A bite size history of Homeopathy
Homeopathy = Greek for ‘similar suffering’.
System of medicine based on fact that if a substance can
make a healthy person ill it can also be used to make a
person who is ill, in a similar way, get better.
Examples
Apis (made from bee sting) treats angry red, hot swellings.
Lachesis (snake venom) treats blood poisoning.
Coffea (coffee) treats over-excitement and sleeplessness.
Alium Cepa (onion) treats hay fever.
History
2000 years ago:
Hippocrates identifies two types of medicine ‘contraries’
or ‘similars’.
‘Contraries’ use the opposite suffering (‘antipathy’
in Greek) to restore wellbeing, for example, a laxative
eases constipation. Hippocrates noted ‘contraries’,
over time, make the original problem worse, then more medicine
is needed. Most people who’ve taken antacids or sleeping
pills would agree. Hippocrates favoured the use of ‘similars’.
They already had a long and successful history in traditional,
herbal medicine.
200 years ago:
A German doctor named Samuel Hahnemann noted quinine protected
people against malaria. He took some himself and found that
he got all the symptoms of malaria. It cured malaria because
it could produce malaria-like symptoms in a healthy person.
Hahnemann was thrilled by this “Eureka” moment
and spent his life testing diluted substances on volunteers,
carefully recording their effects. This work continues today
with well over a thousand substances already tested and
new ones being introduced all the time.
Homeopathy has its roots in traditional herbal medicine,
but with three major improvements:
1. the original substance is only used in an extremely diluted,
safe form .
2. any substance, not only plants, can be used.
3. all substances are tested on human volunteers to see
what symptoms they produce.
© Mary Aspinwall
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