HISTORY OF HOMEOPATHY

In the 5^th century BC, Hippocrates ‘the father of medicine’first

discovered the homeopathic principle of ‘like curing like’, but it more or less got forgotten until the 18^th Century , when a German

Physician, Dr Samuel Hahnemann rediscovered the principles. He

was appalled by the existing medical practices, such as violent

purges, leeches and strong medicine which so often did more harm

than good and sought a gentler, safer and more effective

alternative to these extreme treatments.

He dosed himself up with an extract of cinchona tree bark that

contained quinine, a treatment for malaria and found that he was

producing similar symptoms of that disease. This started

Hahnemann on a journey of what has commonly become known as

‘the proving of remedies’. He started to take various substances

from a variety of sources, and carefully recorded and documented every symptom that the

substance produced, as in the case of cinchona and was thus able to successfully treat any patients

that came in with these similar symptoms. Over time the ‘proving of remedies’ became based on

clinical experience as well as a large number of people collating their symptoms and experiences on

the substances which later became established as remedies.