HOMEOPATHY – HISTORY AND BACKGROUND

Michael Frass

Samuel Hahnemann was born in the year of 1755 in Meißen as the son of a porcelain painter. He received a rigorous education; his extraordinary talent was recognised very early on and his further education was fostered. Amongst other cities he went to Vienna during his medical studies, where he was able to study under Dr. Quarin, personal physician of Emperor Joseph II. and founder of the old general hospital (AKH), at the hospital of the Barmherzige Brüder.

	The medicine of the 18th century was characterised by procedures that were not well-grounded scientifically, e.g. bloodletting, clysters, leeches, etc. As Hahnemann was disappointed by this kind of medicine, he gave up the exercise of the medical profession. He ensured the survival of his rapidly growing family by working as a translator.
Samuel Hahnemann (by Mag. art. Doris Frass)

During the translation of a work by Cullen he got to the point, at which the effects of cinchona were discussed: the chewing of the cinchona heals malaria through the tonifying effects on the stomach, which Cullen ascribed to the bitterness of the cinchona. Hahnemann doubted this explanation and in a self-experiment he in fact noticed symptoms that were similar to those of malaria. Through a flash of inspiration the basic principle of homeopathy occurred to him, i.e. ‘Similia similibus curentur’ (let likes cure likes). Simplified this means that on the one hand the taking of cinchona causes symptoms of malaria in healthy people and on the other hand that sick people with similar symptoms can be healed with cinchona. An artificial illness in the body is caused by the respective remedies, which is stronger than the actual original illness and hence overcomes it. However, the duration of the artificial illness is significantly shorter. Thus a stimulation of the self-healing powers takes place.

Subsequently Hahnemann tested different substances of plants, minerals and animals and accurately wrote down the symptoms. In doing so the so-called pharmacological pictures emerged after the testing on healthy people. As the number of symptoms was very large, repertories, i.e. registers, were compiled later, with which it is easier to find the remedies.

Hahnemann started up a practice; as he was a choleric and also in a ‘war’ with pharmacists because of the dispensing he did by himself, he moved several times to his family’s regret. The last place he lived at was Köthen, Germany. Hahnemann was married to Henriette Küchler; they had eleven children. Henriette died and at the age of 80 Hahnemann met the 35 years old Parisian paintress Melanie Gohier and married her. Melanie took him to Paris which caused resentment in the Germans. Melanie built a large practice with Hahnemann in Paris. H died at the age of 88 in the year of 1843 and was buried at Père Lachais cemetery. It has to be emphasised strongly that homeopathy was almost completed by a single man.

Hahnemann’s important works: The Organon, 6th edition, which summarises the basics of homeopathy in about 300 paragraphs, among them § 1: ‘The physician's high and only mission is to restore the sick to health, to cure, as it is termed’ and § 153, which emphasises strongly the importance of singular and peculiar symptoms for the anamnesis and the finding of remedies. The Fragmenta de viribus describes all symptoms that appeared during the testing; and Chronic Diseases is Hahnemann’s masterpiece that he did not complete until old age.

What does homeopathic practice look like? The patients come to the homoeopathist with disturbances and indispositions, preferably prior to changes of the organs. The patient describes his disturbances, at best simple and plainly without the using of foreign words and completed diagnoses. The physician writes down everything, tries to interrupt as little as possible and to ask purposeful additional questions only here and there. The anamnesis of homeopathy is characterised by its special consideration of individual symptoms.

The physician’s questions refer to family history, children’s diseases and previous diseases. Furthermore, a vegetative anamnesis, a social, private, as well as an occupational anamnesis are done; here symptoms of the psyche are considered especially. In addition to this there is a physical examination. Importance is attached to details, which in part seem to be less important, as e.g. sensitivity towards temperature, wind, humidity, etc. After the writing down of all symptoms the physician tries to find the adequate remedy, which is capable of causing similar symptoms in healthy people.

The application is mostly done orally in form of globules (small globes) that are made of cane sugar and are saturated with a remedy. There are different potencies: C-potencies, D-potencies, LM-potencies (=Q-potencies), that indicate different grades of dilution. Why did Hahnemann introduce the potencies? He first tested the remedies in a non-diluted condition. After his daughter had almost died during the testing of Veratrum Album (some plants are very toxic in their original state), he thought about other forms of preparation. Thus Hahnemann developed the ‘potencies’: potency means dilution AND succussion (shaking) of the remedy. The succussion leads to the crossover of the effect of a remedy into the dilution. The borderline for natural scientists is the Loschmidt number: 6 x 1023 (number of molecules per mol of a substance); hence they only prescribe potencies up to D 23 or C 11.

Hahnemann did much testing with C 30. These so-called ‘high potencies’ stand out due to an especially penetrative effect. However, the potentialisation is not an indispensable prerequisite of the application of homeopathy, but many of the qualities of the remedies do not appear until the potentialisation. Furthermore, the toxic effects of some remedies can be avoided by potentialisation.

It has to be emphasised that homeopathy is a ‘material’ medicine: one lets the globules dissolve on the tongue, approximately 15 minutes before and after that one should not eat and drink anything, nor brush one’s teeth. For lower potencies more frequent takings are intended over a certain period of time, for higher potencies rarer takings. It is important to observe the effect: as long as an improvement takes place, one should wait and not interrupt the effect of the remedy.

What is not homeopathy? Without a valuation of any kind, homeopathy has to be marked-off from other methods, which do not have anything to do with it, e.g. Bach flower remedies, Bio-resonance, Acupuncture, Electric acupuncture, Herbal medicine, Osteopathy, Kinesiology, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, etc.

Modern scientific research shows that clusters of increasing size form in dilutions that are the bigger, the more diluted the original substance is. By means of thermoluminescence the influence of potentiated substances could be proved. Also large studies have documented that the results with homeopathy are superior to the effects of placebos.

To summarise this it can be said that homeopathy is characterised by physicians putting it into practice according to the principle of similars with the application of single remedies, which were tested on healthy and sick people.