होमियोपैथी को बनाएँ करिअर
विभिन्न रोगों के इलाज के लिए एलोपैथी के अलावा होमियोपैथी का भी हमारे देश में प्रमुखता से इस्तेमाल किया जाता है। कई ऐसे रोग हैं, जिनमें होमियोपैथी को कहीं ज्यादा असरकारक माना जाता है। फ्लू, वायरस, कफ , सर्दी आदि के अलावा यह पद्धति विभिन्न जटिल एवं असाध्य रोगों, जैसे अर्थराइटिस, दमा आदि में भी प्रभावी ढंग से कारगर है। सबसे खास बात यह है कि इसकी दवाओं में कोई साइड इफेक्ट नहीं होता और न ही शारीरिक ऊर्जा का स्तर प्रभावित होता है। इसका उपचार भले ही कुछ महीनों या वर्षों तक चलता है, पर इलाज स्थायी होता है।
भारत में होमियोपैथी का चलन
होमियोपैथी शब्द की उत्पत्ति ग्रीक वर्ड ‘होमियो’ और ‘पैथोज’ से मिलकर हुई है। इस पद्धति का प्रयोग सबसे पहले 18वीं शताब्दी में डॉ. सी.एफ. सैम्युएल हैनीमैन द्वारा किया गया था, लेकिन धीरे-धीरे यह भारतीयों के लिए भी उपचार पद्धति का एक महत्वपूर्ण माध्यम बन गया। होमियोपैथी की बढ़ती जरूरत को देखते हुए ही धीरे-धीरे इस फील्ड से संबंधित संस्थान खुलने लगे और विभिन्न पाठ्यक्रमों की शुरुआत हुई।
कोर्स एवं संबंधित योग्यता
आज इस फील्ड में कई अंडरग्रेजुएट एवं पोस्टग्रेजुएट लेवल के कोर्स उपलब्ध हैं। इसके बैचलर एवं मास्टर लेवल के कोर्सेज की सबसे अधिक डिमांड है। जो छात्र 12वीं फिजिक्स, केमिस्ट्री, बायोलॉजी और अंगरेजी से उत्तीर्ण हों, वे बैचलर ऑफ होमियोपैथिक मेडिसिन एंड सर्जरी (बीएचएमएस) में प्रवेश पा सकते हैं। दाखिले का आधार प्रवेश परीक्षा है, जोऑल इंडिया एवं स्टेट दोनों ही लेवल पर आयोजित की जाती है। सेंट्रल काउंसिल ऑफ होमियोपैथी के दिशानिर्देशों के अनुसार ही अभ्यर्थियों को होमियोपैथी की शिक्षा प्रदान की जाती है।
इंस्टीट्यूट का चयन अहम
छात्रों को कॉलेज अथवा इंस्टीट्यूट के चयन में विशेष सावधानी बरतने की आवश्यकता होती है, क्योंकि इसमें जरा सी लापरवाही से पैसा व समय दोनों बर्बाद होता है। चयन करते समय संस्थान एवं उसकी मान्यता, फैकल्टी मेंबर एवं उनकी योग्यता, इन्फ्रास्ट्रक्चर आदि के बारे में पूरी जानकारी लेना जरूरी हो जाता है।
किस रूप में मिलेंगी संभावनाएं
होमियोपैथी में ग्रेजुएट छात्र प्राइवेट व सरकारी दोनों ही क्षेत्रों में रोजगार पा सकते हैं। कोर्स के पश्चात उन्हें प्राइवेट या सरकारी अस्पतालों, क्लीनिक, चैरिटेबल इंस्टीट्यूट, एनजीओ, रिसर्च इंस्टीट्यूट, मेडिकल कॉलेज, ट्रेनिंग सेंटर आदि में बतौर डॉक्टर, रिसर्चर, मेडिकल ऑफिसर, एडमिनिस्ट्रेटर, टीचर आदि के रूप में सेवा करने का अवसर मिलता है। अनुभव हो जाने के बाद अपना खुद का क्लीनिक खोलकर प्राइवेट प्रैक्टिस भी कर सकते हैं। एमडी करने के पश्चात किसी मेडिकल कॉलेज में पढ़ाने का अवसर मिलता है।
मुख्य संस्थान
-नेशनल इंस्टीटयूट ऑफ होमियोपैथी, कोलकाता
-डॉ. बी.आर. सुर होमियोपैथिक मेडिकल कॉलेज एंड हास्पिटल, नई दिल्ली
-स्टेट नेशनल होमियोपैथिक मेडिकल कॉलेज एंड हॉस्पिटल, लखनऊ
-पं. जवाहर लाल नेहरू स्टेट होमियोपैथिक मेडिकल कॉलेज एंड हॉस्पिटल, कानपुर
-श्री गुरुनानक देव होमियोपैथिक मेडिकल कॉलेज, लुधियाना
-अहमदाबाद होमियोपैथिक मेडिकल कॉलेज, अहमदाबाद
-आनंद होमियोपैथिक मेडिकल कॉलेज एंड रिसर्च इंस्टीट्यूट, आनंद
-यूनिवर्सिटी ऑफ हेल्थ साइंस, विजयवाड़ा
-राजीव गांधी यूनिवर्सिटी ऑफ हेल्थ साइंस, बेंगलुरु
-वसुंधरा राजे होमियोपैथिक मेडिकल कॉलेज एंड हॉस्पिटल, ग्वालियर
-स्वामी विवेकानंद होमियोपैथिक मेडिकल कॉलेज, भावनगर(नमिता सिंह,अमर उजाला,10.5.11)
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Cannot walk and स्टैंड
Name: Mast Raj
Age: 2yrs male.
Date of interview-22.4.08
c/c:
1) Cannot walk and stand on his own.
Needs support always.
Crawling –frog jump at 1 ½ yrs of age.
When made to stand outward turning of feet,
All other milestones normal.
Talking- early 6 months of age.
Mentally sharp no complaints.
BIRTH HISTORY: FT LSCS, breech presentation, didn’t cry immediately after birth.
Neonatal jaundice- Day 3. Phototheraphy for 2 days.
There was minor bleeding after 4 days when umbilical cord got detached.
All vaccines given , no complaints.
2-3 months of age- cold and cough.
Sticky, slimy mucus while vomiting. Taken syrups for it.
7-8 months of age- nappy rash. External applications.
14 months of age: loose motions, and vomiting, given antibiotics.
Mother’s history during pregnancy:
Lot of mental stress during pregnancy and after delivery.
Used to feel alone and lonely, was very sensitive at that time and would weep a lot. Would share her feelings and talk with her child when he was in her womb, had become negative and very depressed ‘ What will happen of my child.....Anticipation.
PHYSICAL GENERALS:
HOT+ THIRSTY.
App: hunger can tolerate.
Craving : fruits+++, dry fruits, cheese.
Urine: NAD.
Stool: occasionally straining and hard stools.
Sleep: 9-10 hrs refreshing.
Sensitivity:
• noise- could not tolerate earlier.
• Sun- cannot tolerate rays of sun on face.
F/H: Grandparents- depression.
Life situation:
Stays with parents and grandparents. Only child.
Gets scared easily if he hears loud noise. Would get scared earlier and start crying even if anyone would scold him.
Can play alone. Shares his things with others. Mixes easily with others. Loves company. Loves animals , likes to dance.
On his annual day function, he was not allowed to dance and was made a fruit vendor who just had to sit whole time on stage. He was very angry at that time, he didn’t speak or eat as he had practised the whole dance, and he was not allowed to perform.
When he performed in front of his family, he was satisfied. Started feeling inferior to his friends now.
Fear of falling.
Memory- sharp. Very intelligent, quick grasping. Good with numbers and alphabets.
Possessive about family, wants attention always.
Attachment- mother.
Loves to hug, kiss parents, small children. When ill cries a lot and wants mothers constantly besides with. Consolation aggravation.
Left handed person.
Investigation:MRI-28.11.07
Mild dilatation of ventricles.
Diagnosis -weakness and relaxation of lower part of muscles.
Lower part has suddenly stopped developing at age of 6-7 months. Invertion giving rise to distortion.
Analysis:
Psora- A/F anticipation
Sycosis-as she would talk and shares feelings with her child when he was in womb.
Pathology-sycosis-less of elasticity
Syphilis-distortion
Remedy given- nat mur 200-1
Rubrics- 1. Relaxation of lower limbs
2. Delusion neglected he is
Other points covered-
Sensitive to rays of sun
Hot + thirsty
Sensitive
Timid
Consolation agg
Attachment-mother
Brooder
Follow up-
2.5.08
Fever 102-103. Yellowish expectoration. Dullness with weakness. Standing is better
Sl
16.9.08
Can stand on his own for 50 counts.gastric problem better.
Sl
8.12.08
Started walking with support. Fears increased-fear of water,fear of falling,fear of heights.
Sl
13.4.09
Fear better. Gets up from sitting position.walking better.
Sl
19.5.09
Started walking few steps without support. Little bending of knee. Generals better.
Sl
7.9.09
Walks from 1 room to other without support. Knee bending,keeps right leg in outward position.
Sl
26.4.11
Enthusiastic in walking but had taken physiotherapy because of which legs are better but back muscles weak.
Nat mur 50 m-1p
Age: 2yrs male.
Date of interview-22.4.08
c/c:
1) Cannot walk and stand on his own.
Needs support always.
Crawling –frog jump at 1 ½ yrs of age.
When made to stand outward turning of feet,
All other milestones normal.
Talking- early 6 months of age.
Mentally sharp no complaints.
BIRTH HISTORY: FT LSCS, breech presentation, didn’t cry immediately after birth.
Neonatal jaundice- Day 3. Phototheraphy for 2 days.
There was minor bleeding after 4 days when umbilical cord got detached.
All vaccines given , no complaints.
2-3 months of age- cold and cough.
Sticky, slimy mucus while vomiting. Taken syrups for it.
7-8 months of age- nappy rash. External applications.
14 months of age: loose motions, and vomiting, given antibiotics.
Mother’s history during pregnancy:
Lot of mental stress during pregnancy and after delivery.
Used to feel alone and lonely, was very sensitive at that time and would weep a lot. Would share her feelings and talk with her child when he was in her womb, had become negative and very depressed ‘ What will happen of my child.....Anticipation.
PHYSICAL GENERALS:
HOT+ THIRSTY.
App: hunger can tolerate.
Craving : fruits+++, dry fruits, cheese.
Urine: NAD.
Stool: occasionally straining and hard stools.
Sleep: 9-10 hrs refreshing.
Sensitivity:
• noise- could not tolerate earlier.
• Sun- cannot tolerate rays of sun on face.
F/H: Grandparents- depression.
Life situation:
Stays with parents and grandparents. Only child.
Gets scared easily if he hears loud noise. Would get scared earlier and start crying even if anyone would scold him.
Can play alone. Shares his things with others. Mixes easily with others. Loves company. Loves animals , likes to dance.
On his annual day function, he was not allowed to dance and was made a fruit vendor who just had to sit whole time on stage. He was very angry at that time, he didn’t speak or eat as he had practised the whole dance, and he was not allowed to perform.
When he performed in front of his family, he was satisfied. Started feeling inferior to his friends now.
Fear of falling.
Memory- sharp. Very intelligent, quick grasping. Good with numbers and alphabets.
Possessive about family, wants attention always.
Attachment- mother.
Loves to hug, kiss parents, small children. When ill cries a lot and wants mothers constantly besides with. Consolation aggravation.
Left handed person.
Investigation:MRI-28.11.07
Mild dilatation of ventricles.
Diagnosis -weakness and relaxation of lower part of muscles.
Lower part has suddenly stopped developing at age of 6-7 months. Invertion giving rise to distortion.
Analysis:
Psora- A/F anticipation
Sycosis-as she would talk and shares feelings with her child when he was in womb.
Pathology-sycosis-less of elasticity
Syphilis-distortion
Remedy given- nat mur 200-1
Rubrics- 1. Relaxation of lower limbs
2. Delusion neglected he is
Other points covered-
Sensitive to rays of sun
Hot + thirsty
Sensitive
Timid
Consolation agg
Attachment-mother
Brooder
Follow up-
2.5.08
Fever 102-103. Yellowish expectoration. Dullness with weakness. Standing is better
Sl
16.9.08
Can stand on his own for 50 counts.gastric problem better.
Sl
8.12.08
Started walking with support. Fears increased-fear of water,fear of falling,fear of heights.
Sl
13.4.09
Fear better. Gets up from sitting position.walking better.
Sl
19.5.09
Started walking few steps without support. Little bending of knee. Generals better.
Sl
7.9.09
Walks from 1 room to other without support. Knee bending,keeps right leg in outward position.
Sl
26.4.11
Enthusiastic in walking but had taken physiotherapy because of which legs are better but back muscles weak.
Nat mur 50 m-1p
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
डॉ.Hahnemann
Dr. Hahnemnn … a Gentle Rebel
- Dr. Anthony Campbell
Introduction
Dr.Anthony Campbell, FF(hom) MRCP (UK), has been a consultant physician at The Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital for almost a quarter of a century, and is a former editor of The British Homoeopathic Journal. His published books include "Two faces of Homeopathy" a critical historical survey of the development of homoeopathy. Some excerpts …
Hahnemann was born at Meissen, in south-east Germany, on 10 April 1755, at approximately midnight. So, at least, Hahnemann himself always maintained; but the entry in the church register at Meissen records the birth as having occurred on the morning of 11th April, and this later date was adopted by some homeopaths and gave rise to disagreement about the right day to celebrate the Master's birthday.
Hahnemann's father was a craftsman who worked in the famous Meissen pottery trade. He was not very well off, so that it was with some difficulty that the young Samuel persuaded him to allow him to become a medical student. As a boy he was put briefly to work for a Leipzig grocer. In 1775, however, he entered the University of Leipzig, where he quickly became self-supporting by means of teaching and translation. Growing dissatisfied with the standard of medical education at Leipzig he departed in 1776 for Vienna, but before completing his studies he left to take up a post as librarian and family physician to the Governor of Transylvania, Baron von Brukenthal, at Hermannstadt. It was at this time that he became a Freemason. It has been claimed that the library at Hermannstadt contained esoteric alchemical works, including those of Paracelsus, and that it was dipping into these that planted the seed of homeopathy in Hahnemann's mind. This is certainly possible, but no evidence to support the speculation exists.
Hahnemann's Birth place In 1779 Hahnemann left his employment with von Brukenthal to complete his medical education at the University of Erlangen, where he was finally awarded his doctorate in medicine in August 1779.
In 1780 he established his first medical practice in the small mining town of Hettstedt, where he recorded his disillusionment with the medical treatments of his day, especially blood-letting. Soon afterwards he moved to Dassau, where he began to take an interest in chemistry. This was a momentous period for chemists. In Hahnemann's lifetime the phlogiston theory of combustion was disproved, a number of gases were identified, the compositions of air and water were discovered, and the atomic theory was placed on a surer footing. Hahnemann felt the excitement of this atmosphere of discovery and carried out some chemical research of his own, though the atomic theory seems not to have entered his conceptual framework.
In 1782 he married Johanna Kuchler, an apothecary's daughter. A year later their first child, a daughter, was born - the first of a large family. Still Hahnemann did not settle down but continued to move about. In 1785 he was in Dresden, where he worked as locum tenens for the Medical Officer of Health. On the death of the incumbent Hahnemann applied for the substantive appointment, but he was unsuccessful and set off once more on his travels. He seems then largely to have abandoned medical practice for a time and to have concentrated his energies on translation, by which he supported his family and himself for a number of years. He also continued his chemical research; he published a test for the fraudulent adulteration of wine with lead, which was officially adopted in Prussia, and he described a method for detecting arsenic in forensic material. It is said that while in Dresden he met the famous French chemist Lavoisier, later to be guillotined during the Revolution.
In 1789 Hahnemann and his family moved to Leipzig. This was Hahnemann's third sojourn in that city. He did not practise medicine there but continued to write, translate. and study. His family now consisted of six persons, and he found himself hard pressed financially.
There is a touching story that gives a vivid picture of the tribulations undergone by the Hahnemann family. At one time money was so short that Hahnemann used to weigh out a portion of bread daily for each member of his family.
When one of his daughters fell ill she was unable to eat her ration, and so stored it away in a box until she should recover. But she began to feel worse rather than better, and fearing she would die she called her favourite sister and handed over to her the store of dried-up bread as a legacy so that it should not be wasted.
To have been brought up in the Hahnemann household seems to have been something of an ordeal in various ways and it left its mark on those who underwent the experience. The family was dogged by tragedy. Two daughters were probably murdered and three were divorced, while the elder son Friedrich seems to have been half-mad. He deserted his wife and child; his ultimate fate is unknown, but there is a curious story of a wild-looking man called Hahnemann who appeared in America during a cholera epidemic, cured a large number of people, and then vanished into the far West, never to be seen again; this was probably Friedrich. Hahnemann's other son died as an infant in 1799, when Hahnemann was forced to leave Koenigslutter owing to the hostility of the pharmacists of that town (a harbinger of things to come). On the way to Hamburg the carriage in which the family was travelling was overturned; Hahnemann's son received fatal injuries and one of his daughters broke a leg, so that the party had to interrupt the journey for over six weeks.
The role of Frau Hahnemann amid all these vicissitudes is uncertain. No doubt she had a difficult life, but there are suggestions that she was something of a Xanthippe to her philosophical husband. In the circumstances it is perhaps hard to blame her.
Meissen ... now
Between 1789 and 1805 the Hahnemann family lived in literally dozens of places in eastern Germany. Hahnemann was unable to settle anywhere, but was driven on by his restless spirit and the need to make a living. All this travelling was a more difficult, indeed hazardous, affair then than it would be today. The roads were bad and often unsafe, and moreover the period was one of continual civil unrest. Hahnemann's youth was marred by the Seven Years' War between Prussia and Austria, while later, at Leipzig, he was to find himself caught up in the Napoleonic Wars.
