Homoeopathy The True Science of Health

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Homoeopathy today, by and large, is practised as allopathy. An average practitioner first gets a patient diagnosed allopathically via the route of tests, etc., and then prescribes medicines on the basis of the name of the ailment. (Tests, however, may be used to find the pathological condition of the sick.) This is partly because of the aggressive propaganda extolling the usefulness and benefits of ‘new instruments of science’ and partly as a shortcut method. Homoeopathy is essentially an individualised treatment. It, therefore, never makes use of, nor seeks specifics for, disease. Patent medicines or combinations have no place in a system based on single remedy and minimum dose’.

The present work is an attempt to put homoeopathy in its proper perspective. It covers a wide area from explaining the principles of the law of cure, Similia Similibus Curentur’, to the methods of drug preparation, proving, selection of a remedy and management of the sick and the disease. The three basic miasmas, their combinations, the necessity and the importance of individualisation are treated in great detail.

K.P.S Dhama (48) has been practising homoeopathy for about 17 years. He is Honorary Physician to the President of India and is the recipient of Dr. Yudhvir Singh Award and Dr. Hahnemann Memorial Award. A large number of his articles have been published in reputed professional journals. He also edits and publishes the Homoeopathic Prestige, a monthly from Delhi. He has published a number of books which have been co-authored by his wife Dr Suman Dhama. One of his books, Homoeopathy: The Complete Handbook was declared one of the best selling books of the last decade.

Dr Dhama firmly believes, after Hahnemann, in Nature’s ‘law of cure’ in his day-to-day practice and expresses his opinions firmly and fearlessly.

The aim of this treatise is to put at the disposal of those interested in pursuing the basic principles of homoeopathic system, its comprehensive, accurate and up-to-date outline. It supports the principles with case reports and other relevant information. The outline is based on nature’s law of cure. I have made a Herculean effort to keep at bay speculative theories and opinions.

There are certain fundamental laws that govern the universe. These are universal and permanent. Homoeopathy is based on nature’s law of cure. It recognises the individual human being and treats him/her as an individual sick person. Unlike other systems, it is not based on therapeutics, on human opinions. One can say then that the theme of the work is therapeutics versus nature’s law of cure. The nature’s law of cure is expressed by the phrase ‘Similia Similibus Curentur’. This law operates on the dynamic plane. For its practical application, therefore, we have to completely understand the dynamic nature of true diseases, the miasm and the dynamic nature of homoeopathic medicine, i.e. the potentized homoeopathic medicine.

It is not my intention to debunk other medical systems. They have their own place and may even be complementary. But, surely, I have tried to remove the cobwebs and present a clear and sharply focused picture of the science.

Large parts of the book have already been published or presented in conferences as articles and papers. It has been difficult to separate, throughout the book, the inputs of Dr. Suman Dhama in the shape of mutual discussions. My daughters Nidhi and Sonal have also contributed with sharp insight, critical comments, and artwork.

I have liberally borrowed from the works of Dr. S. Hahnemann, Dr. J.T. Kent Dr. HA. Roberts, Dr. H.C. Allen, Dr. N. Ghatak, Dr. CS. Sandhu and others. I am deeply and sincerely indebted to Dr. Y.P. Chhibbar, who found time in his busy schedule to go through the entire manuscript. Without his help, the book could never have been presented in its final form.

Dr. Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann was born on 10 April 1755 in Meissen, Saxony, Germany His father used to give him problems which he used to solve all alone in a closed room without the guidance and help of anybody and, thus, he learnt the art of deep thought. He knew many languages and was trained in medicine. While studying, he translated a number of English works into German and used to teach lessons to his classmates to pay for his own fees, etc. After obtaining his degree in medicine (1779), he practised in various states of Germany for 10 years. During this period he developed aversion to the then prevailing methods of treatment. Disgusted with the errors and uncertainties of the medical practice at that time, Hahnemann’s conscience forced him to abandon his practice in allopathy. He gave up active practice. He involved himself in literary work related to chemistry and pharmacy and established himself as an authority on these subjects. His method regarding the detection of adulteration of wine is still known as ‘Hahnemann’s wine test’. One of the best preparations of mercury still bears his name as ‘Mercurious Solubilis Hahnemanni.’ He always believed in higher purpose of his human existence and worked hard to find and stick to truth.

His open criticism of the physician responsible for the death of Emperor Leopold TI of Austria, who was suffering from pleurisy, by inducing four copious blood lettings within 24 hours, shows his boldness and straightforwardness.

