Post on 29-Mar-2018
SOCH111 – History of Healing
www.endeavour.edu.au
Session 17
Homeopathic Medicine
Department of Social
Sciences
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Session Aims
o To trace the roots and development of
homeopathic medicine parallel to conventional
medicine from the late 1700’s to the early 1900’s
o To define the basic theoretical and philosophical
premises of homeopathic medicine
o To examine the similarities and differences in
how homeopathy has culturally established itself
in different countries across the globe
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Back to Paracelsus
o Alchemist, as taught by Benedictine
monks and learned through his
personal experience
o Believed above all in observed
personal experience as a source of
knowledge rather than academic
learning
o Believed all matter is alive,
including minerals and stones
o Both materialistic and vitalistic,
above all holistic
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Paracelsus
o Created three element classification: mercury, sulphur and salt, used in alchemy
o “basically there are only three kinds of medicine and three kinds of illness… each medicus will remember to give mercury to mercurial diseases, salt to saline diseases, sulphur to sulphuricdiseases” (Grossinger 1995, p.282)
o Father of chemistry, also incorporated astrology and vitalisticphilosophy
o Used small doses of poisons to stimulate healing
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Samuel Hahnemann
o 1755 – 1843
o 3rd of 5 children
o Father was a German porcelain
painter
o Devoted to study from a young age
despite his father wanting him to
learn a trade
o Gifted in languages, tutoring by age
13, ultimately translated over 20
major scientific and medical texts
o Obtained degree in medicine in 1779CC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hahne
mann.jpg
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Hahnemann’s Contemporaries
o Bloodletting
o Leeches
o Purging/emesis
o Toxic substances
o Primitive surgeries
o Topical mineral applications
o Ingestion of minerals
o Exhalation and perspiration
o Fontanels and setonsCC
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File:Blood_letting.jpg
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Abandons Medical Practice
“My sense of duty would not easily allow me to
treat the unknown pathological state of my
suffering brethren with these unknown medicines.
The thought of becoming in this way a murderer or
malefactor towards the life of my fellow human
beings was most terrible to me, so terrible and
disturbing that I wholly gave up my practice in the
first years of my married life and occupied myself
solely with chemistry and writing.”Hahnemann (cited in Haehl 1992, chapter 8, paragraph 3)
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Discovery of a New Principle o In 1790, while translating Cullen’s herbal materia
medica, Hahnemann noted Cinchona’s use in
intermittent fever (malaria) was attributed to its bitter
and astringent properties (which were said to drain the
choleric humour)
o Knowing a dozen other equally bitter herbs that didn’t
affect intermittent fever, Hahnemann questioned this
rationale
o He subsequently started the first systematic drug trials
in Western medicine
o He published ‘Essay on a New Principle’ in 1796
proposing ‘similars’ as a theory of treatment
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The Principle of Similars
o Similia similibus curantur
• Latin: ‘likes are cured by
likes’
• The principle states that any
drug capable of producing
morbid symptoms in a
healthy person will remove
similar symptoms that are
occurring as an expression
of disease.
