery of the weakness and misconceptions of my teachers and my books, I sank into a state of morbid indignation, which might almost have completely vitiated for me the study of medical knowledge. I was about to believe that the whole science was of no avail and incapable of improvement. I gave myself up to my own individual cognitations and determined to fix no goal for my consideration until I should have arrived at a decisive conclusion." It was painful for Hahnemann to see people dying at the hands of physicians. He raised his voice against, the tragic death of Kaiser Leopard II of Austria. Hahnemann violently attacked the physician who had called in two other doctors to treat him. The king ultimately died of bloodletting, an unscientific practice of the time. |
|||||||||
| Hahnemann
questioned the doctors in a bulletin; "On the morning of February
28th, his doctor, found a severe fever and a distended abdomen"
he tried to fight the condition by venesection and as this failed to
give relief. He repeated the process three times more, without any
better result. We ask, from a scientific point of view, according to
what principles has anyone the right to order a second venesection
when the first has failed to bring relief? As for a third, Heaven help
us! But to draw blood a fourth time when the three previous attempts
failed to alleviate! To abstract the fluid of life four times in
twenty four hours from a man, who has lost flesh from mental overwork
combined with a long continued diarrhoea, without procuring any relief
for him! Science pales before this."
Since Hahnemann was totally dissatisfied with the prevalent methods of medicine, he began to look for an alternative system. While he was translating Dr. Cullen's materia medica, he was surprised by a statement of Dr. Cullen who wrote that Cinchona Bark (Quinine) was useful for treating malaria. Hahnemann didn’t like the idea of prescribing a particular medicine for a particular disease. He tested Cinchona Bark on himself to test its 'curative powers'. "I took for several days, as an experiment, four drams of good China [or what is called Cinchona Bark] twice daily, my feet and fingertips etc., at first became cold. I became languid and drowsy, then my heart began to palpitate; my pulse became hard and quick and intolerable anxiety and trembling (but without a rigour); prostration in all the limbs, then pulsation in the head, redness of the cheeks; thirst; briefly, all the symptoms usually associated with intermittent fever appeared in succession yet without actual rigour. . . . and recurred when I repeated the dose and not otherwise. I discontinued the medicine and I was once more in good health." Hahnemann concluded that, "Peruvian bark, which is used as a remedy for intermittent fever, acts because it can produce symptoms similar to those of intermittent fever in healthy human being" Thus homoeopathy was born under principle Similia Similibus Curanteur, that is, like cures like, in other words, the curative power of medicine is the causative power of that medicine. Hahnemann advised testing the medicinal substances on healthy human beings (not on patients or animals) and the symptoms produced by them recorded in the book known as Materia Medica. When similar symptoms are found in a patient suffering from natural disease, the same medicine will produce similar symptoms in the places where the disease is active, thus increasing the original symptoms, and nullifying the disease and restoring health. This is the reason for the initial aggravation of symptoms when homoeopathically chosen medicine is given. Hahnemann’s discovery of the homeopathic system evoked criticism among some of his contemporaries while others appreciated it. Dr. Burnett said, "thanks to Hahnemann for simplifying the complicated system of medicine into simple totality of symptoms. For prevention of diseases, totality of symptoms. For core of diseases, totality of symptoms. For maintenance of health, totality of symptoms." Hahnemann pioneered the treatment of mental patients and treated many of them according to his ways and brought relief to those for whom it was thought there was no hope. In the hands of good prescribers, the totality of symptoms works wonders. Be it any disease" cancer or AIDS (for which no medicine has been discovered so far in any other system of medicines) or common cold. Thus without shedding a drop of blood or loosing any organ, homoeopathy cures disease, and yet the full benefit of this system has not reached the masses for want of awareness about the virtues of this system. |
 |
 |
