AN OUTLINE HISTORY OF HOMEOPATHY

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AN OUTLINE HISTORY OF HOMEOPATHY

Requested by and dedicated to Dr. Suriya Osman, Malaysia.

by Peter Morrell

 

Homeopathy is a system of medicine based upon similars, single drugs,

provings and small doses.

 

'... in a day when clinicians were condemning heroic practice,

homeopaths 'went them one better' by prescribing drugs so diluted

that they must have been entirely innocuous... homeopaths avoided the

extremes of both nihilism and heroic practice.' [shryock, p.144]

 

It was developed entirely by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann

(1755-1843).

 

'Hahnemann... developed a horror for the blunders of the medical

profession, leading to his... 'On Poisoning by Arsenic... '... a work

registering his fears over the toxicity of drugs... ' [Porter, p.390]

 

'He eventually settled in Paris and lived long enough to see

widespread support for his doctrines, which struck a chord amongst

patients suspicious of drugging practices. He won over a large and

often fashionable clientele and captured a significant fraction of

the medical profession across Europe and America... ' [Porter, p.391]

 

Homeopathy originated in 1796 with the publication of

Hahnemann's 'Essay on a New Principle' in which he states:

 

'One should apply in the disease to be healed... that remedy which is

able to stimulate another artifically produced disease, as similar as

possible; and the former will be healed - similia similibus -- likes

with likes.' [Haehl, Vol 1, p.66]

 

His new system was virtually 'up and running' by 1800, as the next

key dates are 1803 for the Fragmenta de viribus' [early accounts of

first provings]; 1810 the first 'Organon', and 1811 for the 'Materia

Medica Pura' .

 

'... Hahnemann's 'Fragmenta de viribus medicamentorum positivis..'.

was published in Latin. This two-volume work gives us, for the first

time, an insight into the remarkable, and so far unknown, methods of

investigation which he employed. It supplies reports on the tests of

twenty-seven medicines - the results of years of experiment on

himself and his family.' [Gumpert, p.122]

 

In 1798 he first started experimenting with dose reduction, which led

to the development of potency scales.

 

'We cannot fail to be struck by the sudden transition from the

massive doses he prescribed in 1798 to the unheard-of minuteness of

his doses only one year later, and we can but guess the causes for

this abrupt transition.' [Dudgeon, 1853, pp395-6]

 

'Hahnemann's idea at first was simply to reduce the 'strength' or

material mass of his drug, but his passion for accuracy led him to

adopt a scale, that he might always be sure of the degree of

reduction and establish a standard for comparison.' [Close, 1924,

p.216]

 

Homeopathy stems entirely from Hahnemann's critique and abandonment

of allopathic drugging, 1782-90, during which he resolved to

formulate, entirely through experimentation, a more humane, effective

and rational system of medicine, as opposed to strong drugging and

depletive practices like bloodletting, which he abhorred.

 

'Homeopathy is opposed to the use... of drugs in physiological

doses... to the methods of vaccine and serum therapy... to so-

called 'pathological prescribing' and to 'group treatment' of

diseases..to all forms of external, local or topical drug treatment

of the external, secondary symptoms of disease... to polypharmacy..It

depends for all its results upon the dynamical action of single,

pure, potentised medicines, prepared by a special mathematico-

mechanical process and administered in minimum dose.' [Close, 1924,

pp.20-21]

 

His experiments with the proving of drugs covered the period 1790-

1820, and thus homeopathy as a full system dates from c1810.

 

Homeopathy spread rapidly throughout all European countries in the

early years, assisted in every case by support from aristocrats,

royalty and the fashionable.

 

'Homeopathy... appealed primarily to those urban middle and upper

class persons who were seeking an alternative to regular medicine...

homeopathy was extremely fashionable among the European nobility and

upper classes, whose tastes were often copied by affluent Americans.'

[Rothsetin, p.160]

 

'Homeopathy rapidly became extremely popular among the wealthy in

many communities throughout the country... ' [Rothstein, p.234]

 

The first phase of its Diaspora includes Belgium, Holland, Austria,

Hungary, Poland, USA, Russia, Britain, Italy, France and Switzerland

in the 1810-30 period; then Spain, Portugal, Greece, Eire, South

America, India, Far East and Scandinavia in the second wave 1820-50

approx.

