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What is Homoeopathy?

Homoeopathy is a healing art, which was founded by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843) (see History). The term 'homoeopathy' is Greek origin (homoion pathos) and means 'similar suffering'. Hahnemann said shortly:
'Similar should be treated with similar'.

What does this mean? Hahnemann translated the book of a Scottish pharmacologist who claimed, that the effect of the remedy China in malaria is founded in the ability of strengthening the stomach. Hahnemann thought that this is not reasonable and took China by himself as an experiment. He got symptoms like the disease malaria after taking china: Symptoms like shivering, pain in the bones, etc. His conclusion was the following: China is known for its healing power in malaria and China is able to produce symptoms like malaria in a healthy person. Is China therefore able to cure malaria because it can also produce symptoms like malaria?

On the base of this hypothesis Hahnemann did investigations of different remedies on healthy persons and noted all the symptoms that arose in such a drug proving. If a sick person now had similar symptoms during his disease, Hahnemann was able to cure the disease exactly with that drug which produced the same symptoms in healthy persons during the drug proving.

Hahnemann wrote: 'In order to cure gently, rapidly, certainly and permanently in each case of disease, choose a medicine which can, of itself, arouse a similar suffering (homoion pathos) to the one it is supposed to cure!' Further criteria see Basic laws of homoeopathy.