Although Hahnemann was not practising medicine at this time he still had strong views on the subject, which he repeatedly expressed forcibly in print. The prevailing medical theories of his day were based on crude mechanical and hydraulic analogies as explanations of physiological processes. Thus diseases were classified in terms of tonicity or relaxation (our use of the word "tonic" derives from this theory) or were ascribed to supposed intestinal inflammation. There is no need to discuss these long-discredited theories in detail but it is important to notice their practical implications for medical treatment.
School of St. Afra The main resources of orthodox physicians in Hahnemann's day were large doses of drugs, habitually given in complicated mixtures, and blood-letting,
often carried to horrifying lengths - indeed, to the point of complete exsanguination, so that the final drops had to be squeezed from the unfortunate patients. Hahnemann rejected both the theories and the practices of orthodox medicine. It was, he held, inherently impossible to know the inner nature of disease processes and it was therefore fruitless to speculate about them or to base treatment on theories. As for complex drug mixtures and blood-letting, both were dangerous and unjustifiable. Hahnemann had not yet thought of homeopathy but he was a firm advocate of environmental measures to promote health - fresh air, good food, and exercise. In these opinions he was certainly in advance of his time, and the same is true of his enlightened ideas about the right way to treat the mentally ill.
In Hahnemann's day the practice was to treat "lunatics" with great harshness; they were given purges and emetics and were tied up, starved, and flogged if they complained, soiled themselves, or became violent.
The University of Erlangen ... now
Hahnemann strongly attacked this crude form of behaviour therapy and instead advocated kindness and patience. Hahnemann recommenced his wanderings once more. Hahnemann's interests at this time, in any case, were as much philosophical, for he was deeply preoccupied with medical speculations.
The discovery of homeopathy
The germ of homeopathy had been planted in Hahnemann's mind by an experiment he carried out in 1790. It was suggested to him by translating the Materia Medica of the Scottish physician Cullen. Among the herbs described by Cullen was the Peruvian bark cinchona (quinine), already in use as a treatment for malaria. Cullen followed orthodox opinion in attributing its effectiveness to its 'tonic effect on the stomach'. Hahnemann (who was never content to remain a mere translator but frequently added his own opinions in notes) attacked this idea, on the reasonable grounds that the taking of much more astringent substances than cinchona did not cure fever; hence the therapeutic effects of cinchona must be produced in some other way. Not content to leave the matter at the level of theory, Hahnemann proceeded to experiment.
Dr. Cullen's materia medica "I took for several days, as an experiment, four drachms of good china (cinchona) daily. My feet and finger tips, etc., at first became cold; I became languid and drowsy; my pulse became hard and quick; an intolerable anxiety and trembling (but without a rigor); trembling in all the limbs; then pulsation in the head, redness in the cheeks, thirst; briefly, all those symptoms which to me are typical of intermittent fever, such as the stupefaction of the senses, a kind of rigidity of all joints, but above all the numb, disagreeable sensation which seems to have its seat in the periosteum over all the bones of the body - all made their appearance.
This paroxysm lasted for two or three hours every time, and recurred when I repeated the dose and not otherwise. I discontinued the medicine and I was once more in good health." [Haehl, vol. 1, 37]
Critics have objected that quinine does not in fact produce the symptoms of malaria, but this seems rather beside the point. What matters is that Hahnemann believed that it had done so in his case and that this suggested the idea of homeopathy to him. (The clinical thermometer had not been invented in his day, so the diagnosis of 'intermittent fever' was necessarily based entirely on the symptoms.) Nevertheless, many years were to elapse before the germ of homeopathy grew into a full therapeutic system. Not until 1796 did Hahnemann publish anything on the subject, and even then the essay he wrote was theoretical rather than practical and it seems that he had not yet had much opportunity to try his idea out on patients.
In 1805, after several more moves, Hahnemann settled for a time in Torgau, on the Elbe, where he remained for an unwontedly long time - nearly seven years. We know little about his life at this time, but it seems he was practising medicine according to his new system. His finances now improved and he was at last able to give up translating and concentrate on his own writing.
Johanna Henriette Leopoldine
Numerous articles by him appeared, the most important of which was an essay, The Medicine of Experience, which came out in 1806 and was the forerunner of his definitive theoretical work, The Organon.
The Medicine of Experience was published, like many of Hahnemann's writings, in The Journal of Practical Medicine, edited by Hufeland - an eminent physician who was sympathetic to Hahnemann's ideas. Although Hahnemann did not use the word homeopathy in print until the following year, we find set forth in this essay the main features of his method, which may be summarized as follows.
■Medicines are to be chosen on the basis of the patient's symptoms, without reference to the supposed disease process underlying them. For Hahnemann, the symptoms are the disease, and once they have gone the disease is cured.
■The effects of drugs can be known only by means of experiments on healthy people. It is no use relying on what is found in patients because the symptoms of the disease will be difficult to distinguish from those of the drug.
■Medicines must be chosen for the similarity of their effects to the symptoms of the patient. This 'similimum principle' is of course the kernel of the homeopathic method.
■Medicines are to be given in single doses instead of complex mixtures.
■Medicines are to be given in small doses to prevent "aggravations". (Hahnemann believed that a correctly chosen medicine would always produce some slight worsening of the patient's condition, no matter how transient; this could be reduced to a minimum by judicious reduction of the size of the dose.)
■Medicines are to be repeated only when recurrence of the patient's symptoms indicates the need.
Dr. Hufeland Journal These principles constituted homeopathy as it stood when first formulated by its originator. As a system it was very different from the orthodox medicine of the day but from a modern point of view it could fairly claim to be more scientific and certainly a lot safer. At any rate, it quickly brought success to Hahnemann, who was henceforth not find himself again penurious. What is remarkable is that he had taken some fifty years to arrive at his system, and he was to go on adding to it almost up to his death in his eighty-ninth year. He was indeed a late developer.
As well as The Medicine of Experience, Hahnemann published while in Torgau a book, in Latin, on pharmacology. In it he described 27 drugs, giving the symptoms they produced in the healthy body. It seems he had already tested the drugs on himself and on his long-suffering family and the book is therefore the first published record of 'provings'. Unfortunately he gave no details about the doses he used or the manner of administration, a reticence that was to characterize all his later writings and to detract from their value. Among the drugs described by Hahnemann were Aconite (monkshood), Arnica (leopard's bane), Belladonna (deadly nightshade), Chamomilla (chamomile), Nux vomica (poison nut), and Pulsatilla (windflower), all of which are still widely used in homeopathy today.
In 1810 Hahnemann published the first edition of his major theoretical work, The Organon of Rational Healing (later retitled The Organon of the Healing Art, and today often referred to simply as The Organon). Further editions of this continued to appear at intervals throughout his long life, while the sixth and last did not come to light until 1920.
The Organon is the Bible of homeopathy and anyone who wants to study the subject seriously must read it with close attention - a somewhat daunting task. It is arranged in numbered paragraphs, to which are often appended voluminous footnotes.
Dr. Hahnemann as Chemist
The style is difficult - long involved sentences that the most authoritative English version, that of R.E. Dudgeon, does not render wholly pellucid. In the course of his life, Hahnemann was to have second and third thoughts about many of the ideas in the Organon; these he incorporated in the text of each successive edition, without however always cancelling what he had written previously, so that self-contradictions occur. Coming to terms with Hahnemann's thought therefore involves the reader in some fairly detailed textual criticism, and it is not surprising, if regrettable, that many later homeopaths have shirked the task and consequently have had an over-simplified view of what the Master actually taught.
The Organon initially excited rather little interest, either hostile or friendly. Perhaps this was because of distractions from public events, for the Napoleonic Wars were now raging. Napoleon himself entrenched outside Dresden in the winter of 1810-11 and constructed fortifications at other towns, including Torgau, further down the Elbe.
Postgraduate Institute Feeling understandably unsettled by these preparations for war, in 1811 Hahnemann decided to move to Leipzig; an unwise choice as it turned out, for Leipzig was to become the site of one of the most decisive battles of the war.
This was the fourth time that Hahnemann had gone to Leipzig; the first time had been as a grocer's boy, the second as a medical student, and the third as a struggling physician. None of these visits was a happy precedent, but on this occasion - at least to begin with - things went better for him.
Fame at last
His first venture was to try to set up an Institute for the Postgraduate Study of Homeopathy. However no physicians enrolled for the course and Hahnemann therefore applied to be allowed to deliver lectures at the university. Candidates for this honour were expected to present a dissertation and to defend their theses in the mediaeval fashion against a 'respondent'. With unwonted tact Hahnemann avoided the contentious subject of homeopathy and instead presented a learned paper designed to prove that the white hellebore of the ancients was the same as the modern Veratrum album. The respondent was his son Friedrich. The subject proved acceptable, the occasion went off well, and Hahnemann was free to begin his lectures.
In the same month Napoleon began his calamitous retreat from Moscow. By August 1813 he was back in Saxony with a new army; he defeated the allies at Dresden and then moved north-west to Leipzig, where he encamped outside the city accompanied by his unreliable ally the King of Saxony. On the 18th October Napoleon fought a major battle against the Allies, who were commanded by Prince Karl Schwarzenberg. Next day Napoleon's Saxon allies turned against him; he was defeated and had to leave Germany, never to return. Leipzig celebrated the defeat of the French but the city was full of wounded men. Hahnemann took part in treating the casualties and the victims of the epidemic that broke out in the city.
Gradually life in Leipzig returned to normal and Hahnemann was able to resume his lectures. At first these were packed, large numbers of students turning out for what they expected would be a rag occasion.
Hahnemann as Physician
Hahnemann himself took matters with extreme seriousness but even his closest friends and disciples felt that the solemnity of the setting left something to be desired. Hahnemann, his few remaining white hairs carefully curled and powdered, and wearing formal clothes that belonged to a bygone era, would sit down ceremoniously, take out his watch and lay it before him on the table, and after clearing his throat read a passage from The Organon. He would then dilate upon the ideas it contained, becoming more and more excited and flushed, until at last he broke out in a "raging hurricane" of abuse against orthodox medicine and orthodox practitioners. This, of course, was what his audience was waiting for.
Once the entertainment value of the lectures had been exhausted, however, attendance dwindled and soon Hahnemann was reduced to lecturing to a few devoted disciples. But his lack of success was not due solely either to his subject matter or to his eccentricities of dress and delivery; he was the target of serious opposition from the Professor of Medicine, and even those students who would have liked to come over to the new system of therapy found it unwise to do so.
Organon of Medicine Yet if Hahnemann failed to make his mark as a lecturer his sojourn in Leipzig was immensely fruitful in another way, for it was at this time that he carried out his main series of 'provings' with the help of his small band of disciples.
The little band of enthusiasts was worked hard by the Master. Not only did they have to try out the various drugs on themselves and record the results with extreme conscientiousness; sometimes they had to collect the substances, especially the herbal ones, themselves, learning to recognize them in the field and to prepare the tinctures for proving.
Hahnemann did not leave us any details of the doses he used or the manner of giving the drugs, but from chance remarks elsewhere in his writings and from the accounts of his provers we have a pretty fair idea of what went on.
Dr. Hahnemann's representation as professor,
teaching Homoeopathy, hering also seen
All the provings at this time were carried out with tinctures (extracts) of herbs or, in the case of insoluble substances, with 'first triturations' (one part of substance ground up with nine parts of sugar of milk). That is, Hahnemann used actual material doses for the provings. I emphasize the point because it is often believed by homeopaths that he used high dilutions ('potencies'). In fact, he did not do so until much later. His usual practice seems to have been to give repeated doses until some effect was produced; the actual amount was calculated on the basis of his own previous experience. The provers were expected to record their symptoms with the utmost care, and on presenting their notebooks to Hahnemann they had to offer him their hands - the customary way of taking an oath at German universities at that time - and swear that what they had reported was the truth. Hahnemann would then question them closely about their symptoms to elicit the details of time, factors that made them better or worse, and so on. Coffee, tea, wine, brandy and spices were forbidden to provers and so was chess (which Hahnemann considered too exciting), but beer was allowed and moderate exercise was encouraged.
P.G. Certificate
The results of the Leipzig provings were published between 1811 and 1821 in a major six-volume work usually referred to as The Materia Medica Pura. As he had done earlier, Hahnemann supplemented his researches with reports of poisoning and over-dosage, and the resulting compilation was a unique contribution to pharmacology; nothing like it had been attempted before, and the information it contains (together with that in The Chronic Diseases, which I shall discuss later) still forms the basis of homeopathic practice today.
Not many modern homeopaths, however, make use of The Materia Medica Pura; instead they rely on secondary or tertiary sources. This is because Hahnemann unfortunately chose to present his findings in a way that makes them virtually unreadable. Instead of giving narrative descriptions of the provers' experiences he recorded their symptoms in an anatomical scheme of his own devising, so that what we are left with is a series of disconnected snippets that cannot be put together in the mind to yield a whole picture. As the nineteenth-century homeopath Robert Dudgeon remarked, it is as if a portrait gallery of family pictures were arranged by features - all the noses in one place, all the eyes in another, and so on. For this reason Hahnemann's original provings are seldom referred to today.
A further problem from our point of view is that Hahnemann's method of conducting his provings, though extremely meticulous and painstaking, did nothing to eliminate the effect of suggestion. The subjects knew what medicines they were taking (indeed, they had often gathered the herbs themselves) and they therefore knew what effects they might experience. It is unfair to criticize Hahnemann for not recognizing the importance of suggestion, for this was not properly understood until many years later, yet it has to be kept in mind in assessing his findings. Another difficulty with the provings is that all the provers were men (although it is likely that Hahnemann had earlier tried the medicines on female members of his family). But in spite of any reservations one may have there is no doubt that Hahnemann's Leipzig provings are a fascinating piece of work and represent a serious scientific attempt to investigate the properties of drugs.
It would be reasonable to expect that this achievement would represent the summit of Hahnemann's career and that he would now remain in Leipzig, surrounded by his small but devoted band of followers, while his own fame and that of his system spread ever farther and won new converts. After all, he was now in his sixties and he had made a name for himself professionally;
Dr. Hahnemann's monument at Kothen
it was hardly likely that he would now contribute any new ideas. And yet, much still lay in the future. Hahnemann's very success made him the target of much hostility, not only from doctors but also from his old enemies, the apothecaries, who resented the fact that Hahnemann made up his own medicines and advised his disciples to do likewise. For a time their criticisms were silenced by the arrival in Leipzig of the victorious Prince Schwarzenberg, the hero of the battle of Leipzig, who came for the express purpose of being treated by Hahnemann. Unfortunately, after an initial improvement the Prince died, and there was no lack of voices to accuse Hahnemann of having precipitated his demise. The apothecaries now obtained an injunction to prevent Hahnemann from dispensing his own medicines, and since they were unwilling to keep them themselves his practice could not continue. He was therefore forced to leave Leipzig.
The Duke of Anhalt Kothen, a small principality some 36 miles away, was an ardent admirer of the new system, and he offered Hahnemann the post of court physician in the tiny capital of his dominions. Hahnemann had no choice but to accept.
Handwriting . . . Dr. Samuel Hahnemann The move to Kothen took place in 1821. A considerable change came over Hahnemann in his new home. He was now virtually cut off, not merely from mainstream medicine but even from his own disciples.
He became in effect a reclusive, hardly venturing outside his house. But he was by no means inactive; patients suffering from various forms of chronic disease came to him from all over Europe, and he continued to think, write and develop his system, which now began to take on new characteristics. While he was in Kothen he published a third, fourth and fifth edition of The Organon, and also a second and third edition of The Materia Medica Pura. It was in Kothen, too, that he elaborated his famous theory of dynamization. In 1827 he summoned his oldest and closest two disciples, Stapf and Gross, and informed them that he had discovered the cause of all chronic diseases together with a completely new series of medicines to cure such diseases. These new discoveries were set forth in The Chronic Diseases, which appeared in five volumes. The theory of chronic disease was to excite great controversy among homeopaths both at the time and subsequently.
As the years went by and Hahnemann aged he grew increasingly out of touch with general medical thought, but this did not prevent him from engaging in acrimonious disputes with the most eminent medical authorities, whom he treated with undisguised contempt. It has to be said that his arguments were by this time almost invariably superficial and irrelevant, for he was so utterly convinced of his own rightness that any attack, however well reasoned, seemed to him an expression of pure prejudice and ignorance.
Second marriage
In 1830, when he was 75, Hahnemann's wife died. They had been married for nearly 48 years and had had eleven children. Now, surely, Hahnemann's long life and career were all but over? But the last, and in some ways most remarkable, episode was still to come.
In October 1834 a mysterious visitor arrived at Kothen: a smart young Frenchman, whom the customary visit of the barber next morning unmasked as a beautiful girl. Mademoiselle Marie Melanie d'Hervilly, as the young lady was named, gave out that she had come to consult Dr Hahnemann about her health. However, a good deal of mystification attends both Melanie and the circumstances of her visit. She was about 32 to 35 years old at the time (she kept her exact age a secret). She had had a happy childhood in Paris but, according to her own account, her mother became jealous of her as she grew older and so she was adopted by a Monsieur and Madame le Thiere.
Melanie d' Hervilly
Later she became well known as a portraitist and this gained her the entree into the best social and intellectual circles, in which she had many influential friends. She seems to have been something of a feminist and to have felt strongly about the restrictions imposed on women by society; she had always had a leaning towards medicine, but of course at that time it was out of the question for her to study it.
Paris House . . . Rue de milan In explanation of her visit to Kothen she said that her health had suffered owing to grief caused by the loss of several friends. She read 'The Organon' and resolved there and then to visit its author. Not much is known about what happened next. What is certain, however, is that within three months of her arrival in Kothen - in January 1835 - Melanie and Hahnemann were married.
