Homeopathy is the second largest system of medicine in the whole world according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
To dwell into the history of homeopathy one must know of the history of its founder Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the son of a poor porcelain painter, born over 200 years ago, on the 10th of April 1755 at Meissen, Germany. Hahnemann had great desire to study but owing to poverty, his father forced him to work as a painter in the porcelain factory. Hahnemann, with great resilience, managed to study to be a doctor of medicine in 1781. At that time he was among the few doctors who achieved a postgraduate degree in medicine from Leipzig University, Germany.
At age of 27 years, on 17th of November 1782, he got married to Johanna Henrietta Leopoldina Kuchler, who was 9 years his junior. They welcomed a total of 11 children - 2 sons and 9 daughters, between 1783 AD and1806 AD.
It was a common practice for doctors to use blood-letting as a way of treating diseases as they considered that diseases were caused by the presence of bad blood in the bodies of the sick. Dr. Hahnemann also practiced these methods for some time but failed to notice the benefits. On the contrary, he observed that blood-letting was worsening the state of the patients. Disappointed, he gave up his medical career and expressed his agony about the demerits of such treatment methods. To friend at hufeland.
To earn bread and butter for his growing family, Dr. Hahnemann put his knowledge of 16 languages - German, Italian, Spanish, French, English, Latin and Greek, Arabic, Syrian, Chadian, Hebrew to name a few, and started translating medical books to different languages. Between 1777 and 1806 AD he translated 24 large textbooks and several articles into the German language. He used to sit at his desk writing until his fingers were sore. In 1790 AD, while translating William Cullen’s “A Treatise On Materia Medica” from English to German, he hit a roadblock at the footnote claiming that the bitter(astringent) and aromatic properties of Cinchona bark (Quinine) were effective in treating intermittent fever of Malaria. He observed that other astringent substances are not effective against malaria. Curious to learn more, Dr.Hahnemann decided to conduct experiments on himself.
He consumed 4 grams of cinchona bark extract twice a day and developed malaria-like symptoms of fever with chills. The symptoms subsided gradually on discontinuation of the extract, proving that the symptoms were produced by it. He repeated the experiment on himself to confirm his findings. He explained his findings to his wife, who agreed to participate in his experiments. She too experienced similar effects on consuming the extract. The only difference was that Dr. Hahnemann was extremely thirsty during the heat stage whereas his wife was thirstless. He enlisted the help of his close friends who repeated the experiment and reported similar symptoms with minor differences.
This led him to postulate the principal - ‘Similia Similibus Curantur’ which means ‘Like Cures Like’ as he believed - ‘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’.
In 1807, Dr.Hahnemann coined the term HOMEOPATHY in his essay, ‘Indications of the Homeopathic Employment of Medicines in Ordinary Practice’, published in Hufeland's Journal.