HOMEOPATHY, from two Greek words signifying "similar suffering," is a system of medicine introduced into practice'abont the close of last century, by a German physician of the name of Hahnemann (q.v.). It is founded upon the belief that medicines have the power of miring morbid conditions similar to those which they have the power to excite; expressed in Latin by the phrase, similia similibus curanter, and in English by "like cures Eke." That diseases are cured by substances which produce in persons in health symptoms like those presented by a patient, has been from the earliest times a recognized fact, both by medical writers and by poets who have expressed the prevailing belief of the ages in which they liyed. Among the former, we find-•the author of a treatise to Hippoerates, entitled On the Raceslii" Atilt. This writer gives numerous examples of what may be called homeopathic cures; and recommends for the cure of mania this remarkable prescription: "Give the patient a draught made from the root of mandrake, in a smaller dose than to induce mania." The works of the poets abound with illustrations of this belief. Probably the oldest expression of it is in some lines ascribed by Athenteus to Antiphanes, who lived 404 B.c., which have been thus translated: Take the hair, it Is well written, Of the dog by which you're bitten; Work off one wine by his brother. And one another; • Cook with cook, and strife with strife, Business with business, and wife with wife, Shakespeare, in Romeo and Juliet, thus expresses the same maxim: Tut, man I one fire burns out another's burning; One pain is lessened by another's anguish.
Take thou some new infection to the eye, And the rank poison of the old will die.
Milton, in the preface to Samson Agonistes, gives his version thus: "In physic, things of melancholic hue and quality are used against melancholy, sour against sour, salt to remove salt humors," etc. Thus, there has always been a vague tradition that medicines sometimes cured diseases similar to those they caused. But it was reserved for Hahne mann to propound the startling dogma, not only that medicines did occasionally pro duce such cures, but that true, direct, and radical cures could only be effected by recognizing this principle as the guide for the selection of the right remedy in any gives morbid condition of the system. He engaged his friends and disciples in the task of
procuring accurate data on which to proceed in reducing his rule to practice. Thev took given quantities of the substance which was the subject of experiment, and each kept a record of the effects it produced. The various records thus obtained were sub mitted to Hahnemann, who compared them together, and with his own observations on himself, and out of the results thus obtained, compiled what goes by the name of " a proving" of the medicine. Hahnemann lays it down as one of the fundamental propo. sitions of homeopathy, that no medicine should be given to the sick which has not first been proved upon those in health. He devoted himself to this task, and has left ten volumes of such " provings;" out of this work the various abridgments in popular use in this and other countries have been derived. The properties once determined, then, it becomes possible to administer it in accordance with the principle of homeopathy. To do so, however, it requires that the medicine should be given by itself. Thus, the second proposition of Hahnemann's system is, " that only one medicine should ever be given at once." To ascertain the effects of medicinal substances upon persons in health—from the knowledge thus obtained to select a remedy whose action corresponds with the split)• loins of the patient under treatment—to give this remedy by itself alone, are three of the fundamental rules for the practice of homeopathy. The fourth is, that the dose of a homeopathic medicine should be so small as not to cause any general disturbance of the system, its action being limited to that portion of the body which is in a morbid condition. How small that is can be ascertained only by experiment. When Hahne MAIM propounded his system, he pointed out that the amount of the effect of a medici nal substance depends upon two conditions: first, the mechanical form in which it is administered; and second, the state of the body of the person who takes it.