This event caused widespread astonishment. Not surprisingly, Hahnemann's numerous enemies used the occasion to mock him, while his unmarried daughters, who kept house for him, were understandably less than enthusiastic; but Hahnemann himself found the experience reinvigorating and rejuvenating. Six years earlier he had declined an invitation from Stapf to visit Naumberg, on the grounds that travel had become impossible for him so that he could not even visit his married children. Three months after his marriage, however, Melanie took her husband off to Paris, leaving Hahnemann's two unmarried daughters to live out their lives in virtual seclusion.
Homeopathy was already established in Paris and Hahnemann was made welcome there. It was expected that the Master would restrict his activities to writing, but instead he took up medical practice and soon became very successful. In the vigour of his Indian summer he even went so far as to reverse his long-established custom of not making home visits and would drive out to patients and pay house calls even up to midnight. Melanie assisted him, studied homeopathy under his tuition, and became a practitioner herself. The prosperous couple acquired a large house in the Rue de Milan, and Hahnemann, who had always been accustomed to living simply and frugally, now found himself in circumstances that were comfortable, even luxurious. There seems no doubt that his final years with Melanie were happy, and though many of his followers, both during his lifetime and later, attacked her bitterly, Hahnemann himself apparently found peace and fulfillment with her.
Hahnemann died on 2 July 1843. Melanie kept the funeral private, and his biographer Haehl implies that she forgot him as soon as he was buried; but this seems at variance with the fact that when Hahnemann's body was disinterred in 1896 a lock of Melanie's hair was found round his neck.
Dr. Hahnemann . . . Demise
Tomb at Paris
Dissension among Hahnemann's followers by no means ceased at his death. Much of this concerned the Master's literary relics, including the sixth edition of 'The Organon', on which he had been working shortly before his death. This material remained in the possession of his widow, who continued to practise homeopathy. At her death it passed to her adopted daughter, who had married the son of von Boenninghausen, one of Hahnemann's most devoted disciples. After many difficulties Haehl succeeded in obtaining the manuscript, which was finally published in 1922.
Dr. Anthony Campbell FF. Hom MRCP
Emeritus Consultant Physician
Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital
Londan
UK
- Dr. Anthony Campbell
Introduction
Dr.Anthony Campbell, FF(hom) MRCP (UK), has been a consultant physician at The Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital for almost a quarter of a century, and is a former editor of The British Homoeopathic Journal. His published books include "Two faces of Homeopathy" a critical historical survey of the development of homoeopathy. Some excerpts …
Hahnemann was born at Meissen, in south-east Germany, on 10 April 1755, at approximately midnight. So, at least, Hahnemann himself always maintained; but the entry in the church register at Meissen records the birth as having occurred on the morning of 11th April, and this later date was adopted by some homeopaths and gave rise to disagreement about the right day to celebrate the Master's birthday.
Hahnemann's father was a craftsman who worked in the famous Meissen pottery trade. He was not very well off, so that it was with some difficulty that the young Samuel persuaded him to allow him to become a medical student. As a boy he was put briefly to work for a Leipzig grocer. In 1775, however, he entered the University of Leipzig, where he quickly became self-supporting by means of teaching and translation. Growing dissatisfied with the standard of medical education at Leipzig he departed in 1776 for Vienna, but before completing his studies he left to take up a post as librarian and family physician to the Governor of Transylvania, Baron von Brukenthal, at Hermannstadt. It was at this time that he became a Freemason. It has been claimed that the library at Hermannstadt contained esoteric alchemical works, including those of Paracelsus, and that it was dipping into these that planted the seed of homeopathy in Hahnemann's mind. This is certainly possible, but no evidence to support the speculation exists.
Hahnemann's Birth place In 1779 Hahnemann left his employment with von Brukenthal to complete his medical education at the University of Erlangen, where he was finally awarded his doctorate in medicine in August 1779.
In 1780 he established his first medical practice in the small mining town of Hettstedt, where he recorded his disillusionment with the medical treatments of his day, especially blood-letting. Soon afterwards he moved to Dassau, where he began to take an interest in chemistry. This was a momentous period for chemists. In Hahnemann's lifetime the phlogiston theory of combustion was disproved, a number of gases were identified, the compositions of air and water were discovered, and the atomic theory was placed on a surer footing. Hahnemann felt the excitement of this atmosphere of discovery and carried out some chemical research of his own, though the atomic theory seems not to have entered his conceptual framework.
In 1782 he married Johanna Kuchler, an apothecary's daughter. A year later their first child, a daughter, was born - the first of a large family. Still Hahnemann did not settle down but continued to move about. In 1785 he was in Dresden, where he worked as locum tenens for the Medical Officer of Health. On the death of the incumbent Hahnemann applied for the substantive appointment, but he was unsuccessful and set off once more on his travels. He seems then largely to have abandoned medical practice for a time and to have concentrated his energies on translation, by which he supported his family and himself for a number of years. He also continued his chemical research; he published a test for the fraudulent adulteration of wine with lead, which was officially adopted in Prussia, and he described a method for detecting arsenic in forensic material. It is said that while in Dresden he met the famous French chemist Lavoisier, later to be guillotined during the Revolution.
In 1789 Hahnemann and his family moved to Leipzig. This was Hahnemann's third sojourn in that city. He did not practise medicine there but continued to write, translate. and study. His family now consisted of six persons, and he found himself hard pressed financially.
There is a touching story that gives a vivid picture of the tribulations undergone by the Hahnemann family. At one time money was so short that Hahnemann used to weigh out a portion of bread daily for each member of his family.
When one of his daughters fell ill she was unable to eat her ration, and so stored it away in a box until she should recover. But she began to feel worse rather than better, and fearing she would die she called her favourite sister and handed over to her the store of dried-up bread as a legacy so that it should not be wasted.
To have been brought up in the Hahnemann household seems to have been something of an ordeal in various ways and it left its mark on those who underwent the experience. The family was dogged by tragedy. Two daughters were probably murdered and three were divorced, while the elder son Friedrich seems to have been half-mad. He deserted his wife and child; his ultimate fate is unknown, but there is a curious story of a wild-looking man called Hahnemann who appeared in America during a cholera epidemic, cured a large number of people, and then vanished into the far West, never to be seen again; this was probably Friedrich. Hahnemann's other son died as an infant in 1799, when Hahnemann was forced to leave Koenigslutter owing to the hostility of the pharmacists of that town (a harbinger of things to come). On the way to Hamburg the carriage in which the family was travelling was overturned; Hahnemann's son received fatal injuries and one of his daughters broke a leg, so that the party had to interrupt the journey for over six weeks.
The role of Frau Hahnemann amid all these vicissitudes is uncertain. No doubt she had a difficult life, but there are suggestions that she was something of a Xanthippe to her philosophical husband. In the circumstances it is perhaps hard to blame her.
Meissen ... now
Between 1789 and 1805 the Hahnemann family lived in literally dozens of places in eastern Germany. Hahnemann was unable to settle anywhere, but was driven on by his restless spirit and the need to make a living. All this travelling was a more difficult, indeed hazardous, affair then than it would be today. The roads were bad and often unsafe, and moreover the period was one of continual civil unrest. Hahnemann's youth was marred by the Seven Years' War between Prussia and Austria, while later, at Leipzig, he was to find himself caught up in the Napoleonic Wars.
Although Hahnemann was not practising medicine at this time he still had strong views on the subject, which he repeatedly expressed forcibly in print. The prevailing medical theories of his day were based on crude mechanical and hydraulic analogies as explanations of physiological processes. Thus diseases were classified in terms of tonicity or relaxation (our use of the word "tonic" derives from this theory) or were ascribed to supposed intestinal inflammation. There is no need to discuss these long-discredited theories in detail but it is important to notice their practical implications for medical treatment.
School of St. Afra The main resources of orthodox physicians in Hahnemann's day were large doses of drugs, habitually given in complicated mixtures, and blood-letting,
often carried to horrifying lengths - indeed, to the point of complete exsanguination, so that the final drops had to be squeezed from the unfortunate patients. Hahnemann rejected both the theories and the practices of orthodox medicine. It was, he held, inherently impossible to know the inner nature of disease processes and it was therefore fruitless to speculate about them or to base treatment on theories. As for complex drug mixtures and blood-letting, both were dangerous and unjustifiable. Hahnemann had not yet thought of homeopathy but he was a firm advocate of environmental measures to promote health - fresh air, good food, and exercise. In these opinions he was certainly in advance of his time, and the same is true of his enlightened ideas about the right way to treat the mentally ill.
In Hahnemann's day the practice was to treat "lunatics" with great harshness; they were given purges and emetics and were tied up, starved, and flogged if they complained, soiled themselves, or became violent.
The University of Erlangen ... now
Hahnemann strongly attacked this crude form of behaviour therapy and instead advocated kindness and patience. Hahnemann recommenced his wanderings once more. Hahnemann's interests at this time, in any case, were as much philosophical, for he was deeply preoccupied with medical speculations.
The discovery of homeopathy
The germ of homeopathy had been planted in Hahnemann's mind by an experiment he carried out in 1790. It was suggested to him by translating the Materia Medica of the Scottish physician Cullen. Among the herbs described by Cullen was the Peruvian bark cinchona (quinine), already in use as a treatment for malaria. Cullen followed orthodox opinion in attributing its effectiveness to its 'tonic effect on the stomach'. Hahnemann (who was never content to remain a mere translator but frequently added his own opinions in notes) attacked this idea, on the reasonable grounds that the taking of much more astringent substances than cinchona did not cure fever; hence the therapeutic effects of cinchona must be produced in some other way. Not content to leave the matter at the level of theory, Hahnemann proceeded to experiment.
Dr. Cullen's materia medica "I took for several days, as an experiment, four drachms of good china (cinchona) daily. My feet and finger tips, etc., at first became cold; I became languid and drowsy; my pulse became hard and quick; an intolerable anxiety and trembling (but without a rigor); trembling in all the limbs; then pulsation in the head, redness in the cheeks, thirst; briefly, all those symptoms which to me are typical of intermittent fever, such as the stupefaction of the senses, a kind of rigidity of all joints, but above all the numb, disagreeable sensation which seems to have its seat in the periosteum over all the bones of the body - all made their appearance.
This paroxysm lasted for two or three hours every time, and recurred when I repeated the dose and not otherwise. I discontinued the medicine and I was once more in good health." [Haehl, vol. 1, 37]
Critics have objected that quinine does not in fact produce the symptoms of malaria, but this seems rather beside the point. What matters is that Hahnemann believed that it had done so in his case and that this suggested the idea of homeopathy to him. (The clinical thermometer had not been invented in his day, so the diagnosis of 'intermittent fever' was necessarily based entirely on the symptoms.) Nevertheless, many years were to elapse before the germ of homeopathy grew into a full therapeutic system. Not until 1796 did Hahnemann publish anything on the subject, and even then the essay he wrote was theoretical rather than practical and it seems that he had not yet had much opportunity to try his idea out on patients.
In 1805, after several more moves, Hahnemann settled for a time in Torgau, on the Elbe, where he remained for an unwontedly long time - nearly seven years. We know little about his life at this time, but it seems he was practising medicine according to his new system. His finances now improved and he was at last able to give up translating and concentrate on his own writing.
Johanna Henriette Leopoldine
Numerous articles by him appeared, the most important of which was an essay, The Medicine of Experience, which came out in 1806 and was the forerunner of his definitive theoretical work, The Organon.
The Medicine of Experience was published, like many of Hahnemann's writings, in The Journal of Practical Medicine, edited by Hufeland - an eminent physician who was sympathetic to Hahnemann's ideas. Although Hahnemann did not use the word homeopathy in print until the following year, we find set forth in this essay the main features of his method, which may be summarized as follows.
■Medicines are to be chosen on the basis of the patient's symptoms, without reference to the supposed disease process underlying them. For Hahnemann, the symptoms are the disease, and once they have gone the disease is cured.
■The effects of drugs can be known only by means of experiments on healthy people. It is no use relying on what is found in patients because the symptoms of the disease will be difficult to distinguish from those of the drug.
■Medicines must be chosen for the similarity of their effects to the symptoms of the patient. This 'similimum principle' is of course the kernel of the homeopathic method.
■Medicines are to be given in single doses instead of complex mixtures.
■Medicines are to be given in small doses to prevent "aggravations". (Hahnemann believed that a correctly chosen medicine would always produce some slight worsening of the patient's condition, no matter how transient; this could be reduced to a minimum by judicious reduction of the size of the dose.)
■Medicines are to be repeated only when recurrence of the patient's symptoms indicates the need.
Dr. Hufeland Journal These principles constituted homeopathy as it stood when first formulated by its originator. As a system it was very different from the orthodox medicine of the day but from a modern point of view it could fairly claim to be more scientific and certainly a lot safer. At any rate, it quickly brought success to Hahnemann, who was henceforth not find himself again penurious. What is remarkable is that he had taken some fifty years to arrive at his system, and he was to go on adding to it almost up to his death in his eighty-ninth year. He was indeed a late developer.
As well as The Medicine of Experience, Hahnemann published while in Torgau a book, in Latin, on pharmacology. In it he described 27 drugs, giving the symptoms they produced in the healthy body. It seems he had already tested the drugs on himself and on his long-suffering family and the book is therefore the first published record of 'provings'. Unfortunately he gave no details about the doses he used or the manner of administration, a reticence that was to characterize all his later writings and to detract from their value. Among the drugs described by Hahnemann were Aconite (monkshood), Arnica (leopard's bane), Belladonna (deadly nightshade), Chamomilla (chamomile), Nux vomica (poison nut), and Pulsatilla (windflower), all of which are still widely used in homeopathy today.
In 1810 Hahnemann published the first edition of his major theoretical work, The Organon of Rational Healing (later retitled The Organon of the Healing Art, and today often referred to simply as The Organon). Further editions of this continued to appear at intervals throughout his long life, while the sixth and last did not come to light until 1920.
The Organon is the Bible of homeopathy and anyone who wants to study the subject seriously must read it with close attention - a somewhat daunting task. It is arranged in numbered paragraphs, to which are often appended voluminous footnotes.
Dr. Hahnemann as Chemist
The style is difficult - long involved sentences that the most authoritative English version, that of R.E. Dudgeon, does not render wholly pellucid. In the course of his life, Hahnemann was to have second and third thoughts about many of the ideas in the Organon; these he incorporated in the text of each successive edition, without however always cancelling what he had written previously, so that self-contradictions occur. Coming to terms with Hahnemann's thought therefore involves the reader in some fairly detailed textual criticism, and it is not surprising, if regrettable, that many later homeopaths have shirked the task and consequently have had an over-simplified view of what the Master actually taught.
The Organon initially excited rather little interest, either hostile or friendly. Perhaps this was because of distractions from public events, for the Napoleonic Wars were now raging. Napoleon himself entrenched outside Dresden in the winter of 1810-11 and constructed fortifications at other towns, including Torgau, further down the Elbe.
Postgraduate Institute Feeling understandably unsettled by these preparations for war, in 1811 Hahnemann decided to move to Leipzig; an unwise choice as it turned out, for Leipzig was to become the site of one of the most decisive battles of the war.
This was the fourth time that Hahnemann had gone to Leipzig; the first time had been as a grocer's boy, the second as a medical student, and the third as a struggling physician. None of these visits was a happy precedent, but on this occasion - at least to begin with - things went better for him.
Fame at last
His first venture was to try to set up an Institute for the Postgraduate Study of Homeopathy. However no physicians enrolled for the course and Hahnemann therefore applied to be allowed to deliver lectures at the university. Candidates for this honour were expected to present a dissertation and to defend their theses in the mediaeval fashion against a 'respondent'. With unwonted tact Hahnemann avoided the contentious subject of homeopathy and instead presented a learned paper designed to prove that the white hellebore of the ancients was the same as the modern Veratrum album. The respondent was his son Friedrich. The subject proved acceptable, the occasion went off well, and Hahnemann was free to begin his lectures.
In the same month Napoleon began his calamitous retreat from Moscow. By August 1813 he was back in Saxony with a new army; he defeated the allies at Dresden and then moved north-west to Leipzig, where he encamped outside the city accompanied by his unreliable ally the King of Saxony. On the 18th October Napoleon fought a major battle against the Allies, who were commanded by Prince Karl Schwarzenberg. Next day Napoleon's Saxon allies turned against him; he was defeated and had to leave Germany, never to return. Leipzig celebrated the defeat of the French but the city was full of wounded men. Hahnemann took part in treating the casualties and the victims of the epidemic that broke out in the city.
Gradually life in Leipzig returned to normal and Hahnemann was able to resume his lectures. At first these were packed, large numbers of students turning out for what they expected would be a rag occasion.
Hahnemann as Physician
Hahnemann himself took matters with extreme seriousness but even his closest friends and disciples felt that the solemnity of the setting left something to be desired. Hahnemann, his few remaining white hairs carefully curled and powdered, and wearing formal clothes that belonged to a bygone era, would sit down ceremoniously, take out his watch and lay it before him on the table, and after clearing his throat read a passage from The Organon. He would then dilate upon the ideas it contained, becoming more and more excited and flushed, until at last he broke out in a "raging hurricane" of abuse against orthodox medicine and orthodox practitioners. This, of course, was what his audience was waiting for.
Once the entertainment value of the lectures had been exhausted, however, attendance dwindled and soon Hahnemann was reduced to lecturing to a few devoted disciples. But his lack of success was not due solely either to his subject matter or to his eccentricities of dress and delivery; he was the target of serious opposition from the Professor of Medicine, and even those students who would have liked to come over to the new system of therapy found it unwise to do so.
Organon of Medicine Yet if Hahnemann failed to make his mark as a lecturer his sojourn in Leipzig was immensely fruitful in another way, for it was at this time that he carried out his main series of 'provings' with the help of his small band of disciples.
The little band of enthusiasts was worked hard by the Master. Not only did they have to try out the various drugs on themselves and record the results with extreme conscientiousness; sometimes they had to collect the substances, especially the herbal ones, themselves, learning to recognize them in the field and to prepare the tinctures for proving.
Hahnemann did not leave us any details of the doses he used or the manner of giving the drugs, but from chance remarks elsewhere in his writings and from the accounts of his provers we have a pretty fair idea of what went on.
