About Homeopathy

(1755 - 1843)

 

What does the word "Homœopathy"(Homeopathy)  mean?

The word 'Homœopathy' is derived from two Greek words, 'omœos' meaning 'similar' and 'pathos' meaning 'suffering'. Homeopathy simply means, treating diseases with remedies, prescribed in minute doses, which are capable of producing symptoms similar to the disease, when taken by healthy people. It is based on the natural law of healing - "Similima Similibus Curantur" which means "like cures like".

 

How did it come about?

Homeopathy is not new. Hippocrates, Galen, Holler, Stork and many other great teachers in medicine, were familiar with the homeopathic law of cure, but it was not until Dr Samuel Hahnemann (German Physician and Scientist) first recognised its full value and made its application general.

Dr Samuel Hahnemann (1755 - 1843) discovered the principle that what a substance could cause in the way of symptoms it would cure.

Hahnemann was struck by the effect that certain drugs, when taken by him while quite healthy, produced symptoms that the drug was known to cure in sick persons. Over his life, Hahnemann conducted many experiments upon himself, his most famous being the taking of Chincona Bark from where quinine is derived. He became ill with the symptoms that exactly mimicked intermittent fever, what we now call Malaria.

He continued to experiment, noting that every substance he took, whether herb, mineral, animal product or chemical compound, produced definite distinct symptoms in him. Further more, the symptoms he produced were not just confined to the physical plane; every substance tested also affected the mind and the emotions apart from the body.

Homeopathic Medicines include any substance which is recorded in the standard books of Homeopathic Materia Medica from Dr Hahnemann down to the present day authorities, with symptoms gathered from proving on a healthy human being; or symptoms, not found during provings but observed to have actually cured ( and verified by sufficient number of observations) by substances during their administration to sick persons; or symptoms observed either accidentally or by controlled experiments; or observed as toxicological effects on human beings or animals and which after being prepared according to the principle and technique peculiar to Homeopathic pharmacy and are administered to a sick person according to the Law of Similars.

 

How does Homeopathy Work

If you have purchased Homeopathic remedy from either Boots or your local  Health Food shop you would have either purchased a 6c or 30c potency in pillule form. Homeopathic remedies also come in the form of a Mother tincture but these should only be used by a qualified Homeopathic Practitioner.

The 'C' denotes Centesimal scale i.e - the ratio of drug material to vehicle being 1 :99. It is based on the principle that the first potency should contain one-hundreth part of the original drug and each succeeding potency should contain one-hundreth part of the potency preceding it.

Other potencies used by Homeopaths are:

Decimal Scale, denoted by a suffix X (the ratio is 1:9) and the Fifty Millesimal Potency, denoted by the suffix LM in the UK ( the ratio is 1:50,000).The lower the ratio the nearer to the crude dose. 

 

The Mode of Action of Homeopathic Medicines

The curative power of Homeopathic potentised medicine is nothing but an energy aroused by the process of drug dynamisation. The Homeopathic Principle is one of stimulating change, that is to say, stimulating the systems own resources to recover.

  

Drug Power of Homeopathic Potentised Medicines

The molecular property of the drug power is transferred to the liquid or solid vehicle in some form of 'template or replica' mechanism similar to that of DNA & RNA or some sort of still unknown energy.

 

Dr William E Boyd, Glasgow, Scotland ( 1891 - 1955)

Dr Boyd M.A., M.B., Ch.B., M.D.educated at Glasgow Academy and Glasgow University, served as a Surgeon in the Royal Navy during WWI. In 1919, he joined the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital. During his career, he proved by experiments on his Emanometer, beyond any shadow of doubt, that the presence of a power existsed in 30th potency (30c) of Mercuric Chloride. He thus vindicated the clinical insight of Dr Hahnemann , who could not explain how such an inconceivably diluted solution as the 30th potency , lacking even a single molecule of the original drug, could cure a sick person. Dr Boyd discovered that there are some sort of emanations produced by homeopathically prepared drugs which act only on the tissues to which each individual drug is fitted and only on those individuals to whom it is tuned.

Dr Hahnemann used the terms 'Spirtual Vital Force' and later 'Dynamis' to explain the phenomenon of cure based on the Law of Similars.

 

Long Live Dr Hahnemann's Teachings and Homeopathy

 

Carla Carmichael is a qualified and professionally registered Homeopath, Member of the Alliance of Registered Homeopaths (MARH) - www.a-r-h.org