 

'In the USA homeopathy was an early challenge to regular medicine

since it appealed to a more affluent clientele with well-trained

doctors, who offered, in addition, a less heroic type of therapy...

the body of homeopathic doctors was a relatively small sect,

concentrated geographically in the North-East and in the large

cities... [upon] a clientele from a high and correspondingly

influential class.'[Dinges, p.186]

 

It reached its greatest flowering in mainland Europe and America 1850-

90, after which it declined quite quickly.

 

'For several reasons, homeopathy was a far greater threat to orthodox

medicine than was Thomsonism. First, most homeopathic physicians were

once orthodox practitioners, unlike the poorly educated farmers and

backwoodsmen who were philosophically attracted to botanical

treatment. In addition, homeopathy was based upon a scientific

approach, an experimental pharmacology; in many ways it had a better

claim to scientific accuracy than did the practice of bloodletting

and the use of calomel. Moreover, with its belief in the body's vital

force, it was especially attractive to America's Transcendentalists

and clergymen. A group which included some of the country's most

influential citizens. Finally, homeopathy provided the opportunity to

treat oneself, which had been a major factor in the appeal of

botanical medicine. Homeopathic practitioners and pharmacists

prepared domestic kits for their patients consisting of a variety of

remedies and directions for their administration.' [Kaufman, 1990,

p.101]

 

In this single superb paragraph Kaufman manages quite subtly to

allude to a range of fascinating and centrally important themes: the

uneducated plebeian forms of medicine; the way medicine came to

comprise of a socially-accepted and formally legitimised,

educated, 'credentialised' elite class of professional doctors; the

then futuristically scientific nature of provings-based medicine; the

attractiveness of the spiritual element within homeopathy, and within

medicine in general; the importance of do-it-yourself domestic

medical treatment, especially for thinly-dispersed rural communities;

the great suitability homeopathy had for such a mode of delivery; and

finally the way in which any medicine must smoothly adapt and respond

to the demands of its client-base: its market of patients.

 

'Private practice operated within an economic nexus in which doctors

were self-employed petty capitalists: it was a market which could be

lucrative, but which was also competitive and insecure... medical

practice was, nevertheless, a going concern... there was no call for

costly premises, expensive equipment and insurance policies. Medicine

wasn't a hazardous boom-or-bust venture... product demand never

failed, reasonable patients would not hold out excessive expectations

of miracles, and caveat emptor was the watchword.' [Porter, pp.348-9]

 

In every case, homeopathy fearlessly challenged and fought regular

medicine head-on, disagreeing profoundly with the use of complex

mixtures of drugs in high doses. These criticisms had a definite

reforming impact upon regular medical practices:

 

'Hahnemann's followers promised help, but help in the form of

pleasant 'water medicine' and sugar pills instead of castor oil and

calomel. No wonder homeopathy acquired some popularity. It is a

plausible surmise, indeed, that the success of this sectarian guild

brought more pressure on the regulars in favour of moderate practice

than did the appeals of nihilistic clinicians.' [shryock, pp.144-5]

 

'The decline in the severity of heroic depletive treatment was the

most dramatic change in practice during the second quarter of the

nineteenth century' [Warner, p.95]

 

In nearly all countries, its adherents became embroiled in bitter

sectarian disputes against medical orthodoxy, and were soon

ostracised as deviants and medical heretics:

 

'In the late 1840s, regular physicians undertook a series of measures

to ostracise homeopaths from the major regular medical

institutions... the intention to practice as a homeopath was

sufficient reason to deny the application.' [Rothstein, p.232]

 

'In ways too numerous to mention, regular physicians drove homeopaths

out of the regular societies, persecuted them in the courts, and

otherwise endeavoured to destroy homeopathy or at least to separate

it from regular medicine.' [Rothstein, p.170]

 

'... homeopaths were banned from regular medical societies, denied

hospital privileges at regular hospitals, excluded from boards of

health, forbidden to serve on the faculties of regular medical

schools and blacklisted from consultations or any professional

association with regular physicans. Even their apprentices were

denied certification of preceptorship at regular medical schools.'

[Rothstein, p.233]

 

It had virtually disappeared in most countries by 1920 but has

undergone a sustained world-wide revival since 1979. It is now an

important part of the holistic and complementary therapies movement.

 

Yet it has remained remarkably loyal to its core ideology of small

doses of only proven drugs, used singly and selected on the basis of

similars: an ideology which has remained unchanged right into modern

times, even though slightly different modes of practice have emerged

in different lands.