Dr. Hahnemann's representation as professor,
teaching Homoeopathy, hering also seen
All the provings at this time were carried out with tinctures (extracts) of herbs or, in the case of insoluble substances, with 'first triturations' (one part of substance ground up with nine parts of sugar of milk). That is, Hahnemann used actual material doses for the provings. I emphasize the point because it is often believed by homeopaths that he used high dilutions ('potencies'). In fact, he did not do so until much later. His usual practice seems to have been to give repeated doses until some effect was produced; the actual amount was calculated on the basis of his own previous experience. The provers were expected to record their symptoms with the utmost care, and on presenting their notebooks to Hahnemann they had to offer him their hands - the customary way of taking an oath at German universities at that time - and swear that what they had reported was the truth. Hahnemann would then question them closely about their symptoms to elicit the details of time, factors that made them better or worse, and so on. Coffee, tea, wine, brandy and spices were forbidden to provers and so was chess (which Hahnemann considered too exciting), but beer was allowed and moderate exercise was encouraged.
P.G. Certificate
The results of the Leipzig provings were published between 1811 and 1821 in a major six-volume work usually referred to as The Materia Medica Pura. As he had done earlier, Hahnemann supplemented his researches with reports of poisoning and over-dosage, and the resulting compilation was a unique contribution to pharmacology; nothing like it had been attempted before, and the information it contains (together with that in The Chronic Diseases, which I shall discuss later) still forms the basis of homeopathic practice today.
Not many modern homeopaths, however, make use of The Materia Medica Pura; instead they rely on secondary or tertiary sources. This is because Hahnemann unfortunately chose to present his findings in a way that makes them virtually unreadable. Instead of giving narrative descriptions of the provers' experiences he recorded their symptoms in an anatomical scheme of his own devising, so that what we are left with is a series of disconnected snippets that cannot be put together in the mind to yield a whole picture. As the nineteenth-century homeopath Robert Dudgeon remarked, it is as if a portrait gallery of family pictures were arranged by features - all the noses in one place, all the eyes in another, and so on. For this reason Hahnemann's original provings are seldom referred to today.
A further problem from our point of view is that Hahnemann's method of conducting his provings, though extremely meticulous and painstaking, did nothing to eliminate the effect of suggestion. The subjects knew what medicines they were taking (indeed, they had often gathered the herbs themselves) and they therefore knew what effects they might experience. It is unfair to criticize Hahnemann for not recognizing the importance of suggestion, for this was not properly understood until many years later, yet it has to be kept in mind in assessing his findings. Another difficulty with the provings is that all the provers were men (although it is likely that Hahnemann had earlier tried the medicines on female members of his family). But in spite of any reservations one may have there is no doubt that Hahnemann's Leipzig provings are a fascinating piece of work and represent a serious scientific attempt to investigate the properties of drugs.
It would be reasonable to expect that this achievement would represent the summit of Hahnemann's career and that he would now remain in Leipzig, surrounded by his small but devoted band of followers, while his own fame and that of his system spread ever farther and won new converts. After all, he was now in his sixties and he had made a name for himself professionally;
Dr. Hahnemann's monument at Kothen
it was hardly likely that he would now contribute any new ideas. And yet, much still lay in the future. Hahnemann's very success made him the target of much hostility, not only from doctors but also from his old enemies, the apothecaries, who resented the fact that Hahnemann made up his own medicines and advised his disciples to do likewise. For a time their criticisms were silenced by the arrival in Leipzig of the victorious Prince Schwarzenberg, the hero of the battle of Leipzig, who came for the express purpose of being treated by Hahnemann. Unfortunately, after an initial improvement the Prince died, and there was no lack of voices to accuse Hahnemann of having precipitated his demise. The apothecaries now obtained an injunction to prevent Hahnemann from dispensing his own medicines, and since they were unwilling to keep them themselves his practice could not continue. He was therefore forced to leave Leipzig.
The Duke of Anhalt Kothen, a small principality some 36 miles away, was an ardent admirer of the new system, and he offered Hahnemann the post of court physician in the tiny capital of his dominions. Hahnemann had no choice but to accept.
Handwriting . . . Dr. Samuel Hahnemann The move to Kothen took place in 1821. A considerable change came over Hahnemann in his new home. He was now virtually cut off, not merely from mainstream medicine but even from his own disciples.
He became in effect a reclusive, hardly venturing outside his house. But he was by no means inactive; patients suffering from various forms of chronic disease came to him from all over Europe, and he continued to think, write and develop his system, which now began to take on new characteristics. While he was in Kothen he published a third, fourth and fifth edition of The Organon, and also a second and third edition of The Materia Medica Pura. It was in Kothen, too, that he elaborated his famous theory of dynamization. In 1827 he summoned his oldest and closest two disciples, Stapf and Gross, and informed them that he had discovered the cause of all chronic diseases together with a completely new series of medicines to cure such diseases. These new discoveries were set forth in The Chronic Diseases, which appeared in five volumes. The theory of chronic disease was to excite great controversy among homeopaths both at the time and subsequently.
As the years went by and Hahnemann aged he grew increasingly out of touch with general medical thought, but this did not prevent him from engaging in acrimonious disputes with the most eminent medical authorities, whom he treated with undisguised contempt. It has to be said that his arguments were by this time almost invariably superficial and irrelevant, for he was so utterly convinced of his own rightness that any attack, however well reasoned, seemed to him an expression of pure prejudice and ignorance.
Second marriage
In 1830, when he was 75, Hahnemann's wife died. They had been married for nearly 48 years and had had eleven children. Now, surely, Hahnemann's long life and career were all but over? But the last, and in some ways most remarkable, episode was still to come.
In October 1834 a mysterious visitor arrived at Kothen: a smart young Frenchman, whom the customary visit of the barber next morning unmasked as a beautiful girl. Mademoiselle Marie Melanie d'Hervilly, as the young lady was named, gave out that she had come to consult Dr Hahnemann about her health. However, a good deal of mystification attends both Melanie and the circumstances of her visit. She was about 32 to 35 years old at the time (she kept her exact age a secret). She had had a happy childhood in Paris but, according to her own account, her mother became jealous of her as she grew older and so she was adopted by a Monsieur and Madame le Thiere.
Melanie d' Hervilly
Later she became well known as a portraitist and this gained her the entree into the best social and intellectual circles, in which she had many influential friends. She seems to have been something of a feminist and to have felt strongly about the restrictions imposed on women by society; she had always had a leaning towards medicine, but of course at that time it was out of the question for her to study it.
Paris House . . . Rue de milan In explanation of her visit to Kothen she said that her health had suffered owing to grief caused by the loss of several friends. She read 'The Organon' and resolved there and then to visit its author. Not much is known about what happened next. What is certain, however, is that within three months of her arrival in Kothen - in January 1835 - Melanie and Hahnemann were married.
This event caused widespread astonishment. Not surprisingly, Hahnemann's numerous enemies used the occasion to mock him, while his unmarried daughters, who kept house for him, were understandably less than enthusiastic; but Hahnemann himself found the experience reinvigorating and rejuvenating. Six years earlier he had declined an invitation from Stapf to visit Naumberg, on the grounds that travel had become impossible for him so that he could not even visit his married children. Three months after his marriage, however, Melanie took her husband off to Paris, leaving Hahnemann's two unmarried daughters to live out their lives in virtual seclusion.
Homeopathy was already established in Paris and Hahnemann was made welcome there. It was expected that the Master would restrict his activities to writing, but instead he took up medical practice and soon became very successful. In the vigour of his Indian summer he even went so far as to reverse his long-established custom of not making home visits and would drive out to patients and pay house calls even up to midnight. Melanie assisted him, studied homeopathy under his tuition, and became a practitioner herself. The prosperous couple acquired a large house in the Rue de Milan, and Hahnemann, who had always been accustomed to living simply and frugally, now found himself in circumstances that were comfortable, even luxurious. There seems no doubt that his final years with Melanie were happy, and though many of his followers, both during his lifetime and later, attacked her bitterly, Hahnemann himself apparently found peace and fulfillment with her.
Hahnemann died on 2 July 1843. Melanie kept the funeral private, and his biographer Haehl implies that she forgot him as soon as he was buried; but this seems at variance with the fact that when Hahnemann's body was disinterred in 1896 a lock of Melanie's hair was found round his neck.
Dr. Hahnemann . . . Demise
Tomb at Paris
Dissension among Hahnemann's followers by no means ceased at his death. Much of this concerned the Master's literary relics, including the sixth edition of 'The Organon', on which he had been working shortly before his death. This material remained in the possession of his widow, who continued to practise homeopathy. At her death it passed to her adopted daughter, who had married the son of von Boenninghausen, one of Hahnemann's most devoted disciples. After many difficulties Haehl succeeded in obtaining the manuscript, which was finally published in 1922.
Dr. Anthony Campbell FF. Hom MRCP
Emeritus Consultant Physician
Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital
Londan
UK
डॉ.Hahnemann
Dr. Hahnemnn … a Gentle Rebel
- Dr. Anthony Campbell
Introduction
Dr.Anthony Campbell, FF(hom) MRCP (UK), has been a consultant physician at The Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital for almost a quarter of a century, and is a former editor of The British Homoeopathic Journal. His published books include "Two faces of Homeopathy" a critical historical survey of the development of homoeopathy. Some excerpts …
Hahnemann was born at Meissen, in south-east Germany, on 10 April 1755, at approximately midnight. So, at least, Hahnemann himself always maintained; but the entry in the church register at Meissen records the birth as having occurred on the morning of 11th April, and this later date was adopted by some homeopaths and gave rise to disagreement about the right day to celebrate the Master's birthday.
Hahnemann's father was a craftsman who worked in the famous Meissen pottery trade. He was not very well off, so that it was with some difficulty that the young Samuel persuaded him to allow him to become a medical student. As a boy he was put briefly to work for a Leipzig grocer. In 1775, however, he entered the University of Leipzig, where he quickly became self-supporting by means of teaching and translation. Growing dissatisfied with the standard of medical education at Leipzig he departed in 1776 for Vienna, but before completing his studies he left to take up a post as librarian and family physician to the Governor of Transylvania, Baron von Brukenthal, at Hermannstadt. It was at this time that he became a Freemason. It has been claimed that the library at Hermannstadt contained esoteric alchemical works, including those of Paracelsus, and that it was dipping into these that planted the seed of homeopathy in Hahnemann's mind. This is certainly possible, but no evidence to support the speculation exists.
Hahnemann's Birth place In 1779 Hahnemann left his employment with von Brukenthal to complete his medical education at the University of Erlangen, where he was finally awarded his doctorate in medicine in August 1779.
In 1780 he established his first medical practice in the small mining town of Hettstedt, where he recorded his disillusionment with the medical treatments of his day, especially blood-letting. Soon afterwards he moved to Dassau, where he began to take an interest in chemistry. This was a momentous period for chemists. In Hahnemann's lifetime the phlogiston theory of combustion was disproved, a number of gases were identified, the compositions of air and water were discovered, and the atomic theory was placed on a surer footing. Hahnemann felt the excitement of this atmosphere of discovery and carried out some chemical research of his own, though the atomic theory seems not to have entered his conceptual framework.
In 1782 he married Johanna Kuchler, an apothecary's daughter. A year later their first child, a daughter, was born - the first of a large family. Still Hahnemann did not settle down but continued to move about. In 1785 he was in Dresden, where he worked as locum tenens for the Medical Officer of Health. On the death of the incumbent Hahnemann applied for the substantive appointment, but he was unsuccessful and set off once more on his travels. He seems then largely to have abandoned medical practice for a time and to have concentrated his energies on translation, by which he supported his family and himself for a number of years. He also continued his chemical research; he published a test for the fraudulent adulteration of wine with lead, which was officially adopted in Prussia, and he described a method for detecting arsenic in forensic material. It is said that while in Dresden he met the famous French chemist Lavoisier, later to be guillotined during the Revolution.
In 1789 Hahnemann and his family moved to Leipzig. This was Hahnemann's third sojourn in that city. He did not practise medicine there but continued to write, translate. and study. His family now consisted of six persons, and he found himself hard pressed financially.
There is a touching story that gives a vivid picture of the tribulations undergone by the Hahnemann family. At one time money was so short that Hahnemann used to weigh out a portion of bread daily for each member of his family.
When one of his daughters fell ill she was unable to eat her ration, and so stored it away in a box until she should recover. But she began to feel worse rather than better, and fearing she would die she called her favourite sister and handed over to her the store of dried-up bread as a legacy so that it should not be wasted.
To have been brought up in the Hahnemann household seems to have been something of an ordeal in various ways and it left its mark on those who underwent the experience. The family was dogged by tragedy. Two daughters were probably murdered and three were divorced, while the elder son Friedrich seems to have been half-mad. He deserted his wife and child; his ultimate fate is unknown, but there is a curious story of a wild-looking man called Hahnemann who appeared in America during a cholera epidemic, cured a large number of people, and then vanished into the far West, never to be seen again; this was probably Friedrich. Hahnemann's other son died as an infant in 1799, when Hahnemann was forced to leave Koenigslutter owing to the hostility of the pharmacists of that town (a harbinger of things to come). On the way to Hamburg the carriage in which the family was travelling was overturned; Hahnemann's son received fatal injuries and one of his daughters broke a leg, so that the party had to interrupt the journey for over six weeks.
The role of Frau Hahnemann amid all these vicissitudes is uncertain. No doubt she had a difficult life, but there are suggestions that she was something of a Xanthippe to her philosophical husband. In the circumstances it is perhaps hard to blame her.
Meissen ... now
Between 1789 and 1805 the Hahnemann family lived in literally dozens of places in eastern Germany. Hahnemann was unable to settle anywhere, but was driven on by his restless spirit and the need to make a living. All this travelling was a more difficult, indeed hazardous, affair then than it would be today. The roads were bad and often unsafe, and moreover the period was one of continual civil unrest. Hahnemann's youth was marred by the Seven Years' War between Prussia and Austria, while later, at Leipzig, he was to find himself caught up in the Napoleonic Wars.
Although Hahnemann was not practising medicine at this time he still had strong views on the subject, which he repeatedly expressed forcibly in print. The prevailing medical theories of his day were based on crude mechanical and hydraulic analogies as explanations of physiological processes. Thus diseases were classified in terms of tonicity or relaxation (our use of the word "tonic" derives from this theory) or were ascribed to supposed intestinal inflammation. There is no need to discuss these long-discredited theories in detail but it is important to notice their practical implications for medical treatment.
School of St. Afra The main resources of orthodox physicians in Hahnemann's day were large doses of drugs, habitually given in complicated mixtures, and blood-letting,
often carried to horrifying lengths - indeed, to the point of complete exsanguination, so that the final drops had to be squeezed from the unfortunate patients. Hahnemann rejected both the theories and the practices of orthodox medicine. It was, he held, inherently impossible to know the inner nature of disease processes and it was therefore fruitless to speculate about them or to base treatment on theories. As for complex drug mixtures and blood-letting, both were dangerous and unjustifiable. Hahnemann had not yet thought of homeopathy but he was a firm advocate of environmental measures to promote health - fresh air, good food, and exercise. In these opinions he was certainly in advance of his time, and the same is true of his enlightened ideas about the right way to treat the mentally ill.
In Hahnemann's day the practice was to treat "lunatics" with great harshness; they were given purges and emetics and were tied up, starved, and flogged if they complained, soiled themselves, or became violent.
The University of Erlangen ... now
Hahnemann strongly attacked this crude form of behaviour therapy and instead advocated kindness and patience. Hahnemann recommenced his wanderings once more. Hahnemann's interests at this time, in any case, were as much philosophical, for he was deeply preoccupied with medical speculations.
The discovery of homeopathy
The germ of homeopathy had been planted in Hahnemann's mind by an experiment he carried out in 1790. It was suggested to him by translating the Materia Medica of the Scottish physician Cullen. Among the herbs described by Cullen was the Peruvian bark cinchona (quinine), already in use as a treatment for malaria. Cullen followed orthodox opinion in attributing its effectiveness to its 'tonic effect on the stomach'. Hahnemann (who was never content to remain a mere translator but frequently added his own opinions in notes) attacked this idea, on the reasonable grounds that the taking of much more astringent substances than cinchona did not cure fever; hence the therapeutic effects of cinchona must be produced in some other way. Not content to leave the matter at the level of theory, Hahnemann proceeded to experiment.
Dr. Cullen's materia medica "I took for several days, as an experiment, four drachms of good china (cinchona) daily. My feet and finger tips, etc., at first became cold; I became languid and drowsy; my pulse became hard and quick; an intolerable anxiety and trembling (but without a rigor); trembling in all the limbs; then pulsation in the head, redness in the cheeks, thirst; briefly, all those symptoms which to me are typical of intermittent fever, such as the stupefaction of the senses, a kind of rigidity of all joints, but above all the numb, disagreeable sensation which seems to have its seat in the periosteum over all the bones of the body - all made their appearance.
This paroxysm lasted for two or three hours every time, and recurred when I repeated the dose and not otherwise. I discontinued the medicine and I was once more in good health." [Haehl, vol. 1, 37]
Critics have objected that quinine does not in fact produce the symptoms of malaria, but this seems rather beside the point. What matters is that Hahnemann believed that it had done so in his case and that this suggested the idea of homeopathy to him. (The clinical thermometer had not been invented in his day, so the diagnosis of 'intermittent fever' was necessarily based entirely on the symptoms.) Nevertheless, many years were to elapse before the germ of homeopathy grew into a full therapeutic system. Not until 1796 did Hahnemann publish anything on the subject, and even then the essay he wrote was theoretical rather than practical and it seems that he had not yet had much opportunity to try his idea out on patients.
In 1805, after several more moves, Hahnemann settled for a time in Torgau, on the Elbe, where he remained for an unwontedly long time - nearly seven years. We know little about his life at this time, but it seems he was practising medicine according to his new system. His finances now improved and he was at last able to give up translating and concentrate on his own writing.
