Homeopathy is a system of medicine developed nearly 200 years ago by the German physician
Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843). After practicing for a brief period, he became so disillusioned
with the medical thought and treatments of his time, he left practice and instead
translated medical works for a living. During this time, while translating details
from a toxicology text, he noted that cinchona bark (known more familiarly as its'
extract - quinine), produced an identical malady in overdose to that condition that
it was used to cure, malaria. This observation led Hahnemann to conclude that the
results of a successful medicine were likely to be based on such similarity. Through
numerous experiments performed over years Hahnemann developed guidelines for medicinal
experimentation (including the use of control groups, the use of small doses, testing
healthy individuals, and testing various population groups to determine the effects
on a range of people), and also determined that he could reduce the toxicity of the
treatment by diluting and succussing the drug he was using. What he also discovered
was that this dilution method also made the curative power of the original substance
more powerful. This is the essence of homeopathy (from the Greek words meaning "similar
suffering") - the use of diluted and succussed substances matched to the particulars
of the disease state in the individual that is experiencing it.
