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In 1796,
a German doctor, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann
found out a new approach, about how to
cure various diseases.
Hahnemann conceived of homeopathy while
translating a medical treatise by Scottish
physician and chemist William Cullen into
German. Being skeptical of Cullen's theory
concerning cinchonas action in malaria,
Hahnemann ingested some of the bark specifically
to see its effect. Upon ingesting
the bark, he noticed few stomach symptoms,
experienced fever, shivering and joint
pain; These symptoms we generally experience
in early stage of malaria, the disease
that the bark was ordinarily used to treat.
From this, Hahnemann came to believe that
all effective drugs produce symptoms in
healthy individuals similar to those of
the diseases that they treat. This later
became known as the "LAW OF SIMILARS",
the most important concept of homeopathy.
The term "homeopathy" was coined
by Hahnemann and first appeared in print
in 1807, although he began outlining his
theories of "medical similars"
or the "doctrine of specifics"
in a series of articles and monographs
in 1796.
Hahnemann began to test what effects substances
produced in humans, a procedure which
would later become known as "homeopathic
proving". These time-consuming tests
required subjects to clearly record all
of their symptoms as well as the ancillary
conditions under which they appeared.
Hahnemann experimented on himself and
others for several years before using
remedies on patients. Hahnemann saw these
data as a way of identifying substances
suitable for the treatment of particular
diseases.
The first collection of provings was published
in 1805 and a second collection of 65
remedies appeared in his book, Materia
Medica Pura, in 1810. Hahnemann believed
that large doses of drugs that caused
similar symptoms would only aggravate
illness, so he advocated extreme dilutions
of the substances; he devised a technique
for making dilutions that he believed
would preserve a substance's therapeuticproperties
while removing its harmful effects, proposing
that this process arousedand enhanced
"spirit-like medicinal powers held
within a drug". The book on Homoeopathic
philosophy written by Hahnemann The
Organon of the Healing Art, whose
6th edition, published in 1921, is still
used by homeopaths today.
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