Johanna Henriette Leopoldine
Numerous articles by him appeared, the most important of which was an essay, The Medicine of Experience, which came out in 1806 and was the forerunner of his definitive theoretical work, The Organon.
The Medicine of Experience was published, like many of Hahnemann's writings, in The Journal of Practical Medicine, edited by Hufeland - an eminent physician who was sympathetic to Hahnemann's ideas. Although Hahnemann did not use the word homeopathy in print until the following year, we find set forth in this essay the main features of his method, which may be summarized as follows.
■Medicines are to be chosen on the basis of the patient's symptoms, without reference to the supposed disease process underlying them. For Hahnemann, the symptoms are the disease, and once they have gone the disease is cured.
■The effects of drugs can be known only by means of experiments on healthy people. It is no use relying on what is found in patients because the symptoms of the disease will be difficult to distinguish from those of the drug.
■Medicines must be chosen for the similarity of their effects to the symptoms of the patient. This 'similimum principle' is of course the kernel of the homeopathic method.
■Medicines are to be given in single doses instead of complex mixtures.
■Medicines are to be given in small doses to prevent "aggravations". (Hahnemann believed that a correctly chosen medicine would always produce some slight worsening of the patient's condition, no matter how transient; this could be reduced to a minimum by judicious reduction of the size of the dose.)
■Medicines are to be repeated only when recurrence of the patient's symptoms indicates the need.
Dr. Hufeland Journal These principles constituted homeopathy as it stood when first formulated by its originator. As a system it was very different from the orthodox medicine of the day but from a modern point of view it could fairly claim to be more scientific and certainly a lot safer. At any rate, it quickly brought success to Hahnemann, who was henceforth not find himself again penurious. What is remarkable is that he had taken some fifty years to arrive at his system, and he was to go on adding to it almost up to his death in his eighty-ninth year. He was indeed a late developer.
As well as The Medicine of Experience, Hahnemann published while in Torgau a book, in Latin, on pharmacology. In it he described 27 drugs, giving the symptoms they produced in the healthy body. It seems he had already tested the drugs on himself and on his long-suffering family and the book is therefore the first published record of 'provings'. Unfortunately he gave no details about the doses he used or the manner of administration, a reticence that was to characterize all his later writings and to detract from their value. Among the drugs described by Hahnemann were Aconite (monkshood), Arnica (leopard's bane), Belladonna (deadly nightshade), Chamomilla (chamomile), Nux vomica (poison nut), and Pulsatilla (windflower), all of which are still widely used in homeopathy today.
In 1810 Hahnemann published the first edition of his major theoretical work, The Organon of Rational Healing (later retitled The Organon of the Healing Art, and today often referred to simply as The Organon). Further editions of this continued to appear at intervals throughout his long life, while the sixth and last did not come to light until 1920.
The Organon is the Bible of homeopathy and anyone who wants to study the subject seriously must read it with close attention - a somewhat daunting task. It is arranged in numbered paragraphs, to which are often appended voluminous footnotes.
Dr. Hahnemann as Chemist
The style is difficult - long involved sentences that the most authoritative English version, that of R.E. Dudgeon, does not render wholly pellucid. In the course of his life, Hahnemann was to have second and third thoughts about many of the ideas in the Organon; these he incorporated in the text of each successive edition, without however always cancelling what he had written previously, so that self-contradictions occur. Coming to terms with Hahnemann's thought therefore involves the reader in some fairly detailed textual criticism, and it is not surprising, if regrettable, that many later homeopaths have shirked the task and consequently have had an over-simplified view of what the Master actually taught.
The Organon initially excited rather little interest, either hostile or friendly. Perhaps this was because of distractions from public events, for the Napoleonic Wars were now raging. Napoleon himself entrenched outside Dresden in the winter of 1810-11 and constructed fortifications at other towns, including Torgau, further down the Elbe.
Postgraduate Institute Feeling understandably unsettled by these preparations for war, in 1811 Hahnemann decided to move to Leipzig; an unwise choice as it turned out, for Leipzig was to become the site of one of the most decisive battles of the war.
This was the fourth time that Hahnemann had gone to Leipzig; the first time had been as a grocer's boy, the second as a medical student, and the third as a struggling physician. None of these visits was a happy precedent, but on this occasion - at least to begin with - things went better for him.
Fame at last
His first venture was to try to set up an Institute for the Postgraduate Study of Homeopathy. However no physicians enrolled for the course and Hahnemann therefore applied to be allowed to deliver lectures at the university. Candidates for this honour were expected to present a dissertation and to defend their theses in the mediaeval fashion against a 'respondent'. With unwonted tact Hahnemann avoided the contentious subject of homeopathy and instead presented a learned paper designed to prove that the white hellebore of the ancients was the same as the modern Veratrum album. The respondent was his son Friedrich. The subject proved acceptable, the occasion went off well, and Hahnemann was free to begin his lectures.
In the same month Napoleon began his calamitous retreat from Moscow. By August 1813 he was back in Saxony with a new army; he defeated the allies at Dresden and then moved north-west to Leipzig, where he encamped outside the city accompanied by his unreliable ally the King of Saxony. On the 18th October Napoleon fought a major battle against the Allies, who were commanded by Prince Karl Schwarzenberg. Next day Napoleon's Saxon allies turned against him; he was defeated and had to leave Germany, never to return. Leipzig celebrated the defeat of the French but the city was full of wounded men. Hahnemann took part in treating the casualties and the victims of the epidemic that broke out in the city.
Gradually life in Leipzig returned to normal and Hahnemann was able to resume his lectures. At first these were packed, large numbers of students turning out for what they expected would be a rag occasion.
Hahnemann as Physician
Hahnemann himself took matters with extreme seriousness but even his closest friends and disciples felt that the solemnity of the setting left something to be desired. Hahnemann, his few remaining white hairs carefully curled and powdered, and wearing formal clothes that belonged to a bygone era, would sit down ceremoniously, take out his watch and lay it before him on the table, and after clearing his throat read a passage from The Organon. He would then dilate upon the ideas it contained, becoming more and more excited and flushed, until at last he broke out in a "raging hurricane" of abuse against orthodox medicine and orthodox practitioners. This, of course, was what his audience was waiting for.
Once the entertainment value of the lectures had been exhausted, however, attendance dwindled and soon Hahnemann was reduced to lecturing to a few devoted disciples. But his lack of success was not due solely either to his subject matter or to his eccentricities of dress and delivery; he was the target of serious opposition from the Professor of Medicine, and even those students who would have liked to come over to the new system of therapy found it unwise to do so.
Organon of Medicine Yet if Hahnemann failed to make his mark as a lecturer his sojourn in Leipzig was immensely fruitful in another way, for it was at this time that he carried out his main series of 'provings' with the help of his small band of disciples.
The little band of enthusiasts was worked hard by the Master. Not only did they have to try out the various drugs on themselves and record the results with extreme conscientiousness; sometimes they had to collect the substances, especially the herbal ones, themselves, learning to recognize them in the field and to prepare the tinctures for proving.
Hahnemann did not leave us any details of the doses he used or the manner of giving the drugs, but from chance remarks elsewhere in his writings and from the accounts of his provers we have a pretty fair idea of what went on.
Dr. Hahnemann's representation as professor,
teaching Homoeopathy, hering also seen
All the provings at this time were carried out with tinctures (extracts) of herbs or, in the case of insoluble substances, with 'first triturations' (one part of substance ground up with nine parts of sugar of milk). That is, Hahnemann used actual material doses for the provings. I emphasize the point because it is often believed by homeopaths that he used high dilutions ('potencies'). In fact, he did not do so until much later. His usual practice seems to have been to give repeated doses until some effect was produced; the actual amount was calculated on the basis of his own previous experience. The provers were expected to record their symptoms with the utmost care, and on presenting their notebooks to Hahnemann they had to offer him their hands - the customary way of taking an oath at German universities at that time - and swear that what they had reported was the truth. Hahnemann would then question them closely about their symptoms to elicit the details of time, factors that made them better or worse, and so on. Coffee, tea, wine, brandy and spices were forbidden to provers and so was chess (which Hahnemann considered too exciting), but beer was allowed and moderate exercise was encouraged.
P.G. Certificate
The results of the Leipzig provings were published between 1811 and 1821 in a major six-volume work usually referred to as The Materia Medica Pura. As he had done earlier, Hahnemann supplemented his researches with reports of poisoning and over-dosage, and the resulting compilation was a unique contribution to pharmacology; nothing like it had been attempted before, and the information it contains (together with that in The Chronic Diseases, which I shall discuss later) still forms the basis of homeopathic practice today.
Not many modern homeopaths, however, make use of The Materia Medica Pura; instead they rely on secondary or tertiary sources. This is because Hahnemann unfortunately chose to present his findings in a way that makes them virtually unreadable. Instead of giving narrative descriptions of the provers' experiences he recorded their symptoms in an anatomical scheme of his own devising, so that what we are left with is a series of disconnected snippets that cannot be put together in the mind to yield a whole picture. As the nineteenth-century homeopath Robert Dudgeon remarked, it is as if a portrait gallery of family pictures were arranged by features - all the noses in one place, all the eyes in another, and so on. For this reason Hahnemann's original provings are seldom referred to today.
A further problem from our point of view is that Hahnemann's method of conducting his provings, though extremely meticulous and painstaking, did nothing to eliminate the effect of suggestion. The subjects knew what medicines they were taking (indeed, they had often gathered the herbs themselves) and they therefore knew what effects they might experience. It is unfair to criticize Hahnemann for not recognizing the importance of suggestion, for this was not properly understood until many years later, yet it has to be kept in mind in assessing his findings. Another difficulty with the provings is that all the provers were men (although it is likely that Hahnemann had earlier tried the medicines on female members of his family). But in spite of any reservations one may have there is no doubt that Hahnemann's Leipzig provings are a fascinating piece of work and represent a serious scientific attempt to investigate the properties of drugs.
It would be reasonable to expect that this achievement would represent the summit of Hahnemann's career and that he would now remain in Leipzig, surrounded by his small but devoted band of followers, while his own fame and that of his system spread ever farther and won new converts. After all, he was now in his sixties and he had made a name for himself professionally;
Dr. Hahnemann's monument at Kothen
it was hardly likely that he would now contribute any new ideas. And yet, much still lay in the future. Hahnemann's very success made him the target of much hostility, not only from doctors but also from his old enemies, the apothecaries, who resented the fact that Hahnemann made up his own medicines and advised his disciples to do likewise. For a time their criticisms were silenced by the arrival in Leipzig of the victorious Prince Schwarzenberg, the hero of the battle of Leipzig, who came for the express purpose of being treated by Hahnemann. Unfortunately, after an initial improvement the Prince died, and there was no lack of voices to accuse Hahnemann of having precipitated his demise. The apothecaries now obtained an injunction to prevent Hahnemann from dispensing his own medicines, and since they were unwilling to keep them themselves his practice could not continue. He was therefore forced to leave Leipzig.
The Duke of Anhalt Kothen, a small principality some 36 miles away, was an ardent admirer of the new system, and he offered Hahnemann the post of court physician in the tiny capital of his dominions. Hahnemann had no choice but to accept.
Handwriting . . . Dr. Samuel Hahnemann The move to Kothen took place in 1821. A considerable change came over Hahnemann in his new home. He was now virtually cut off, not merely from mainstream medicine but even from his own disciples.
He became in effect a reclusive, hardly venturing outside his house. But he was by no means inactive; patients suffering from various forms of chronic disease came to him from all over Europe, and he continued to think, write and develop his system, which now began to take on new characteristics. While he was in Kothen he published a third, fourth and fifth edition of The Organon, and also a second and third edition of The Materia Medica Pura. It was in Kothen, too, that he elaborated his famous theory of dynamization. In 1827 he summoned his oldest and closest two disciples, Stapf and Gross, and informed them that he had discovered the cause of all chronic diseases together with a completely new series of medicines to cure such diseases. These new discoveries were set forth in The Chronic Diseases, which appeared in five volumes. The theory of chronic disease was to excite great controversy among homeopaths both at the time and subsequently.
As the years went by and Hahnemann aged he grew increasingly out of touch with general medical thought, but this did not prevent him from engaging in acrimonious disputes with the most eminent medical authorities, whom he treated with undisguised contempt. It has to be said that his arguments were by this time almost invariably superficial and irrelevant, for he was so utterly convinced of his own rightness that any attack, however well reasoned, seemed to him an expression of pure prejudice and ignorance.
Second marriage
In 1830, when he was 75, Hahnemann's wife died. They had been married for nearly 48 years and had had eleven children. Now, surely, Hahnemann's long life and career were all but over? But the last, and in some ways most remarkable, episode was still to come.
In October 1834 a mysterious visitor arrived at Kothen: a smart young Frenchman, whom the customary visit of the barber next morning unmasked as a beautiful girl. Mademoiselle Marie Melanie d'Hervilly, as the young lady was named, gave out that she had come to consult Dr Hahnemann about her health. However, a good deal of mystification attends both Melanie and the circumstances of her visit. She was about 32 to 35 years old at the time (she kept her exact age a secret). She had had a happy childhood in Paris but, according to her own account, her mother became jealous of her as she grew older and so she was adopted by a Monsieur and Madame le Thiere.
Melanie d' Hervilly
Later she became well known as a portraitist and this gained her the entree into the best social and intellectual circles, in which she had many influential friends. She seems to have been something of a feminist and to have felt strongly about the restrictions imposed on women by society; she had always had a leaning towards medicine, but of course at that time it was out of the question for her to study it.
Paris House . . . Rue de milan In explanation of her visit to Kothen she said that her health had suffered owing to grief caused by the loss of several friends. She read 'The Organon' and resolved there and then to visit its author. Not much is known about what happened next. What is certain, however, is that within three months of her arrival in Kothen - in January 1835 - Melanie and Hahnemann were married.
This event caused widespread astonishment. Not surprisingly, Hahnemann's numerous enemies used the occasion to mock him, while his unmarried daughters, who kept house for him, were understandably less than enthusiastic; but Hahnemann himself found the experience reinvigorating and rejuvenating. Six years earlier he had declined an invitation from Stapf to visit Naumberg, on the grounds that travel had become impossible for him so that he could not even visit his married children. Three months after his marriage, however, Melanie took her husband off to Paris, leaving Hahnemann's two unmarried daughters to live out their lives in virtual seclusion.
Homeopathy was already established in Paris and Hahnemann was made welcome there. It was expected that the Master would restrict his activities to writing, but instead he took up medical practice and soon became very successful. In the vigour of his Indian summer he even went so far as to reverse his long-established custom of not making home visits and would drive out to patients and pay house calls even up to midnight. Melanie assisted him, studied homeopathy under his tuition, and became a practitioner herself. The prosperous couple acquired a large house in the Rue de Milan, and Hahnemann, who had always been accustomed to living simply and frugally, now found himself in circumstances that were comfortable, even luxurious. There seems no doubt that his final years with Melanie were happy, and though many of his followers, both during his lifetime and later, attacked her bitterly, Hahnemann himself apparently found peace and fulfillment with her.
Hahnemann died on 2 July 1843. Melanie kept the funeral private, and his biographer Haehl implies that she forgot him as soon as he was buried; but this seems at variance with the fact that when Hahnemann's body was disinterred in 1896 a lock of Melanie's hair was found round his neck.
Dr. Hahnemann . . . Demise
Tomb at Paris
Dissension among Hahnemann's followers by no means ceased at his death. Much of this concerned the Master's literary relics, including the sixth edition of 'The Organon', on which he had been working shortly before his death. This material remained in the possession of his widow, who continued to practise homeopathy. At her death it passed to her adopted daughter, who had married the son of von Boenninghausen, one of Hahnemann's most devoted disciples. After many difficulties Haehl succeeded in obtaining the manuscript, which was finally published in 1922.
Dr. Anthony Campbell FF. Hom MRCP
Emeritus Consultant Physician
Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital
Londan
UK
- Dr. Anthony Campbell
Introduction
Dr.Anthony Campbell, FF(hom) MRCP (UK), has been a consultant physician at The Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital for almost a quarter of a century, and is a former editor of The British Homoeopathic Journal. His published books include "Two faces of Homeopathy" a critical historical survey of the development of homoeopathy. Some excerpts …
Hahnemann was born at Meissen, in south-east Germany, on 10 April 1755, at approximately midnight. So, at least, Hahnemann himself always maintained; but the entry in the church register at Meissen records the birth as having occurred on the morning of 11th April, and this later date was adopted by some homeopaths and gave rise to disagreement about the right day to celebrate the Master's birthday.
Hahnemann's father was a craftsman who worked in the famous Meissen pottery trade. He was not very well off, so that it was with some difficulty that the young Samuel persuaded him to allow him to become a medical student. As a boy he was put briefly to work for a Leipzig grocer. In 1775, however, he entered the University of Leipzig, where he quickly became self-supporting by means of teaching and translation. Growing dissatisfied with the standard of medical education at Leipzig he departed in 1776 for Vienna, but before completing his studies he left to take up a post as librarian and family physician to the Governor of Transylvania, Baron von Brukenthal, at Hermannstadt. It was at this time that he became a Freemason. It has been claimed that the library at Hermannstadt contained esoteric alchemical works, including those of Paracelsus, and that it was dipping into these that planted the seed of homeopathy in Hahnemann's mind. This is certainly possible, but no evidence to support the speculation exists.
Hahnemann's Birth place In 1779 Hahnemann left his employment with von Brukenthal to complete his medical education at the University of Erlangen, where he was finally awarded his doctorate in medicine in August 1779.
In 1780 he established his first medical practice in the small mining town of Hettstedt, where he recorded his disillusionment with the medical treatments of his day, especially blood-letting. Soon afterwards he moved to Dassau, where he began to take an interest in chemistry. This was a momentous period for chemists. In Hahnemann's lifetime the phlogiston theory of combustion was disproved, a number of gases were identified, the compositions of air and water were discovered, and the atomic theory was placed on a surer footing. Hahnemann felt the excitement of this atmosphere of discovery and carried out some chemical research of his own, though the atomic theory seems not to have entered his conceptual framework.
