Homoeo History

Homeopathy’s core principle is that symptoms are the body seeking to restore natural balance, and should not be suppressed. Two hundred years ago, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann discovered that a substance causing an illness’s symptoms, given in small dose, triggers the body’s healing.

The term “homeopathy” (from Greek homoios, like/similar, and pathos, suffering) was first used by Hahnemann in 1796, proposing “Let likes be treated with likes” against the blood-letting, leeches and purgatives of his era. He conducted “provings” — testing drugs on healthy volunteers, including himself.

His work, the Organon of Rational Healing (first published 1810), treated cholera, malaria, typhus and scarlet fever. He advocated sterilization during the 1831 cholera epidemic — predating Pasteur and Lister by 30 years.

Hahnemann made “mother tinctures” from herbal, mineral and animal substances, diluted beyond molecular levels with succussions (shaking). Over 3,000 remedies exist, including 65 polycrest remedies such as Nux Vomica, Rhus Tox, Arsenicum and Calcarea Carbonica.