o Similimum
• The most similar medicine By Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's
Medizinal-Pflanzen - Public Domain,
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ex.php?curid=255519
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Human Trials
o Hahnemann created a method for some of the first
clinical trials in medicine, which he named
‘provings’
o Began by giving healthy people doses of medicinal
substances in order to observe the effects of the
substance
o Rejected the existing materia medicas, which were
based on humoral theories, supposition, doctrine of
signatures and traditional uses, and aimed to
create a new materia medica, based on his method
of scientific research
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Empiricism and Rationalism
o Empirical methods utilised by Hahnemann involved
systematic testing of substances and direct
observation of their effects as symptoms
(subjective and objective) without reference to
either cause of disease or mechanism by which
symptoms were produced
o Rationalism at the time was focused on theories
about how the body works, both in health and
disease, and applying those theories to diagnose
and classify diseases and apply treatments
theoretically suited
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Return to Practice
o Around 1800, Hahnemann
returned to medical practice,
using homeopathic treatment
methods based on ‘similars’
o In 1810, wrote the first edition of
‘The Organon of Rational
Healing’ to teach medical
practitioners his new method
o In 1811, started teaching at the
University of Leipzig, attracting a
small group of unorthodox young
medical studentsBy Source, Fair use,
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ex.php?curid=30309196
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Homeopathy
o Word derived from the Greek homoios (similar) and pathos (suffering)
o Used to differentiate from other medicines that are contraries, called “allopathy” meaning “opposite suffering”
o The term first appeared in print in 1807
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Dynamic Medicine
o Hahnemann gradually
started to experiment with
dilution of remedies as a
means to reduce toxic
side effects of similar
medicines
o His philosophy became
increasingly vitalistic,
prescribing dynamic
medicines for his dynamic
conception of the seat of
disease, the vital force By Wikidudeman - Own work,
Public Domain,
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g/w/index.php?curid=2457218
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Homeopathy Gains Validity
o 1813 typhoid epidemic in
Leipzig, Hahnemann
treated 180 victims with
homeopathy, only 1 death
o 1812 scarlet fever epidemic
reduced in severity by use
of homeopathic Belladonna
o 1831 & 1854 cholera
epidemics, homeopathy
showed much greater
success than conventional
medicines
By Original uploader was Estreya at
en.wikipedia|Permission=CC-BY-2.5; GFDL,
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?curid=10714448
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Hahnemann’s Vision of Health
In the healthy condition of man, the spiritual vital
force (autocracy), the dynamis that animates the
material body (organism), rules with unbounded
sway, and retains all the parts of the organism in
admirable, harmonious, vital operation, as
regards both sensations and functions, so that
our indwelling, reason-gifted mind can freely
employ this living, healthy instrument for the
higher purposes of our existence.Organon of Medicine, Aphorism 9
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Revision Questions
o State the law of similars and give one example.
o Outline Hahnemann’s method of conducting
empirical clinical trials.
Other food for thought:o Considering the medical thought and practice in
Hahnemann’s time and his approach to creating a
new system of medicine, why did his approach
garner opposition?
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Concepts Seen in Homeopathy
o Law of Similars: like cures like
o Minute Dose: sequential dilution
o Potentisation: dilution plus succussion
o Minimum Dose: dose minimum number of times
o Provings: trials using inductive reasoning
o Totality of Symptoms: the whole symptom picture
o Individuality: the individualised nature of illness
o Vital Force: what cures disease
o Single Remedy: one best match
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Minute Dose: Dilution
o Treatment involves small doses
of a natural substance, which
amplifies the beneficial effects of
the medicine whilst removing
any toxicity
o Soluble substance are prepared
into mother tinctures, using
similar processes to herbal
tinctures/extractions
o Mother tinctures are diluted to
create homeopathic remedies of
different potencies
Image © Microsoft
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Potentisation
o Hahnemann discovered that dilution combined with
succussion (vigorous shaking) increased a
substance’s medicinal effect
o Created new “dynamised” medicines
o Continued to experiment with different methods of
dilution and succussion to improve results
o Possibly the succussion idea was a combination of
chemistry and alchemy concepts
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Minimum Dose
Aphorism 277:
“For the same reason [§275], since a well-
dynamised medicine whose dose is properly
small becomes all the more curative and
helpful-almost to the point of wonder-the more
homeopathically it was searched out, it follows
that a medicine whose apt selection has been
homeopathically hit upon must also be all-the-
more curative the more its dose descends to
the appropriate degree of smallness for gentle
aid.”(Hahnemann 1996, p.250)
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Provings
o Unique to homeopathy
o Still used today to establish new
remedies on an ongoing basis
o Data derived from provings
provides the basis for the
homeopathic materia medica and
repertories
o The high toxicity of some
substances results in remedy
pictures being established using
only toxicology reports and clinical
use of potentised remediesBy Wikidudeman - en:James Tyler
Kent (1849-1916), Public Domain,
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index.php?curid=2457222
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Totality of Symptoms
o Holistic approach
o Look to the totality of
characteristic symptoms
of the disease on the
physical, mental and
emotional levels
o When the total symptom
picture is examined, it will
give a match to the
symptom picture of the
best remedy
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Individuality
o Holistic approach
o Look to the particular
manifestation of the
disease in a person
along with that person’s
particular constitutional
traits and tendencies
o Pay special attention to
what is unique in the
case
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Vital Force
By Photography by Wikipedia
User:MrX, CC BY-SA 3.0,
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w/index.php?curid=38632806
o Remedy provides a specific
stimulus to the person’s vital
force in order to effect a
cure of the disease
o The body itself is correcting
the state of ill health, and
thus is strengthened
o Vital force is also relied
upon to keep the body well
when it is treated with care
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Single Remedy
o Classical homeopathy
utilizes only one remedy
at a time, not a mixture
o Based on the theory that
a person can only suffer
from one disease at a
time, so all symptoms are
of the one disease, and
there will be one remedy
that matches that picture
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x.php?curid=2079977
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Revision Questions
o Describe/explain the guiding concepts in
homeopathy.
