Dr. Christian Samuel Friedrich Hahnemann – Founder of modern homeopathic system of medicine
Homeopathy was first introduced to the world by the German physician Dr. Christian Samuel Friedrich Hahnemann (1755-1843). Dr. Hahnemann was not only brilliant, he was an experienced traditional physician and an accomplished chemist, mineralogist and botanist. He was also a translator of eight different languages. 1796 is considered to be the official year of creation of this medical system.
Hahnemann graduated from medical school in 1779 and started a medical practice. Ordinary medicine at the time used therapies that included such things as purging, bloodletting, and the use of toxic chemicals. It was a system Hahnemann could not in good conscience practice long.
To support his family, he turned to translating medical texts. One of the texts he translated to German was William Cullen’s Materia Medica. In Cullen’s work, Hahnemann saw references to South American tree-bark (cinchona) and its value in the treatment of patients with malaria. Hahnemann was puzzled by a reference in Cullen tying the therapeutic value of cinchona to its bitter, astringent properties. Hahnemann was well aware that there were many substances in nature with those qualities, leading him to seek a better explanation for cinchona’s therapeutic value.
Hahnemann proceeded to experiment with cinchona by ingesting some himself. What he discovered was the bark produced symptoms very much like symptoms of malaria, a disease he had contracted earlier in his life. This fact, and his vast knowledge of the medical literature dating back to Hippocrates led to his most important experiments – experiments testing the idea that, as Hippocrates had predicted, substances that can cause symptoms of disease can also cure ailments that express similar symptoms. Similia similibus curentur, the Latin phrase meaning “let likes be cured by likes,” the primary principle of homeopathy – was Hahnemann’s lasting legacy to humankind.
He continued to develop and practice homeopathy and write extensively about the system until his death in 1843 at the age of 87.
In fact, the origins of homeopathy go much deeper, to the fifth century B.C. The Greek physician Hippocrates, the father of medicine, was the first person who said that ’diseases are not caused by gods or spirits, but are the result of natural action, and the patient must be encouraged to activate its inner healing powers … the disease can be cured by remedies that have similar symptoms’. Hippocrates can be considered to be the true founder of homeopathy, affirming that ‘by similar matters a disease arises and by administering similar things they regain their health from sickness’. Thus, the law of similars was for the first time formulated. Hippocrates invented the concept of ’clinical observation’, which had to be extremely detailed and aimed at drawing a holistic picture of a sick person’. In addition, he put forward the three fundamental directions in the art of medicine: the law of opposites, law of similars and healing power of nature. Unfortunately, these findings were ignored for a long period of time.
Another great proponent of homeopathy was the Swiss alchemist Paracelsus (1493-1541), that rediscovered the forgotten “Greek teachings”. His medical works plentifully confirm the homeopathic nature of his medical practice. He promoted the idea that ‘the healing properties of a plant can be revealed by its outer form – “The signature”. For instance, Chelidonium (Chelidoniummajus) was used to treat liver and gall bladder diseases, because of its yellow sap, which looks like bile. Paracelsus stated that diseases are not caused by mysterious powers, but due to some external factors, such as spoiled food and water. Paracelsus affirmed that all plants and metals have active substances that can be prescribed to treat certain diseases. As a researcher of many substances with healing powers and as an apologist of Hipocrates ‘Similia similibus curantur’ principle, Paracelsus became the key person in homeopathy development. The below mentioned famous phrase belongs to Paracelsus ‘All substances are poisons; there is none which is not a poison. The right dose differentiates a poison’.
So, Hahnemann is the rediscoverer of the therapeutic laws of homeopathy, by testing homeopathic remedies on healthy people, taking into account their emotions, mind and body as a whole. Hippocrates, Paracelsus and Avicena have intuited the same thing, but Hahnemann was the one who rediscovered homeopathy and created a scientific system, bringing it to the level of a true art of healing.