In 1782 he married Johanna Kuchler, an apothecary's daughter. A year later their first child, a daughter, was born - the first of a large family. Still Hahnemann did not settle down but continued to move about. In 1785 he was in Dresden, where he worked as locum tenens for the Medical Officer of Health. On the death of the incumbent Hahnemann applied for the substantive appointment, but he was unsuccessful and set off once more on his travels. He seems then largely to have abandoned medical practice for a time and to have concentrated his energies on translation, by which he supported his family and himself for a number of years. He also continued his chemical research; he published a test for the fraudulent adulteration of wine with lead, which was officially adopted in Prussia, and he described a method for detecting arsenic in forensic material. It is said that while in Dresden he met the famous French chemist Lavoisier, later to be guillotined during the Revolution.
In 1789 Hahnemann and his family moved to Leipzig. This was Hahnemann's third sojourn in that city. He did not practise medicine there but continued to write, translate. and study. His family now consisted of six persons, and he found himself hard pressed financially.
There is a touching story that gives a vivid picture of the tribulations undergone by the Hahnemann family. At one time money was so short that Hahnemann used to weigh out a portion of bread daily for each member of his family.
When one of his daughters fell ill she was unable to eat her ration, and so stored it away in a box until she should recover. But she began to feel worse rather than better, and fearing she would die she called her favourite sister and handed over to her the store of dried-up bread as a legacy so that it should not be wasted.
To have been brought up in the Hahnemann household seems to have been something of an ordeal in various ways and it left its mark on those who underwent the experience. The family was dogged by tragedy. Two daughters were probably murdered and three were divorced, while the elder son Friedrich seems to have been half-mad. He deserted his wife and child; his ultimate fate is unknown, but there is a curious story of a wild-looking man called Hahnemann who appeared in America during a cholera epidemic, cured a large number of people, and then vanished into the far West, never to be seen again; this was probably Friedrich. Hahnemann's other son died as an infant in 1799, when Hahnemann was forced to leave Koenigslutter owing to the hostility of the pharmacists of that town (a harbinger of things to come). On the way to Hamburg the carriage in which the family was travelling was overturned; Hahnemann's son received fatal injuries and one of his daughters broke a leg, so that the party had to interrupt the journey for over six weeks.
The role of Frau Hahnemann amid all these vicissitudes is uncertain. No doubt she had a difficult life, but there are suggestions that she was something of a Xanthippe to her philosophical husband. In the circumstances it is perhaps hard to blame her.
Meissen ... now
Between 1789 and 1805 the Hahnemann family lived in literally dozens of places in eastern Germany. Hahnemann was unable to settle anywhere, but was driven on by his restless spirit and the need to make a living. All this travelling was a more difficult, indeed hazardous, affair then than it would be today. The roads were bad and often unsafe, and moreover the period was one of continual civil unrest. Hahnemann's youth was marred by the Seven Years' War between Prussia and Austria, while later, at Leipzig, he was to find himself caught up in the Napoleonic Wars.
Although Hahnemann was not practising medicine at this time he still had strong views on the subject, which he repeatedly expressed forcibly in print. The prevailing medical theories of his day were based on crude mechanical and hydraulic analogies as explanations of physiological processes. Thus diseases were classified in terms of tonicity or relaxation (our use of the word "tonic" derives from this theory) or were ascribed to supposed intestinal inflammation. There is no need to discuss these long-discredited theories in detail but it is important to notice their practical implications for medical treatment.
School of St. Afra The main resources of orthodox physicians in Hahnemann's day were large doses of drugs, habitually given in complicated mixtures, and blood-letting,
often carried to horrifying lengths - indeed, to the point of complete exsanguination, so that the final drops had to be squeezed from the unfortunate patients. Hahnemann rejected both the theories and the practices of orthodox medicine. It was, he held, inherently impossible to know the inner nature of disease processes and it was therefore fruitless to speculate about them or to base treatment on theories. As for complex drug mixtures and blood-letting, both were dangerous and unjustifiable. Hahnemann had not yet thought of homeopathy but he was a firm advocate of environmental measures to promote health - fresh air, good food, and exercise. In these opinions he was certainly in advance of his time, and the same is true of his enlightened ideas about the right way to treat the mentally ill.
In Hahnemann's day the practice was to treat "lunatics" with great harshness; they were given purges and emetics and were tied up, starved, and flogged if they complained, soiled themselves, or became violent.
The University of Erlangen ... now
Hahnemann strongly attacked this crude form of behaviour therapy and instead advocated kindness and patience. Hahnemann recommenced his wanderings once more. Hahnemann's interests at this time, in any case, were as much philosophical, for he was deeply preoccupied with medical speculations.
The discovery of homeopathy
The germ of homeopathy had been planted in Hahnemann's mind by an experiment he carried out in 1790. It was suggested to him by translating the Materia Medica of the Scottish physician Cullen. Among the herbs described by Cullen was the Peruvian bark cinchona (quinine), already in use as a treatment for malaria. Cullen followed orthodox opinion in attributing its effectiveness to its 'tonic effect on the stomach'. Hahnemann (who was never content to remain a mere translator but frequently added his own opinions in notes) attacked this idea, on the reasonable grounds that the taking of much more astringent substances than cinchona did not cure fever; hence the therapeutic effects of cinchona must be produced in some other way. Not content to leave the matter at the level of theory, Hahnemann proceeded to experiment.
Dr. Cullen's materia medica "I took for several days, as an experiment, four drachms of good china (cinchona) daily. My feet and finger tips, etc., at first became cold; I became languid and drowsy; my pulse became hard and quick; an intolerable anxiety and trembling (but without a rigor); trembling in all the limbs; then pulsation in the head, redness in the cheeks, thirst; briefly, all those symptoms which to me are typical of intermittent fever, such as the stupefaction of the senses, a kind of rigidity of all joints, but above all the numb, disagreeable sensation which seems to have its seat in the periosteum over all the bones of the body - all made their appearance.
This paroxysm lasted for two or three hours every time, and recurred when I repeated the dose and not otherwise. I discontinued the medicine and I was once more in good health." [Haehl, vol. 1, 37]
Critics have objected that quinine does not in fact produce the symptoms of malaria, but this seems rather beside the point. What matters is that Hahnemann believed that it had done so in his case and that this suggested the idea of homeopathy to him. (The clinical thermometer had not been invented in his day, so the diagnosis of 'intermittent fever' was necessarily based entirely on the symptoms.) Nevertheless, many years were to elapse before the germ of homeopathy grew into a full therapeutic system. Not until 1796 did Hahnemann publish anything on the subject, and even then the essay he wrote was theoretical rather than practical and it seems that he had not yet had much opportunity to try his idea out on patients.
In 1805, after several more moves, Hahnemann settled for a time in Torgau, on the Elbe, where he remained for an unwontedly long time - nearly seven years. We know little about his life at this time, but it seems he was practising medicine according to his new system. His finances now improved and he was at last able to give up translating and concentrate on his own writing.
Johanna Henriette Leopoldine
Numerous articles by him appeared, the most important of which was an essay, The Medicine of Experience, which came out in 1806 and was the forerunner of his definitive theoretical work, The Organon.
The Medicine of Experience was published, like many of Hahnemann's writings, in The Journal of Practical Medicine, edited by Hufeland - an eminent physician who was sympathetic to Hahnemann's ideas. Although Hahnemann did not use the word homeopathy in print until the following year, we find set forth in this essay the main features of his method, which may be summarized as follows.
■Medicines are to be chosen on the basis of the patient's symptoms, without reference to the supposed disease process underlying them. For Hahnemann, the symptoms are the disease, and once they have gone the disease is cured.
■The effects of drugs can be known only by means of experiments on healthy people. It is no use relying on what is found in patients because the symptoms of the disease will be difficult to distinguish from those of the drug.
■Medicines must be chosen for the similarity of their effects to the symptoms of the patient. This 'similimum principle' is of course the kernel of the homeopathic method.
■Medicines are to be given in single doses instead of complex mixtures.
■Medicines are to be given in small doses to prevent "aggravations". (Hahnemann believed that a correctly chosen medicine would always produce some slight worsening of the patient's condition, no matter how transient; this could be reduced to a minimum by judicious reduction of the size of the dose.)
■Medicines are to be repeated only when recurrence of the patient's symptoms indicates the need.
Dr. Hufeland Journal These principles constituted homeopathy as it stood when first formulated by its originator. As a system it was very different from the orthodox medicine of the day but from a modern point of view it could fairly claim to be more scientific and certainly a lot safer. At any rate, it quickly brought success to Hahnemann, who was henceforth not find himself again penurious. What is remarkable is that he had taken some fifty years to arrive at his system, and he was to go on adding to it almost up to his death in his eighty-ninth year. He was indeed a late developer.
As well as The Medicine of Experience, Hahnemann published while in Torgau a book, in Latin, on pharmacology. In it he described 27 drugs, giving the symptoms they produced in the healthy body. It seems he had already tested the drugs on himself and on his long-suffering family and the book is therefore the first published record of 'provings'. Unfortunately he gave no details about the doses he used or the manner of administration, a reticence that was to characterize all his later writings and to detract from their value. Among the drugs described by Hahnemann were Aconite (monkshood), Arnica (leopard's bane), Belladonna (deadly nightshade), Chamomilla (chamomile), Nux vomica (poison nut), and Pulsatilla (windflower), all of which are still widely used in homeopathy today.
In 1810 Hahnemann published the first edition of his major theoretical work, The Organon of Rational Healing (later retitled The Organon of the Healing Art, and today often referred to simply as The Organon). Further editions of this continued to appear at intervals throughout his long life, while the sixth and last did not come to light until 1920.
The Organon is the Bible of homeopathy and anyone who wants to study the subject seriously must read it with close attention - a somewhat daunting task. It is arranged in numbered paragraphs, to which are often appended voluminous footnotes.
Dr. Hahnemann as Chemist
The style is difficult - long involved sentences that the most authoritative English version, that of R.E. Dudgeon, does not render wholly pellucid. In the course of his life, Hahnemann was to have second and third thoughts about many of the ideas in the Organon; these he incorporated in the text of each successive edition, without however always cancelling what he had written previously, so that self-contradictions occur. Coming to terms with Hahnemann's thought therefore involves the reader in some fairly detailed textual criticism, and it is not surprising, if regrettable, that many later homeopaths have shirked the task and consequently have had an over-simplified view of what the Master actually taught.
The Organon initially excited rather little interest, either hostile or friendly. Perhaps this was because of distractions from public events, for the Napoleonic Wars were now raging. Napoleon himself entrenched outside Dresden in the winter of 1810-11 and constructed fortifications at other towns, including Torgau, further down the Elbe.
Postgraduate Institute Feeling understandably unsettled by these preparations for war, in 1811 Hahnemann decided to move to Leipzig; an unwise choice as it turned out, for Leipzig was to become the site of one of the most decisive battles of the war.
This was the fourth time that Hahnemann had gone to Leipzig; the first time had been as a grocer's boy, the second as a medical student, and the third as a struggling physician. None of these visits was a happy precedent, but on this occasion - at least to begin with - things went better for him.
Fame at last
His first venture was to try to set up an Institute for the Postgraduate Study of Homeopathy. However no physicians enrolled for the course and Hahnemann therefore applied to be allowed to deliver lectures at the university. Candidates for this honour were expected to present a dissertation and to defend their theses in the mediaeval fashion against a 'respondent'. With unwonted tact Hahnemann avoided the contentious subject of homeopathy and instead presented a learned paper designed to prove that the white hellebore of the ancients was the same as the modern Veratrum album. The respondent was his son Friedrich. The subject proved acceptable, the occasion went off well, and Hahnemann was free to begin his lectures.
In the same month Napoleon began his calamitous retreat from Moscow. By August 1813 he was back in Saxony with a new army; he defeated the allies at Dresden and then moved north-west to Leipzig, where he encamped outside the city accompanied by his unreliable ally the King of Saxony. On the 18th October Napoleon fought a major battle against the Allies, who were commanded by Prince Karl Schwarzenberg. Next day Napoleon's Saxon allies turned against him; he was defeated and had to leave Germany, never to return. Leipzig celebrated the defeat of the French but the city was full of wounded men. Hahnemann took part in treating the casualties and the victims of the epidemic that broke out in the city.
Gradually life in Leipzig returned to normal and Hahnemann was able to resume his lectures. At first these were packed, large numbers of students turning out for what they expected would be a rag occasion.
Hahnemann as Physician
Hahnemann himself took matters with extreme seriousness but even his closest friends and disciples felt that the solemnity of the setting left something to be desired. Hahnemann, his few remaining white hairs carefully curled and powdered, and wearing formal clothes that belonged to a bygone era, would sit down ceremoniously, take out his watch and lay it before him on the table, and after clearing his throat read a passage from The Organon. He would then dilate upon the ideas it contained, becoming more and more excited and flushed, until at last he broke out in a "raging hurricane" of abuse against orthodox medicine and orthodox practitioners. This, of course, was what his audience was waiting for.
Once the entertainment value of the lectures had been exhausted, however, attendance dwindled and soon Hahnemann was reduced to lecturing to a few devoted disciples. But his lack of success was not due solely either to his subject matter or to his eccentricities of dress and delivery; he was the target of serious opposition from the Professor of Medicine, and even those students who would have liked to come over to the new system of therapy found it unwise to do so.
Organon of Medicine Yet if Hahnemann failed to make his mark as a lecturer his sojourn in Leipzig was immensely fruitful in another way, for it was at this time that he carried out his main series of 'provings' with the help of his small band of disciples.
The little band of enthusiasts was worked hard by the Master. Not only did they have to try out the various drugs on themselves and record the results with extreme conscientiousness; sometimes they had to collect the substances, especially the herbal ones, themselves, learning to recognize them in the field and to prepare the tinctures for proving.
Hahnemann did not leave us any details of the doses he used or the manner of giving the drugs, but from chance remarks elsewhere in his writings and from the accounts of his provers we have a pretty fair idea of what went on.
Dr. Hahnemann's representation as professor,
teaching Homoeopathy, hering also seen
All the provings at this time were carried out with tinctures (extracts) of herbs or, in the case of insoluble substances, with 'first triturations' (one part of substance ground up with nine parts of sugar of milk). That is, Hahnemann used actual material doses for the provings. I emphasize the point because it is often believed by homeopaths that he used high dilutions ('potencies'). In fact, he did not do so until much later. His usual practice seems to have been to give repeated doses until some effect was produced; the actual amount was calculated on the basis of his own previous experience. The provers were expected to record their symptoms with the utmost care, and on presenting their notebooks to Hahnemann they had to offer him their hands - the customary way of taking an oath at German universities at that time - and swear that what they had reported was the truth. Hahnemann would then question them closely about their symptoms to elicit the details of time, factors that made them better or worse, and so on. Coffee, tea, wine, brandy and spices were forbidden to provers and so was chess (which Hahnemann considered too exciting), but beer was allowed and moderate exercise was encouraged.
P.G. Certificate
The results of the Leipzig provings were published between 1811 and 1821 in a major six-volume work usually referred to as The Materia Medica Pura. As he had done earlier, Hahnemann supplemented his researches with reports of poisoning and over-dosage, and the resulting compilation was a unique contribution to pharmacology; nothing like it had been attempted before, and the information it contains (together with that in The Chronic Diseases, which I shall discuss later) still forms the basis of homeopathic practice today.
Not many modern homeopaths, however, make use of The Materia Medica Pura; instead they rely on secondary or tertiary sources. This is because Hahnemann unfortunately chose to present his findings in a way that makes them virtually unreadable. Instead of giving narrative descriptions of the provers' experiences he recorded their symptoms in an anatomical scheme of his own devising, so that what we are left with is a series of disconnected snippets that cannot be put together in the mind to yield a whole picture. As the nineteenth-century homeopath Robert Dudgeon remarked, it is as if a portrait gallery of family pictures were arranged by features - all the noses in one place, all the eyes in another, and so on. For this reason Hahnemann's original provings are seldom referred to today.
A further problem from our point of view is that Hahnemann's method of conducting his provings, though extremely meticulous and painstaking, did nothing to eliminate the effect of suggestion. The subjects knew what medicines they were taking (indeed, they had often gathered the herbs themselves) and they therefore knew what effects they might experience. It is unfair to criticize Hahnemann for not recognizing the importance of suggestion, for this was not properly understood until many years later, yet it has to be kept in mind in assessing his findings. Another difficulty with the provings is that all the provers were men (although it is likely that Hahnemann had earlier tried the medicines on female members of his family). But in spite of any reservations one may have there is no doubt that Hahnemann's Leipzig provings are a fascinating piece of work and represent a serious scientific attempt to investigate the properties of drugs.
It would be reasonable to expect that this achievement would represent the summit of Hahnemann's career and that he would now remain in Leipzig, surrounded by his small but devoted band of followers, while his own fame and that of his system spread ever farther and won new converts. After all, he was now in his sixties and he had made a name for himself professionally;
Dr. Hahnemann's monument at Kothen
it was hardly likely that he would now contribute any new ideas. And yet, much still lay in the future. Hahnemann's very success made him the target of much hostility, not only from doctors but also from his old enemies, the apothecaries, who resented the fact that Hahnemann made up his own medicines and advised his disciples to do likewise. For a time their criticisms were silenced by the arrival in Leipzig of the victorious Prince Schwarzenberg, the hero of the battle of Leipzig, who came for the express purpose of being treated by Hahnemann. Unfortunately, after an initial improvement the Prince died, and there was no lack of voices to accuse Hahnemann of having precipitated his demise. The apothecaries now obtained an injunction to prevent Hahnemann from dispensing his own medicines, and since they were unwilling to keep them themselves his practice could not continue. He was therefore forced to leave Leipzig.
