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| Thursday, 22 April 2004 |
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Homoeopathy and its place in the world of medicine by Dr. G.G.A. Aponso, Consultant Homoeopathy, Founder President - Professional Association of Homoeopathic Medical Practitioners. The story of Hahnemann's life is the story of the discovery, development and diffusion of the principles and practice of Homoeopathy in the world. on 10th April was the 249th birth anniversary of this medical genius who was a scientist, linguist and physician of the highest rank.
We pay tribute to this medical genius Fedric Samuel Hahnemann who preached the doctrine of Homoeopathy which is recognized throughout the world as a veritable and true scientific method of curing disease. This eminent physician's therapeutic methods to ameliorate human suffering are not only safe but also completely efficacious. In his time medicine was crude and harmful and he was never satisfied with the efficacy of the then prevailing practices and so set out to question, examine and rethink the old ideas. bleeding blistering and leeches were the standard medical practices for medicine for elimination of disease. After practising the orthodox system of medicine for a few years he came to doubt its rationality and therapeutic efficacy. His constant questioning did not sit well with his superiors. After all, he was telling people that their doctor was not providing the best care. For this reason Hahnemann was prosecuted by the members of his own profession. He had to wage his battle against ignorance alone. Out of disgust he almost gave up his practice and tried to earn his living by translating medical books, as he was a master of many languages. In 1790 while translating Cullen's Materia Medica in to German he came across the discovery that was to give the world a new approach to the treatment of disease. He doubted the explanation given with regard to the fever producing properties of the Cincona Bark (from which Quinnin is derived), due to its gastric irritability and this was to him what was the falling apple to Newton. In order to test it Hahnemann took several doses of Cincona Bark as it was not unusual for him to experiment upon him self and he experienced ague (Malaria) like symptoms. Quinnin cured ague and now he observed Quinnin produced ague like symptoms. He had found his superior system of medicine a remedy which will produce certain symptoms in a healthy body will cure similar symptoms in a diseased body. Through continuous experimentations Hahneman kept on reducing the quantity of the dose until he found the quantity that would help the sick but not harm the healthy. From this single experiment he inferred that the pathogenic effects of medicine would give the key to their therapeutic powers. He formed a tentative hypothesis in his mind that the specific curative properties of a drug lay in its power of producing similar symptoms in a healthy individual. That is, the drugs have sickness causing as well as sickness curing properties, the sickness being the same. For corroboration of his provisional theory, he referred the records of the Materia Medica of his time and found that nearly all the so called specific cures were effected by drugs which produce similar symptoms in healthy human beings. First he experimented on himself, then on family members and later on doctors. The more he proved the more he was convinced of his theory and at last he suggested a new way of ascertaining the specific curative power of a drug. He then converted the induction in to deduction and said "Let likes be treated by likes" (Similiar Similibus Curentur). However he did not wish to reveal it to the world immediately. Eight years of careful and exacting research were to elapse before he confronted his colleagues and fellow scientists with the science of Homoeopathic healing (Like cures likes). The art of medicine was placed on a scientific footing when Hahnemann discovered the method of testing the positive action of each individual drug and a law guiding the reaction of drugs to cure diseases. Thus Homoeopathy was born in 1796. In 1810 he presented to the world his famous work "Organon" which contains the laws of healing. Homoeopathy was spread throughout the world after the publication of the laws of healing. In Austria Homoeopathy was recognized by Imperial Decree in 1837 and first Homoeopathic hospital was established in 1849 in England. Homoeopathic doctors were appointed as medical advisors and physicians to the queen and Royal family. At present there are about 7 Homoeopathic hospitals in England in the National Health Service. There are other countries like Canada, France, Brazil, Argentina, India, Pakistan, Australia where Homoeopahty has achieved great success and is increasing in popularity. In Sri Lanka Homoeopahty was recognized by an Act of Parliament in 1970 and the first Homoeopathic medical council was appointed by the Minister of Health in 1979. The first Homoeopathic hospital was established about 2 years back and the establishment of the first Homoeopathic Medical College in the near future is under consideration. Homoeopathy was introduced to India by Dr. Honig Burger a German doctor. Dr. Burger was specially called by the Maharajah Ranjith Singh of Lahore who was suffering from chronic bronchitis. The remedy which cured the Maharajah was Dulcamara. The Maharajah was so happy that he appointed Dr. Burger as court physician. Hahnemann the founder of the Homeopathic medicine can rightly be considered a pioneer in psychosomatic medicine. a homoeopath has a psychosomatic approach to every patient and more particularly to every chronic patient. This approach is one of synthesis and he considers a patient as an individual a single unit of mind and body. Hippocrates, the father of medicine had stated that "the nature of the body can be understood as a whole". But this received scant attention till Hahnemann discovered the therapeutic law of Homeopathy and the drug experiments on healthy humans, thus facilitating consideration of man's emotions, his mind and his body as a single inter reacting unit. Homeopathy with its objective of paying attention to the whole human being and the prescription of the single remedy to trigger the vital flows within the human constitution to begin its curative process is a medical philosophy which is being recognized and extensively used by physicians around the world. With growing number of faithful followers he endured and did not give up all the time perfecting his new art of healing until he eventually established a reputation of curing those cases that baffled other doctors. Students began seeking him out and they too helped to spread the healing art of Homoeopathy. The courageous doctor who had been scorned and ridiculed most of his adult life began receiving some of the recognition that he deserved in his last few years. When he died in 1843 well known and well respected his reputation was established and his credentials were no longer in any doubt. |
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Born on 10th April 1755 in Germany Dr. Christian Federic Samuel
Hahnemann graduated in medicine in 1779 and later obtained his MD the
highest medical qualification in the orthodox system of medicine that was
available at that time.