o How were these concepts established?
Other food for thought:o What is your personal sense of the theory and
evidence underlying homeopathic medicine at this
stage?
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 28
Homeopathy Comes to America
o Introduced to the US in
the 1820s
o Developed a following
in New York and
amongst the Germans
in Pennsylvania
o Constantine Hering
came to Rhode Island in
1833 and became a
leader of homeopathy’s
growth in the US By Made by User:Golbez. - Own work, CC BY 2.5,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9
96180
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Hering’s Rule of Cure
As a disease moves toward cure, symptoms
move from:
o Centre to periphery (deep to superficial)
o Head to hands and feet (top down)
o More vital organs to less
o In the reverse order in which they
developed (newest disappears first, oldest
last)
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 30
Homeopathy in America
o In 1844, the American
Institute of Homeopathy was
formed, the first national
medical organisation in the
US
o Intense rivalry with the
conventional medical
establishment
o Medical doctors prohibited to
use homeopathy, and
homeopathic physicians were
deregistered
By Unknown photographer - Drexel
University College of Medicine Archives
and Special Collections, Public Domain,
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hp?curid=10610841
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Epidemics in America
o 1849 cholera epidemic in Cincinnati, homeopathic
patients had a 3% death rate compared to 48-60%
death rate for conventional patients
o 1878 yellow fever epidemic in southern US, death
rates in homeopathic patients were 1/3 the rate for
conventional patients
o 1918 flu epidemic, one report is that of over
26,000 homeopathic cases tracked, death rate
was only 1.05% vs. 30% in conventionally treated
cases
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James Tyler Kent
o 1849 - 1916
o American eclectic doctor who
became a homeopath after an
illness of his second wife was
cured by homeopathy
o Largest influence on
American, British and Indian
homeopathy after Hahnemann
o Laid the foundation of
constitutional homeopathy
By Das Foto wurde von der Internetseite CC BY-SA 3.0,
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189
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Homeopathy in America
o Homeopathy remained controversial even compared to
other vitalistic medicines, having been born from and
recruiting from orthodox medicine’s own ranks of
physicians
o In 1903, the AMA invited homeopaths to join their
association
o The Flexner Report in 1910, combined with
professional tensions caused by rivalry with
conventional medicine, resulted in closure of all but one
American homeopathy school by the 1940’s, and all
schools were closed by 1950
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Homeopathy in Great Britain
o Development of homeopathy in
Britain mirrors the US
o Practice was unregulated as
with orthodox medicine in the
1800’s
o Class system ranked
homeopaths with apothecaries,
below physicians and surgeons
o Major contributors to the
profession: Quin, Dudgeon,
Burnett, Clarke, Bach, Tyler,
Shepherd, Borland
By Rob Brewer from Bristol, England -
Homeopathic, CC BY-SA 2.0,
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Homeopathy in Australia o Homeopathy introduced in the early 1800s by English
immigrants, first known mention in an 1830 newspaper
o In 1841 the Sydney Gazette editor complained that
popular homeopathy may overtake orthodox practice,
closing druggists
o A number of homeopathic pharmacies were established
in the 1860s, and later, homeopathic hospitals
o British Medical Association, which controlled Australian
medical practice, acted against alternative practices
o 1946 Australian Institute of Homeopathy (AIH) was
formed, which became the Australian Homoeopathic
Association (AHA)
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Modern Resurgence
o The culture change of the 1970’s led to an increased interest
in alternative healing methods by medical doctors
o Modern homeopathic teachers such as Morrison, Herrick,
Herscu, Rothenberg, and others became homeopaths, and
Vithoulkas was first brought to the U.S. to teach in 1974
o Non-medical practitioners started to exist in the 70s, with
sometimes conflict between medical and lay homeopaths
o ‘Essence’ and psychological prescribing became prominent,
partly to avoid prohibitions on treating named diseases by
the orthodoxy
o Modern U.S. naturopathy schools started to establish
standards for homeopathic practice in the 1980s
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 37
Homeopathy in India
o First introduced by German
missionaries
o Homeopathic colleges
developed in the late 1800s
o Homeopathy admitted to
government hospitals, education
made equal to conventional
medical education in 1937
o Now a national, regulated system of medicine with
significant infrastructure
o Just under 250,000 practicing homeopaths in 2010
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Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
“Homeopathy is the latest and refined method of treating
patients economically and nonviolently. Governments must
encourage and patronise it in our country. Late Dr.