The Duke of Anhalt Kothen, a small principality some 36 miles away, was an ardent admirer of the new system, and he offered Hahnemann the post of court physician in the tiny capital of his dominions. Hahnemann had no choice but to accept.
Handwriting . . . Dr. Samuel Hahnemann The move to Kothen took place in 1821. A considerable change came over Hahnemann in his new home. He was now virtually cut off, not merely from mainstream medicine but even from his own disciples.
He became in effect a reclusive, hardly venturing outside his house. But he was by no means inactive; patients suffering from various forms of chronic disease came to him from all over Europe, and he continued to think, write and develop his system, which now began to take on new characteristics. While he was in Kothen he published a third, fourth and fifth edition of The Organon, and also a second and third edition of The Materia Medica Pura. It was in Kothen, too, that he elaborated his famous theory of dynamization. In 1827 he summoned his oldest and closest two disciples, Stapf and Gross, and informed them that he had discovered the cause of all chronic diseases together with a completely new series of medicines to cure such diseases. These new discoveries were set forth in The Chronic Diseases, which appeared in five volumes. The theory of chronic disease was to excite great controversy among homeopaths both at the time and subsequently.
As the years went by and Hahnemann aged he grew increasingly out of touch with general medical thought, but this did not prevent him from engaging in acrimonious disputes with the most eminent medical authorities, whom he treated with undisguised contempt. It has to be said that his arguments were by this time almost invariably superficial and irrelevant, for he was so utterly convinced of his own rightness that any attack, however well reasoned, seemed to him an expression of pure prejudice and ignorance.
Second marriage
In 1830, when he was 75, Hahnemann's wife died. They had been married for nearly 48 years and had had eleven children. Now, surely, Hahnemann's long life and career were all but over? But the last, and in some ways most remarkable, episode was still to come.
In October 1834 a mysterious visitor arrived at Kothen: a smart young Frenchman, whom the customary visit of the barber next morning unmasked as a beautiful girl. Mademoiselle Marie Melanie d'Hervilly, as the young lady was named, gave out that she had come to consult Dr Hahnemann about her health. However, a good deal of mystification attends both Melanie and the circumstances of her visit. She was about 32 to 35 years old at the time (she kept her exact age a secret). She had had a happy childhood in Paris but, according to her own account, her mother became jealous of her as she grew older and so she was adopted by a Monsieur and Madame le Thiere.
Melanie d' Hervilly
Later she became well known as a portraitist and this gained her the entree into the best social and intellectual circles, in which she had many influential friends. She seems to have been something of a feminist and to have felt strongly about the restrictions imposed on women by society; she had always had a leaning towards medicine, but of course at that time it was out of the question for her to study it.
Paris House . . . Rue de milan In explanation of her visit to Kothen she said that her health had suffered owing to grief caused by the loss of several friends. She read 'The Organon' and resolved there and then to visit its author. Not much is known about what happened next. What is certain, however, is that within three months of her arrival in Kothen - in January 1835 - Melanie and Hahnemann were married.
This event caused widespread astonishment. Not surprisingly, Hahnemann's numerous enemies used the occasion to mock him, while his unmarried daughters, who kept house for him, were understandably less than enthusiastic; but Hahnemann himself found the experience reinvigorating and rejuvenating. Six years earlier he had declined an invitation from Stapf to visit Naumberg, on the grounds that travel had become impossible for him so that he could not even visit his married children. Three months after his marriage, however, Melanie took her husband off to Paris, leaving Hahnemann's two unmarried daughters to live out their lives in virtual seclusion.
Homeopathy was already established in Paris and Hahnemann was made welcome there. It was expected that the Master would restrict his activities to writing, but instead he took up medical practice and soon became very successful. In the vigour of his Indian summer he even went so far as to reverse his long-established custom of not making home visits and would drive out to patients and pay house calls even up to midnight. Melanie assisted him, studied homeopathy under his tuition, and became a practitioner herself. The prosperous couple acquired a large house in the Rue de Milan, and Hahnemann, who had always been accustomed to living simply and frugally, now found himself in circumstances that were comfortable, even luxurious. There seems no doubt that his final years with Melanie were happy, and though many of his followers, both during his lifetime and later, attacked her bitterly, Hahnemann himself apparently found peace and fulfillment with her.
Hahnemann died on 2 July 1843. Melanie kept the funeral private, and his biographer Haehl implies that she forgot him as soon as he was buried; but this seems at variance with the fact that when Hahnemann's body was disinterred in 1896 a lock of Melanie's hair was found round his neck.
Dr. Hahnemann . . . Demise
Tomb at Paris
Dissension among Hahnemann's followers by no means ceased at his death. Much of this concerned the Master's literary relics, including the sixth edition of 'The Organon', on which he had been working shortly before his death. This material remained in the possession of his widow, who continued to practise homeopathy. At her death it passed to her adopted daughter, who had married the son of von Boenninghausen, one of Hahnemann's most devoted disciples. After many difficulties Haehl succeeded in obtaining the manuscript, which was finally published in 1922.
Dr. Anthony Campbell FF. Hom MRCP
Emeritus Consultant Physician
Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital
Londan
UK
Thursday, March 3, 2011
प्रथम सोपान्
गुरूरूब्रह्मा गुरूरूविष्णु गुरूरूदेवोमहेश्वररू ।
गुरूरूसक्षात परमब्रह्म तस्मै श्रीगुरूवेरू नमरू ।।
यह किताब रेपर्टरी के प्रेक्टिकल टिप्स पर आधारित है। किसी को भी इसे रेपर्टरी वर्क समझने की भूल से बचना चाहिए ।
यह मेरे प्रेक्टिकल अप्रोच से पूर्ण है, जिनके द्वारा मैं किसी रोगी की similimum Remedy तक पहुँचता हूँ।
इसमें वे महत्वपूर्ण टिप्स है, जिनका मैं इस्तेमाल करता हूँ,किसी रिमेडी के बारे में जानने के लिए और रोगी के बीमारी में सादृश्यता के लिए ।
यह Method, जिसे मैं similimum के लिए इस्तेमाल करता हूँ, वो डा० हैनिमैन के organon से ही लिया है, जिसमें उन्होंने मुझे सिखाये है कि किसी रोगी की चिकित्सा में
१. एक सच्चा होमियोपैथ Cause of Disease को आधार मानता है ;(सूत्र २०५ आर्गेनन)
2.यह रोगी की मानसिक प्रवृति ही है, जो कि होमियोपैथिक दवाओं के चुनाव में मुख्य आधारशिला बनती है ;(सूत्र २११ ओर्गेनन)
दुसरी बात, मेरे रोगियों प्रति, आभार प्रकट करता हूँ, जिन्होंने मेरे उपर श्रधा एवं विश्वास रख कर चिकित्सा करायें,
जिनसे अपार अनुभव प्राप्त कर सका और समझ सका कि ष्सफल होमियोपैथिक चिकित्सा कैसे की जा सकती है।
इसलिए मेरा पहला श्रधा सुमन डा० हैनिमैन रचित आर्गेनन एवं दूसरा श्रधा.पुष्प रोगियो को अर्पित है क्योंकि वे वही रोगी है,
जिन्होंने अप्रत्यक्ष रूप से मेरी सहायता किये हैं, जिनके कारण, मैं रूबरिक्स ;रिपर्टरी और मेटेरिया मेडिका कांे बेहतर से बेहतर तरीके से समझ सका और मारात्मक रोगों में भी असाधारण सफलता अर्जित कर सका ।
मैं खास तौर से, प्रो० डा० जगदीश नारायण सिंह, डा० पी० के० चौधरी. डा० आर० पी० सिंह, डा० सुनील कुमार, डा० राजन द्विवेदी, डा० कविता, डा० आकांक्षा, डा० ललित पाहवा, डा० हिमानी को धन्यवाद देना चाहूँगा।
इन सभी ने इस पुस्तक के लेखन में भरपुर सहयोग दिया ।
यह मेरा प्रयास है कि मैं उन चीजों को सामने लाँउ, जिन्हे मैं किसी रोगी की चिकित्सा के दौरान मेरा दिमाग में उभर कर आती है। What is my actual thought process when a patient comes and sit in front of me iswhat I am trying to convey through this Book"SEHGAL METHOD OF HOMOEOPATHY"
इस किताब के लेखन में जिन.जिन ग्रन्थों का सहयोग मिला, उनसे मैं आभारित हूँ जिनका नाम ना लिखना कृतध्नत्ता होगी और अंत में, मैं अपने परिवार के सदस्यों के प्रति भी धन्यवाद प्रेषित करता हूँ जिन्होंने इस किताब के लेखन के दौरान आये हुए परेशानियों को मुझ तक पहुँचने नही दिया।
गुरूरूब्रह्मा गुरूरूविष्णु गुरूरूदेवोमहेश्वररू ।
गुरूरूसक्षात परमब्रह्म तस्मै श्रीगुरूवेरू नमरू ।।
यह किताब रेपर्टरी के प्रेक्टिकल टिप्स पर आधारित है। किसी को भी इसे रेपर्टरी वर्क समझने की भूल से बचना चाहिए ।
यह मेरे प्रेक्टिकल अप्रोच से पूर्ण है, जिनके द्वारा मैं किसी रोगी की similimum Remedy तक पहुँचता हूँ।
इसमें वे महत्वपूर्ण टिप्स है, जिनका मैं इस्तेमाल करता हूँ,किसी रिमेडी के बारे में जानने के लिए और रोगी के बीमारी में सादृश्यता के लिए ।
यह Method, जिसे मैं similimum के लिए इस्तेमाल करता हूँ, वो डा० हैनिमैन के organon से ही लिया है, जिसमें उन्होंने मुझे सिखाये है कि किसी रोगी की चिकित्सा में
१. एक सच्चा होमियोपैथ Cause of Disease को आधार मानता है ;(सूत्र २०५ आर्गेनन)
2.यह रोगी की मानसिक प्रवृति ही है, जो कि होमियोपैथिक दवाओं के चुनाव में मुख्य आधारशिला बनती है ;(सूत्र २११ ओर्गेनन)
दुसरी बात, मेरे रोगियों प्रति, आभार प्रकट करता हूँ, जिन्होंने मेरे उपर श्रधा एवं विश्वास रख कर चिकित्सा करायें,
जिनसे अपार अनुभव प्राप्त कर सका और समझ सका कि ष्सफल होमियोपैथिक चिकित्सा कैसे की जा सकती है।
इसलिए मेरा पहला श्रधा सुमन डा० हैनिमैन रचित आर्गेनन एवं दूसरा श्रधा.पुष्प रोगियो को अर्पित है क्योंकि वे वही रोगी है,
जिन्होंने अप्रत्यक्ष रूप से मेरी सहायता किये हैं, जिनके कारण, मैं रूबरिक्स ;रिपर्टरी और मेटेरिया मेडिका कांे बेहतर से बेहतर तरीके से समझ सका और मारात्मक रोगों में भी असाधारण सफलता अर्जित कर सका ।
मैं खास तौर से, प्रो० डा० जगदीश नारायण सिंह, डा० पी० के० चौधरी. डा० आर० पी० सिंह, डा० सुनील कुमार, डा० राजन द्विवेदी, डा० कविता, डा० आकांक्षा, डा० ललित पाहवा, डा० हिमानी को धन्यवाद देना चाहूँगा।
इन सभी ने इस पुस्तक के लेखन में भरपुर सहयोग दिया ।
यह मेरा प्रयास है कि मैं उन चीजों को सामने लाँउ, जिन्हे मैं किसी रोगी की चिकित्सा के दौरान मेरा दिमाग में उभर कर आती है। What is my actual thought process when a patient comes and sit in front of me iswhat I am trying to convey through this Book"SEHGAL METHOD OF HOMOEOPATHY"
इस किताब के लेखन में जिन.जिन ग्रन्थों का सहयोग मिला, उनसे मैं आभारित हूँ जिनका नाम ना लिखना कृतध्नत्ता होगी और अंत में, मैं अपने परिवार के सदस्यों के प्रति भी धन्यवाद प्रेषित करता हूँ जिन्होंने इस किताब के लेखन के दौरान आये हुए परेशानियों को मुझ तक पहुँचने नही दिया।
MindHeal Homeopathy
This week, we’re taking a look at Strong Medicine and how allopathy is designed to cause, not cure, disease. We go beyond its clichéd “side-effects” and explore how the disease process cleverly dodges synthetic medicines and burrows deeper and deeper to camouflage itself.
Did you know that regular use of antacids and other synthetic drugs can turn indigestion into arthritis and then cancer at a later stage? No, all that’s gone is not cured!
Click here to discover the mysterious journey of dynamic human energy – in sickness and in health…
www.mindhealhomeoclinic.blogspot.com/2010/11/all-thats-gone-is-not-cured.html
Also, a special takeaway that can help you predict the course of disease with unerring accuracy.
PS: If you like what you read, you may Bookmark this blog or subscribe to the RSS feed to get regular updates. Also, browse through my new News page for the latest global homeopathy news, snippets, information, videos and much, much more!
Re-awaken the healer in you…
- Dr Anita Salunkhe, MD
MindHeal Homeopathy
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Wednesday, March 2, 2011
happy new year ..............Dr.Ashok Gupta,Loyala Homoeopathic Mind Academy,(A non commercial for qalifief homoeopaths)A sister concern of M.T.H,Bett
happy new year ..............Dr.Ashok Gupta,Loyala Homoeopathic Mind Academy,(A non commercial for qalifief homoeopaths)A sister concern of M.T.H,Bettiah
Thursday, February 24, 2011
आप चाहते है कि आपकी चिकित्सा से चमत्कार हो?
वो जो कम से कम दवा लिखते हैं वो BEST HOMOEOPATH है ।
यह एक GOLDEN RULE है ।
कोई जो कि सफल होमियोपैथिक चिकित्सक बनना चाहता है, उन्हें अनावश्यक दवाओं को देने से बचना चाहिए ।
ऐसी जगह पर हमें सोचना चाहिए कि ‘‘कब दवा दें’’ और ‘कब’ ना दें ।
होमियोपैथी में हजारों किताबें मेटेरिया-मेडिका के रूप में हैं, यहाँ तक कि आर्गेनन और फलास्फी, जो हमें दवा PRESCRIBE करने के लिए ‘‘गाईड’’ करते हैं ।
यह नहीं बता पाते कि कब ‘‘दवा’’ देनी चाहिए ।
केश नं0-1
एक रोगी अतिसार से पीड़ित हो मेरे पास आया, और बोला कि डाक्टर साहब, आज तीसरा दिन है मै इसकों भुगत रहा हूँ ।
दो दिन से यही हाल है, रोज लगभग 25-30 पखाने हो रहें है , बिल्कुल पानी की तरह एवं कभी पीले । और कुछ खाँउ, तब तो जरूर जान पड़ता है अगर थोड़ा देर भी हो जाये तो पखाना मेरे रोकने से नही रूकने वाला है।
जब रोगी से पूछा गया कि-तुम परसो ही क्यों नही आ गये ?
तो जवाब मिला कि एक तो ना मुझे कही जाने की शक्ति थी और ना ही पखाना मेरे CONTROL में था कि आपके पास 2 घंटा इंतजार करता । तब आज कैसे आ गये-मेरा अगला प्रश्न था ।
वह बोला-आज मैने ना कुछ खाया और ना कुछ पीया है, इसीलिए पखाना नही लगा है।
दो दिन तक बहुत कमजोरी थी, कल से पखाने की बारम्बारता में कमी भी आई है और आज सुबह से कुछ खाने की ईच्छा भी बनी है एवं आज सिर्फ 3 ही पखाने हुए है । रात को अच्छी नींद के कारण मुझ में चलने की शक्ति भी आई है, इसी वजह से आज आया हूँ।
नया सवाल मैने रोगी से पूछा कि क्या तुम्हे सचमुच भूख लग रही है या जबरदस्ती तुम खुद कुछ खाना चाहते हो ।
नहीं-नहीं, आज सचमुच में 3 दिन के बाद मैने नास्ता किया है ।
उपरोक्त केस में,
अतिसार निश्चित रूप से कुछ IN FACTION के कारण या TOXIN आ जाने के कारण [खाने के साथ या अन्य तरीके से] ।
अब हुआ यह कि शरीर ने उसको अपने स्तर निष्क्रिय करना चाहा, मगर वह निष्क्रिय नही हुआ, और शरीर उसको सह भी नही पा रहा है, यह चीज अगर शरीर में रहेगा तो शरीर को नुकसान पहुँचा सकता है, तब शरीर अपनी सुरक्षा के मद्देनजर, उस TOXIN को बाहर फेकना शुरू करता है, जो कि हमारे सामने अतिसार के रूप में आया ।
सत्य यह है कि अतिसार जो पैदा हुआ वह शरीर की अपनी सुरक्षा के कारण हुआ, तभी जाकर शरीर स्वंय ही CURE हो सका ।
यह CURE तभी आया जब शरीर से TOXIN बाहर निकल गया और उसकी जगह CURE पहुँच गया तब अपने आप ही रोगी अच्छा लगने लगा, कमजोरी कम हुई, अच्छी नींद आयी, पखाना कम जो गया और उसमें शक्ति का संचार हो गया और उसकी भूख भी वापस हो गयी। सामान्यतः स्वास्थ्य का यही मापदंड है कि काम करने की ईच्छा जगे,
काम करने की शक्ति आ जाये
खाना खाने की स्वतः ईच्छा हो ना कि जबरदस्ती
और इन सभी से ज्यादा महत्वपूर्ण है नींद का आना ।
अगर यह सभी कुछ हो रहा हो तो अब यह कहने कि जरूरत ही नही कि पखाना रूक जायेगा। नही-नही ‘‘पखाना रूक जाना’’ यहाँ सही शब्द नही हे बल्कि यह कहना ठीक होगा कि अब 24 घंटो के अन्दर पखाना सामान्य हो जायेगा । अब इस रोगी को सिपर्फ PL देकर कहना होगा कि जाओ, तुम्हारा पखाना कल से सामान्य हो जायेगा ।
आपकी भविष्यवाणी सच हो सकती है, अगर आप PHYSIOLOGY OF MAN को ठीक से समझते है, तो ।
आपके रोगी के अन्दर भी एक डाक्टर है, उसको भी आपको सम्मान देना होगा। अगर वह रोगी को CURE की पथ पर ले जा रहा है, तो किसी को भी हक नही है, उसमें व्यवधन डालने का , चाहे वह होमियोपैथ हो अथवा एलोपैथ ।
क्योंकि वह जानता है कि शरीर के लिए उत्तम क्या है ?
