Samuel
Hahnemann
(1755 - 1843)
Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of
homoeopathy, was born in Meissen, Saxony in Germany on
10th
April 1755
to an impoverished middle-class family. He was taught to read
and write by both parents and was an avid learner even in his
early years. He became proficient at languages and even by the
age of twelve was sufficiently accomplished in Greek and Latin
that he was given the task of tutoring other children in these.
His linguistic repertoire expanded through his adolescence so
that by the age of twenty he had mastered English, French,
Italian, Latin and Greek, and was able to make a living at the
University of Leipzig as a translator and teacher in languages.
He subsequently added to these, Arabic, Syriac, Chaldaic and
Hebrew. He also trained in sciences, was a member of various
scientific societies and was honoured especially for his
researches in chemistry. Other fields of expertise included
botany, astronomy and meteorology. Hahnemann undertook the
study of medicine in Leipzig and Vienna, qualifying with honours
in 1779.
He
started practice as a doctor in 1781 and shortly afterwards
married Johanna Henriette Kuchler, with whom he had 11 children.
Hahnemann took his calling as a medical healer seriously and
applied himself conscientiously to his profession. In these
early years as a doctor, using the medicines and techniques
available to the profession at the time, he found to his dismay
that he was not only not achieving a healing response in
many of his patients, but in some cases causing greater damage
to the health of the patient through the toxic effects of some
of the medicines, than the disease, if left untreated, would
have caused.
This
tragic fact made such a profound moral impression on him, that
he felt compelled to withdraw from the profession in order to
not contribute to the harm being committed to humanity in the
name of medicine.
My
sense of duty would not easily allow me to treat the unknown
pathological state of my suffering brethren with these unknown
medicines. The thought of becoming in this way a murderer or
malefactor towards the life of my fellow human beings was most
terrible to me, so terrible and disturbing that I wholly gave up
my practice in the first years of my married life and occupied
myself solely with chemistry and writing.
Hahnemann then resorted to making a living from writing and
translation. It was while undertaking the translation of a
particular medical text, A Treatise on the Material Medica
by the Scottish physician William Cullen, that he was first
prompted to examine the medicinal effects of substances ‘under a
different light.’ In this medical text he read the claim that
the drug, cinchona (Peruvian Bark), was effective in treating
the symptoms of malaria because it was a bitter astringent and
had a tonic effect on the stomach.
Hahnemann rejected this claim outright as it suggests that other
drugs which had these characteristics should have a beneficial
effect on malarial states, which they don’t. In order to
establish exactly what effects cinchona did have on the human
organism he decided to take the drug himself. He began to
administer doses of cinchona to himself over a short period of
time and discovered that this bark actually created malaria-like
symptoms in a healthy individual. Hahnemann reasoned that it
was the similarity of symptoms that somehow produced the healing
effect. This prompted the postulation of the first principle of
homoeopathy: “like cures like.” Or stated more completely: That
which can produce a set of symptoms in a healthy individual, can
treat a sick individual who is manifesting a similar set of
symptoms.
He
coined the name “homoeopathy” to describe this approach to
healing, deriving it from the Greek: homos (same) + pathos
(suffering).
He went
on to test other substances, accurately documenting for each its
particular “symptom picture.”
This,
however, still left the barrier of toxicity. Many substances
which produced symptoms also produced toxicity in the body
unless they were diluted to such a degree that they not only
lost their toxicity but also their ability to produce, and
therefore to cure, symptoms. Hahnemann experimented variously
with this problem and discovered a curious phenomenon which had
not been known before. Whereas simple dilution of a substance,
in water for example, weakened the power of a substance to
produce an effect, the act of diluting in steps (each step could
be, for example, diluting 1 in 10) and vigorously shaking or
impacting the mixing vessel after each step, resulted in a
substance which still produced symptom effects on a healthy
person, and curative effects on a sick person. This phenomenon
was evident even when the dilution and impacting (called
succussion) was continued to the point of leaving only
immeasurably small amounts of original substance in the diluted
solution.
This
discovery opened the door to widespread testing of even the most
toxic substances, including substances like Belladonna and
Aconite – both highly poisonous; and after developing a means of
bringing insoluble substances, like mercury or gold, into
attenuated states using trituration, there was very little that
could not safely be tested and therefore safely and effectively
administered to patients. The testing procedure in homoeopathic
parlance is called “proving.” (The original meaning of the word
“prove” is “to test.” Like many words its meaning became altered
in time through popular misuse.)
Hahnemann resumed his practice using to full effect his newfound
approach to the art of healing. He soon attracted many
followers among the physicians of his day and the new science
started to spread through Europe and abroad. A homoeopathic
medical movement was started which eventually spread throughout
the Europe and North America and also eastward into Asia, and
especially India.
Hahnemann’s provings expanded from the original tests done on
himself to tests done on numbers of people in order to establish
the common and striking symptoms, as well as the more subtle and
peculiar effects of each drug. These detailed symptom pictures
have been collected and catalogued into what is considered the
homoeopath’s bible: the Homoeopathic Materia Medica. From a
thorough knowledge of the materia medica, the homoeopath is able
to select the homoeopathic medicine (called a remedy) which most
closely matches the sum and essence of the patient’s symptoms.
It is the ability to find this match that is the “art” of
homoeopathy, and Hahnemann was the original master of this art
(though many have been produced since his time.)
In
1810, Hahnemann published the fruits of his labours in a
systematic treatise called The Organon of the Medical Art.
This publication laid out the original principles and practices
of homoeopathy for the benefit of other physicians and for
mankind in general. Early in the text he describes and defines
the goal of physician: “The highest ideal of therapy is to
restore health rapidly, gently, permanently; to remove and
destroy the whole disease in the shortest, surest, least harmful
way, according to clearly comprehensible principles.” The
remainder of the book sets out how this ideal can be realized
using homoeopathic principles.
He
continued throughout his long career to refine and improve the
practice of remedy making, proving and prescribing, still
following the fundamental principles of his original discovery,
and in the course of his life, produced five further editions of
the Organon.
After a
long career as a medical practitioner, researcher, writer and
lecturer, Hahnemann died in 1843 at the age of 88 in
Paris,
after having completed his 6th and final edition of
the Organon, referring to it in a letter to his publisher
as his “most nearly perfect work.”
The
fruits of Hahnemann’s genius continue to benefit us today in
ever increasing measure as the efficacy and safety of
homoeopathy in the treatment of countless disease states becomes
evident to more and more people.
The
tradition of trained and qualified medical doctors taking up
homoeopathic study in addition to their regular training
continues in many countries, while many who are not doctors can
also train in the study and practice of homoeopathy, either to a
professional or home-use level.
Its use
has been expanded into veterinary practice as well where it is
routinely applied successfully to pets as well as to
agricultural animals.
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