 

Another key feature of homeopathy has been experimentation, which

dates back to Hahnemann himself. Aphorism 25 of the Organon praises

what '... pure experience, the sole and infallible oracle of the

healing art... '. Also in the Preface to the 1st edition of the

Organon he states that none of his conclusions should be '...

accepted unless confirmed by experience... ' [Hahnemann, p. xiii]

 

Thus it is very clear that he regarded experience and experiment as

being vastly superior to 'theoretical medicine', which he scathingly

calls 'speculative ideas' in his Preface to the 2nd Organon:

 

'... the splendid juggling of so-called theoretical medicine, in

which a priori conceptions and speculative subtleties raised a number

of proud schools... the art of medicine was merely a pseudo-

scientific fabrication, remodelled from time to time to meet the

prevailing fashion.' [ibid, p.xv]

 

In Aphorism 6, he bemoans the

 

'... futility of transcendental speculations which can receive no

confirmation from experience..' [ibid, p. 32]

 

And, as Dr Krauss candidly states in his Introduction,

 

'Hahnemann was, in all essentials, a flawless experimenter.' (p.

xxiv).

 

He goes on,

 

'The era of scientific medical experimentation begins with Hahnemann

and nobody else. Scientific to the core, Hahnemann experimented

scientifically for scientific observation... ' [ibid, p. xxvii]

 

Finally, Hahnemann states in the Preface to the 2nd Organon:

 

'The true healing art is in its nature a pure science of experience,

and can and must rest upon clear facts and on the sensible phenomena

pertaining to their sphere of action.', and that it '... dares not

take a single step out of the sphere of pure, well-observed

experience and experiment, if it would avoid becoming a nullity, a

farce.' [ibid, p. xiv]

 

New techniques have constantly been explored and introduced, such as

nosodes, miasms, sarcodes, olfaction, combination remedies, LM

scales, radionics and new drug provings. Some new ideas have caused

controversy and met resistance for a time, but most are now still in

use somewhere within the movement, which is growing at ~10% per annum

world-wide, even faster in some areas.

 

 

 

Sources:

Close, Stuart, The Genius of Homeopathy, Lectures and Essays on

Homeopathic Philosophy, Jain reprint, India, 1924

Coulter, Harris L, Divided Legacy A History of the Schism in Medical

Thought, 3 vols, Wehawken Books, Washington, USA, 1973

Dinges, Martin, The Role of Medical Societies in the

Professionalisation of Homeopathic Physicians in Germany and the USA

in Juette, Risse & Woodward, 1998

Dudgeon, Robert, Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Homeoapthy,

1853, London, Jain reprint, India

Gevitz, Norman, (Ed), Other Healers, Unorthodox Medicine in America,

Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, Baltimore, USA, 1990

Gumpert, Martin, Hahnemann - The Adventurous Career of a Medical

Rebel, L B Fischer Publ Corp, New York, 1945, a translation into

English of: 'Hahnemann, die Abenteurlichen Schicksale einea

Arztlichen Rebellen und seiner Lehre, der Homoöpathie', S. Fischer,

Berlin, 1934; translated from the German by Claud W Sykes.

Haehl, Richard, Samuel Hahnemann His Life and Works, 2 volumes, Jain

India, 1922

Hahnemann, Samuel, Organon of Medicine, Dudgeon/Boericke translation,

combined 5th/6th edition, 1921, Jain reprint

Juette, Risse and Woodward (Eds), Culture, Knowledge and Healing:

Historical Peerspectives on Homeopathy in Europe and North America,

Sheffield Univ Press, UK, 1998

Kaufman, Martin, Homeopathy in America: The Rise and Fall of a

Medical Heresy, Johns Hopkins, Univ. Press, Baltimore, USA, 1972

Kaufman, Martin, Homeopathy In America: The Rise, Fall and

Persistence of a Medical Heresy, in Gevitz, 1990

Porter, Roy, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, A Medical History of

Humanity, W Norton & Co, New York, USA, and London UK, 1998

Rothstein, William G, American Physicians in the 19th Century From

Sects to Science, Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, Baltimore, USA, 1972

Shryock, Richard Harrison, Medicine and Society in America 1660-1860,

Cornell Univ. Press, New York, USA 1972

Warner, John Harley, The Therapeutic Perspective, Harvard Univ.

Press, USA, 1986

 

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