He sacrificed his own life, as well as the life of his family members for the welfare of the human race. He never thought in terms of financial gains but cared only for truth. He did not compromise with his principles even with his dearest students like Trinks, Jahr, Boenninghausen, Hartmann and others, who changed their way of practice for some time and based their prescription on nomenclatural diseases merely for the sake of money. In 1833, referring to Hartmann, Hahnemann said that he (Hartmann) was compromising the basic principles of homoeopathy merely to remove his poverty He criticized the prevailing system of medicine of prescribing various mixtures. For the first time in the history of medicine he stressed and propagated the practice of prescribing only one medicine at a time. He enunciated the natural truth in the sciences of medicine which is known as infallible law of cure, i.e. the ‘Law of Similia’. According to this a single remedy at a time in its dynamic form and minimum dose is needed to treat the ‘sick as a whole’. He clarified in his writings that to treat a sick person in homoeopathy we have to perceive what is to be cured in the individual sick (morbid symptoms) and what is curative in medicines and how to prescribe a remedy (similimum) according to the clearly defined principles. To fulfil this requirement we need the proper understanding of anatomy, physiology, pathology, bacteriology and other allied subjects related to the medical science which help us to individualize the sick and the remedy.

He never missed any opportunity to further knowledge. While translating Cullen’s Materia Medica from English into German in which Cullen mentioned therapeutical uses of Peruvian Bark (Cinchona off.) in the treatment of intermittent and remittent fevers he came to know that he (Cullen) advised its use to prevent the chill, and gave minute directions for the safest period of the disease in which to use it. Cullen had stated that bitterness of Peruvian Bark produced strength and energy as well. Hahnemann experimented with Peruvian Bark upon himself to see what effect it would have upon a person in perfect health.

Hahnemann mentions, “Substances which excite a kind of fever, as very strong coffee, pepper, Aconite, Ignatia, Arsenic, extinguish those types of the fever. I took, by way of experiment, twice a day, four drachms of good China. My feet, finger ends, etc., at first became cold; I grew languid and drowsy; then my heart began to palpitate, and my pulse grew hard and small; intolerable anxiety, trembling (but without cold rigor), prostration throughout all my limbs; then pulsation in my head, redness of my cheeks, thirst, and, in short, all these symptoms, which are ordinarily characteristic of intermittent fever, made their appearance, one after the other, yet without the peculiar chilly, shivering rigor. . . . This paroxysm lasted two or three hours each time, and recurred if I repeated this dose, not otherwise; I discontinued it, and was in good health.”

Hahnemann observed that Cinchona off, in a healthy person produces its own symptoms (proving) or, in simple words, creates a sickness of its own kind and cures the similar symptoms in a sick person. He analysed this fact under inductive logic. After the proving of Cinchona off. Hahnemann, in search of knowledge (or truth), proved a number of medicines upon himself and his family members. Before making his discovery known to the world, he confirmed and reconfirmed this basic fact on which he based the ‘law of similia’ and thus homoeopathy came into existence as a true method of treating the sick. The results of these provings have been recorded in his Materia Medica Pura.

Every compound prescription is, therefore, an obstacle to healing and thus contrary to the art of healing. The ph physician who prescribes compound medicines does not sufficiently distinguish between each individual case of sickness, and thus seeks solution by shooting in the dark.

In Hahnemannian homoeopathy we do not treat disease, rather we restore the ‘sick as a whole’ to health. Hahnemann truly observed that out of the names of diseases which were employed at the beginning of that century, only a few were still in use in his time, because the nomenclatures, being the creation of human opinions, kept changing. The same is true even today In the history of medicine Hahnemann was the first person to treat mind, body, and spirit as an individual autonomous unit and to tell the world that a person from birth till death is a single unit and hence, the treatment should be of the ‘person as a whole’ and not of parts.

He showed the world the role of love, kindness, tenderness, and goodness in human life and behaviour. He was the first (in medical field) to practically demonstrate as to how isolation, anxiety anger, frustrative feelings, etc., endanger the natural body—building. He never had any ill-will even towards his opponents, which we clearly see in the case of Dr. C. Hering on whose demonstration and contrary attitude towards him, he was thrown out of Germany. The same Dr. C. Hering was cured of gangrene with the homoeopathic remedy Arsenic alb.6.

The best and honest tribute to such a noble soul would be to follow all his precepts in our daily practice.