Hahnemann was a man of superior intellectual power and
means of saving human life, having a unique medical
nerve. I bow before his skill and the Herculean and
humanitarian labour he did. His memory wakes us again
and you are to follow him, but the opponents hate the
existence of the principles and practice of homeopathy,
which in reality cures a larger percentage of cases than any
other method of treatment, and it is beyond all doubt safer
and more economical and the most complete medical
science.”(Gandi, cited in Ulman 2007)
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 39
Current Usage
o Widely practiced in Europe, India, Pakistan, and Latin
America
o 32% of French family physicians use homeopathy
o 42% of English physicians refer to homeopaths
o Included in the national health system in Germany,
India, Brazil, Mexico, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, U.K.,
Switzerland and Cuba
o One of the top four most used medical approaches
internationally (with Traditional Chinese Medicine,
herbalism, and conventional medicine)
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 40
Revision Questions
o What are the differences in the practice of
homeopathy in the English speaking world
compared to the rest of the world (and why)?
o What were the major drivers of the waxing and
waning of homeopathy over time in the English
speaking world?
Other food for thought:o Why does Homeopathy present such a challenge
to modern medical research?
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 41
Referenceso Armstrong, B 2013, Timeline homeopathy in Australia, viewed 26 March 2014,
<http://www.historyofhomeopathy.com.au/timeline.html>. Danciger, E 1988, Homeopathy: from alchemy to medicine,
Healing Arts Press, Vermont.
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o Gray, A 2014, Case management, Homeopathic Essence, New Delhi.
o Grossinger, R 1995, Planet medicine, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley.
o Haehl, R 1992, Samuel Hahnemann: his life and work, B.Jain Publishers, New Delhi.
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o Hahnemann, S 1996, Organon of the medical art, W Brewster O’Relly (ed.), trans. S Decker, 6th edn, Birdcage Books,
Palo Alto, California.
o Jagose, AT 2008, History of homeopathy in India, viewed 11 June 2014, <http://hpathy.com/past-present/history-of-
homeopathy-in-india/>.
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o Lansky, A 2009, Impossible cure, R.L.Ranch Press, Portola Valley.
o Saine A 1988, Hering’s law: law, rule or dogma?, viewed 8 June 2016, <http://www.homeopathy.ca/articles_det12.shtml>.
o Ullman D 1991, A condensed history of homeopathy, viewed 8 June 2016,
<https://www.homeopathic.com/Articles/Introduction_to_Homeopathy/A_Condensed_History_of_Homeopathy.html>.
o Ullman, D 2007, The homeopathic revolution: why famous people and cultural heroes choose homeopathy, North Atlantic
Books, Berkely.
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<http://www.nesh.com/the-new-england-journal-of-homeopathy/vol-7-no-1-springsummer-1998/influenza-1918-
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o Yasgur, J 2007, Yasgur’s homeopathic dictionary and holistic health reference, Van Hoy Publishers, Greenville.