Homoeopathy Treats The Patient, Not The Disease

The Materia Medica of Homoeopathy is nothing but the proving of the medicine on healthy bodies, i.e the symptoms which a medicine produces in healthy body when taken in physiological doses. Therefore, in Homoeopathy the name of the disease is not at all necessary to select the right medicine. Homoeopathy treats the patient not the disease, unlike other systems of medicine where diseases are treated. In fact, the so called any one disease manifests so many various symptoms that no one medicine can be prescribed for it.

For ages, we have been accustomed to treat diseases by names. We have also prescribed medicines according to name of diseases but have mentioned different symptoms of different medicines in the same disease. The nomenclatures of diseases are according to some prominent part of the effected body or some prominent symptoms.

For example, if our lungs are affected and congested, we call it Pneumonia; if there is chill and fever we call it Malaria. If there is pain in heart we call it Angina, and so on. But it should be clear that even in one disease, for example in Pneumonia some patients are restless with high fever and great thirst, but others have no thirst and no restlessness would like to lie down silently. Some will not be able to lie on the left side, while others will feel uncomfortable by lying on the right side. In Malaria too there are so many different symptoms varying from patient to patient. Homoeopathy depends much on these different symptoms. A patient craves for cold water during fever, the other is thirst less, another feels better by moving about and still another is worse by slightest motion.

Therefore, to select the right Homoeopathic remedy, we have to note the location of the disease, i.e. the part effected, the sensations of the patient and aggravation and amelioration of the troubles.

To select the right remedy, therefore, we should carefully note all the symptoms in a patient. We should note what he says as well as what his relatives nursing him, say. We should then find which medicine in the Materia Medica produces all these symptoms, or at least a majority of important symptoms. If we succeed by careful comparison in finding out a similar medicine, the minutest doses of the same will cure the patient.

The Basic Principle

Though everyone knows something about Homoeopathy, people don’t normally know enough about it and even some well educated persons have misunderstandings about this science. This science of Homoeopathy is discovery of the German physician Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, who was born on 10 April 1753 and breathed his last in 1843.

Dr. Hahnemann was born in the poor family of a painter of earthen pots at Mycaine in the Saxony State of Germany. A mastermind as he was, he succeeded in obtaining the highest degree of M.D. when he was only 24. He was appointed Civil Surgeon in the Dresden Hospital. After sometime he started private practice near Leipzing, but he was not satisfied with the medical science prevailing at that time and its methods of treatment.

It was in 1790 that an incident resulted in the discovery of Homoeopathy by him. Dr. Hahnemann while translating an English Materia Medica into German came across the description of Cinchona, a plant from which is made Quinine and its other compounds.

It was claimed that Cinchona is the surest remedy of malarial fever. Dr. Hahnemann also knew that, but it was also mentioned therein that indiscriminate use of Cinchona produces symptoms similar to malaria. This point struck Dr. Hahnemann and to test the statement he used a decoction of Cinchona in large doses which produced symptoms of malarial fever in him. He begin to think whether all the medicine in small doses cured the diseases or symptoms which they produced when taken in large doses. For six years he made experiments with about 300 medicines on his own person and in 1796 he confirmed and published that:

A Medicine In Minimum Doses Cures All Such Symptoms Or Diseases Which It Is Capable Of Producing In A Healthy Person When Taken In Large Doses

“Like cures Like” is the basic principle of Homoeopathy. As soon as it was published, a revolution took place in the medical world. In 1810 he published his famous work Organ on of Medicine, which is termed as the Bible of Homoeopathy and clearly and logically explains the above principle.

Now Dr. Hahnemann began to practice medicine according to the newly discovered principle of “Like cures Like” He was immensely successful in curing many so called chronic and incurable diseases. Many physicians started working on the lines suggested by him quite a few became envious and tried to defame and discourage him. There came ups and downs in Dr. Hahnemann’s career but he remained strong in his conviction. During the last years of his life he had a roaring practice in Paris.

As explained above, according to Homoeopathy, curative power of medicine depends upon its capacity to produce ailments or disease symptoms. For example, ARSENIC produces diarrhoea, vomiting, extreme prostration, burning, unquenchable thirst, anguish. If these very symptoms occur in a patient without taking ARSENIC, they shall be cured by giving him ARSENIC, but in very minute doses.