केस न0-2
एक बच्चे को 4 दिन से बुखार था, जिसे मेरे पास ईलाज के लिए लाया गया । बच्चा सुस्त था, रात को बुरी तरह खांसी आती थी, साथ ही थोड़ा-थोड़ा पानी की प्यास । जब इस बच्चे को होमियोपैथी एवं ऐलोपैथी से ईलाज के पहले लाया जाता तो आप कौन सी दवा देते उसे, लेकिन उसे इसी स्थिति में दवा की जरूरत है?
सबसे पहले यह जानना होगा कि बुखार पिछले 3 दिनों में कभी उतरा था या नही ?
दुसरी बात का पता लगायेगें कि क्या इसके क्रियाशीलता में कोई कमी आयी है या नही ?
तीसरी बात - क्या बच्चा कुछ खाने के लिए माँग कर रहा है या नहीं ?
अगर हाँ तो बच्चा निश्चित रूप से CURE की दिशा में अग्रसर हो गया है ।
अगर बच्चा कल की अपेक्षा आज खेल रहा है और खाने के लिए मांग कर रहा है, तो इसका सापफ मतलब है कि बच्चा अपने-आप स्वस्थ हो रहा है ;अगर अभी बुखार है भी तो अगर इस स्थिति में ऐलोपैथ को बुलाकर VIRAL INFECTION के लिए कोई दवा दी जा रही है तो यह अपराध् है ।
इस स्थिति में कोई भी दवा की जायेगी तो बच्चे को बुखार के साथ नई बीमारी शुरू हो जायेगी और RECOVERY दूर चली जायेगी ।
हमें व्यक्ति के INTERNAL CURATIVE MECHANISM का सम्मान करना चाहिए।
SINGLE REMEDY SINGLE DOSE
अगर आप चाहते है कि आपकी चिकित्सा से चमत्कार हो, अगर इसे स्वंय अपनी आँखो के सामने देखना चाहते है,
अगर आप टायफाइड बुखार को 24 घंटे में खत्म करना चाहते हैं,
अगर निमोनिया को 48-72 घंटो में ठीक करना चाहते हो, [RADIOLOGICALLY],
अगर पेशाव के 100-135 पस-सेल्स को 48 घंटो के भीतर गायब देखना चाहते हो, या
अगर अपनी चिकित्सा से एलोपैथों को आश्चर्यचकित कर देना चाहते हो, तो इसका सिर्फ और सिर्फ एक ही रास्ता है- ‘‘सदृश औषध् की एक मात्रा’’
वो चिकित्सक जो बुखार के कई दवाओं के मिश्रण, पेटेन्ट और वायो कम्बीनेशन देते है, या अतिसार के लिए एलो, पोडो, क्रोटोन टिग0 वो होमियोपैथिक सिद्धान्त या सिमिलिया, सीमिलिवस, क्यूरेन्टर के अनुसार चिकित्सा नहीं है
अब उन्हे एक सच्चा प्रयास के लिए अग्रसर होना चाहिए और होमियोपैथी के प्रति न्याय करना चाहिए ।
एक रोगी को 3 बजे सुबह जाड़ा लगकर 4 बजे बुखार हो गया, इसके साथ ही ठंडे पानी की प्यास भी जाड़ा लगने के साथ ही है,
जाड़ा बन्द हो गया, बुखार भी गायब हो गया, परन्तु भयंकर सिरदर्द शुरू हो गया,
रोगी सुस्त हो गया, एवं नींद खत्म हो गयी ।
पंखा चाहता है, परन्तु किसी हड्डी में दर्द नही और ना ही शरीर में कोई शिकायत भी नही करता ।
अब इस केस को ANALYSIS एवं REPERTORISE करते है ।
1. CHILL AT 3 AM : NIGHT MID NIGHT AFTER 3 HOURS ON WALKING - ONLY FERR.
2. CHILL, NIGHT, MID NIGHTAFTER: ARS,CALAD, HEP, OP, THUJA, COFF, DROS, MAG-S, MANG, MERC, MEZ, PETR, SIL, SUL.
3.CHILL [CHAPTER] - TIME 3 HOURS- ALOE, AM-M, CAUST, CEDRON, CINNI, CINA, EUP PERF, FERR, LYSS, N-MUR, RHUS TOX, SIL, YHIYA
4. SOME RUBRICS - 3AM : ARS [COMPLETE REP.] 3-5 AM - KALI CARB [COMPLETE -REP.]
5. FEVER[CHAPTER]: SUCCESSION OF STAGE CHILL FOLLOWED BY HEAT - 78 DRUGS
अब आप स्वंय देख रहें है,
इन रूबरिक देखकर ही मन भ्रमित हो जा रहा है,
अब आप अपने रोगी को कौन सी दवा देंगे और क्या ठीक करेंगे?
अन्य जो छोटे RUBRICS इसके साथ दिखेंगे वो है, पसीना के साथ , जाड़ा के पहले गर्मी लगना, पसीना के बाद प्यास, वगैरह-वगैरह,
ये तो हमें और CONFUSE कर दे रहें है ।
अलग-अलग रेपर्टरी के अलग VERSIONS में भिन्न-भिन्न दवाएँ नजर आती है ।
अब बेचारा होमियोपैथ क्या करे?
वो सबको छोड़कर 2, 4 या 6 दवाओं का समिश्रण तैयार करता है । जिन दवाओं में मुख्य रूप से ठण्ड, गर्मी, प्यास होती है इनको 2 - 2घंटे पर देने का आदेश देता है, पिर रोगो की तकलीफ 3-4 दिनों में कम जो जाती है और होमियोपैथ खुश हो जाता है कि उसकी दवा ने बुखार ठीक कर दिया और उसने रोगी को ऐलोपैथ के पास जाने से बचा लिया ।
यह होमियोपैथ जान ही नही पाता है कि मिश्रण ने VIRAL या BACTERIAL INFECTION को अन्दर ही दवा दिया है, जो कि अपने COURSE के अनुसार चल रहा है और कुछ समय बाद वह वापस आ जायेगा ।
जब मैने अपनी होमियोपैथिक कैरियर का शुरूआत किया था तो इन सभी का प्रयोग किया था, अपने आत्म विश्वास को वापस पाने के लिए सभी को आजमाया था, कई दवाएँ व कई-कई बार रिपीटिशन करता था जिसका परिणाम यह होता था कि केस ऐलोपैथों के पास चला जाता था, जो कि यह कहते हुए जाते थे कि सीरियस बीमारियों का ईलाज होमियोपैथी में है ही नहीं ।
हममें से सभी के साथ ऐसा ही हुआ है, लेकिन एक बात हम सभी मानते एवं जानते है कि किसी भी स्थिति और कैसी भी परिस्थिति हो, अगरRIGHT SIMILIMUM दवा मिल जाती तो एक केस भी हमारे पास से कहीं भी नही जाने वाला था।
अगर हमें रोगग्रस्त रोगी का ईलाज करते, ना कि रोगी में ग्रसित बीमारी का ।
सही मानिए,
अगर इस एक लाईन को सही तरह ‘‘इसके भाव के साथ’’ समझ गयें, तो कोई रोग हमसे बच नही सकता और ना हमें डरा सकता है, क्योकि अब हमें रोग नही रोगी दिखाई देने लगेगा ।
तब ही हम अपनी चिकित्सा में रोगी के साथ, होमियोपैथी के साथ और साथ ही अपने साथ भी न्याय कर सकेंगे । ये चीजें हमारी उत्साह और साहस बढ़ाने वाली है, आइये, हम बीमारी से लगें ।
हमें ध्यान रखना होगा,
आज की नई MODERN MEDICINE को देखिये, जिसमें ‘‘टीकाकरण’’ भी है, यह होमियोपैथिक सि(न्त की देनें है, इसमें जरा भी संदेह नही होना चाहिए।
अब करोड़ रूपये का सवाल यह है कि अगर ऐलोपैथ, होमियोपैथिक को अपना सकते है जैसे कि TUBERCULOSIS से रक्षा के लिए TUBERCULAR BACILLI को रोगी को देते है और TETANOUS TOXID को TETANOUS ठीक करने में उपयोग कर है, और वो भी बार-बार नही बल्कि 3-3 महीनों पर एक खुराक का डोज देते है और जिससे इन्सान स्वस्थ रहता है, तो क्यों नही हम होमियोपैथ अपने ‘‘सि(ान्तों’’ पर भरोसा करते है?
जब एक ऐलोपैथ, एकल औषध् सि(ान्त एवं एक डोज पर विश्वास करने लगे है
हम इन सबके बाद, किसी रोगी की रक्षा करने के लिए 1 या 2 दवाओं की एक साथ क्यों जरूरत पड़ती है?
जिनका की सि(ान्त ही है, एक दवा और एक खुराक ।
आईये, वापस अपने केस पर चलते है,
यहाँ इस केस में ठण्ड, ठण्ड का समय या ठण्ड का प्रकार, सिरदर्द पसीना का समय ये महत्वपूर्ण तो है पर ज्यादा नही ।
यह जाड़ा और कपकपी सिर्फ बीमारी का एक लक्षण है और एक साधरण प्रक्रिया है, गर्मी उत्पन्न होने के एहसास का ।
यह अपने आप ही पैदा होता है, जब कोई व्यक्ति रोग के गिरपफत में होता है ।
CHILL और SHIVERING का उत्पन्न होना को मान लें शरीर की एक ऐसी प्रक्रिया जिसके कारण गर्मी उत्पन्न होने की व्यवस्था शुरू हो रही है । ऐसा इसलिए होता है कि शरीर जड़त्व पैदा कर, गर्मी उत्पन्न करता है क्योंकि शरीर उस गर्मी से BACTERIA या VIRUS या PARACITE को खत्म करना चाहता है ।
यह शरीर की अपनी व्यवस्था है, अपने आप को बचाने के लिए।
इसमें कोई संदेह नही है कि अलग-अलग व्यक्ति में अलग तरह की सुरक्षा की व्यवस्था होती है, पर इस रोगी की रेपर्टरी से दवा SELECT करना सही नही हो सकता हे बल्कि CONFUSION बढ़ा रहा है ।
अगर इन सबको ध्यान में नही रखेंगे तो क्या दवा PRESCRIBE करेंगे ।
हम लोग रोगी व्यक्ति के ईलाज में ध्यान दें
व्यक्ति या उसके व्यक्तित्व में जो परिवत्र्तन आया है, उसे समझे तभी SIMILIMUM दें सकेंगे ।
NO DOUBT , प्रत्येक लक्षण, चाहे वो दर्द हो या जाड़ा या किसी तरह का बुखार, यह रोगी व्यक्ति का प्रतिनिध्त्वि करते है, लेकिन इसके कुछ और भी प्रतिनिध् , जो इसका प्रतिनिध्त्वि करते हैं और ये होते हैं, मुख्य प्रतिनिध् िजो VITAL FORCE के है । पर नयी बीमारी में जिसको की अन्य मुख्य लक्षणों के साथ जोड़कर SIMILIMUM तक पहुँचाते है ।
डा0 अशोक गुप्ता
क्लिनिक, गंज नं-2 इलमराम चैक, संयुक्त अस्पताल के सामने, बेतिया, प० चम्पारण
मो०: 9931093995
यह एक GOLDEN RULE है ।
कोई जो कि सफल होमियोपैथिक चिकित्सक बनना चाहता है, उन्हें अनावश्यक दवाओं को देने से बचना चाहिए ।
ऐसी जगह पर हमें सोचना चाहिए कि ‘‘कब दवा दें’’ और ‘कब’ ना दें ।
होमियोपैथी में हजारों किताबें मेटेरिया-मेडिका के रूप में हैं, यहाँ तक कि आर्गेनन और फलास्फी, जो हमें दवा PRESCRIBE करने के लिए ‘‘गाईड’’ करते हैं ।
यह नहीं बता पाते कि कब ‘‘दवा’’ देनी चाहिए ।
केश नं0-1
एक रोगी अतिसार से पीड़ित हो मेरे पास आया, और बोला कि डाक्टर साहब, आज तीसरा दिन है मै इसकों भुगत रहा हूँ ।
दो दिन से यही हाल है, रोज लगभग 25-30 पखाने हो रहें है , बिल्कुल पानी की तरह एवं कभी पीले । और कुछ खाँउ, तब तो जरूर जान पड़ता है अगर थोड़ा देर भी हो जाये तो पखाना मेरे रोकने से नही रूकने वाला है।
जब रोगी से पूछा गया कि-तुम परसो ही क्यों नही आ गये ?
तो जवाब मिला कि एक तो ना मुझे कही जाने की शक्ति थी और ना ही पखाना मेरे CONTROL में था कि आपके पास 2 घंटा इंतजार करता । तब आज कैसे आ गये-मेरा अगला प्रश्न था ।
वह बोला-आज मैने ना कुछ खाया और ना कुछ पीया है, इसीलिए पखाना नही लगा है।
दो दिन तक बहुत कमजोरी थी, कल से पखाने की बारम्बारता में कमी भी आई है और आज सुबह से कुछ खाने की ईच्छा भी बनी है एवं आज सिर्फ 3 ही पखाने हुए है । रात को अच्छी नींद के कारण मुझ में चलने की शक्ति भी आई है, इसी वजह से आज आया हूँ।
नया सवाल मैने रोगी से पूछा कि क्या तुम्हे सचमुच भूख लग रही है या जबरदस्ती तुम खुद कुछ खाना चाहते हो ।
नहीं-नहीं, आज सचमुच में 3 दिन के बाद मैने नास्ता किया है ।
उपरोक्त केस में,
अतिसार निश्चित रूप से कुछ IN FACTION के कारण या TOXIN आ जाने के कारण [खाने के साथ या अन्य तरीके से] ।
अब हुआ यह कि शरीर ने उसको अपने स्तर निष्क्रिय करना चाहा, मगर वह निष्क्रिय नही हुआ, और शरीर उसको सह भी नही पा रहा है, यह चीज अगर शरीर में रहेगा तो शरीर को नुकसान पहुँचा सकता है, तब शरीर अपनी सुरक्षा के मद्देनजर, उस TOXIN को बाहर फेकना शुरू करता है, जो कि हमारे सामने अतिसार के रूप में आया ।
सत्य यह है कि अतिसार जो पैदा हुआ वह शरीर की अपनी सुरक्षा के कारण हुआ, तभी जाकर शरीर स्वंय ही CURE हो सका ।
यह CURE तभी आया जब शरीर से TOXIN बाहर निकल गया और उसकी जगह CURE पहुँच गया तब अपने आप ही रोगी अच्छा लगने लगा, कमजोरी कम हुई, अच्छी नींद आयी, पखाना कम जो गया और उसमें शक्ति का संचार हो गया और उसकी भूख भी वापस हो गयी। सामान्यतः स्वास्थ्य का यही मापदंड है कि काम करने की ईच्छा जगे,
काम करने की शक्ति आ जाये
खाना खाने की स्वतः ईच्छा हो ना कि जबरदस्ती
और इन सभी से ज्यादा महत्वपूर्ण है नींद का आना ।
अगर यह सभी कुछ हो रहा हो तो अब यह कहने कि जरूरत ही नही कि पखाना रूक जायेगा। नही-नही ‘‘पखाना रूक जाना’’ यहाँ सही शब्द नही हे बल्कि यह कहना ठीक होगा कि अब 24 घंटो के अन्दर पखाना सामान्य हो जायेगा । अब इस रोगी को सिपर्फ PL देकर कहना होगा कि जाओ, तुम्हारा पखाना कल से सामान्य हो जायेगा ।
आपकी भविष्यवाणी सच हो सकती है, अगर आप PHYSIOLOGY OF MAN को ठीक से समझते है, तो ।
आपके रोगी के अन्दर भी एक डाक्टर है, उसको भी आपको सम्मान देना होगा। अगर वह रोगी को CURE की पथ पर ले जा रहा है, तो किसी को भी हक नही है, उसमें व्यवधन डालने का , चाहे वह होमियोपैथ हो अथवा एलोपैथ ।
क्योंकि वह जानता है कि शरीर के लिए उत्तम क्या है ?
केस न0-2
एक बच्चे को 4 दिन से बुखार था, जिसे मेरे पास ईलाज के लिए लाया गया । बच्चा सुस्त था, रात को बुरी तरह खांसी आती थी, साथ ही थोड़ा-थोड़ा पानी की प्यास । जब इस बच्चे को होमियोपैथी एवं ऐलोपैथी से ईलाज के पहले लाया जाता तो आप कौन सी दवा देते उसे, लेकिन उसे इसी स्थिति में दवा की जरूरत है?
सबसे पहले यह जानना होगा कि बुखार पिछले 3 दिनों में कभी उतरा था या नही ?
दुसरी बात का पता लगायेगें कि क्या इसके क्रियाशीलता में कोई कमी आयी है या नही ?
तीसरी बात - क्या बच्चा कुछ खाने के लिए माँग कर रहा है या नहीं ?
अगर हाँ तो बच्चा निश्चित रूप से CURE की दिशा में अग्रसर हो गया है ।
अगर बच्चा कल की अपेक्षा आज खेल रहा है और खाने के लिए मांग कर रहा है, तो इसका सापफ मतलब है कि बच्चा अपने-आप स्वस्थ हो रहा है ;अगर अभी बुखार है भी तो अगर इस स्थिति में ऐलोपैथ को बुलाकर VIRAL INFECTION के लिए कोई दवा दी जा रही है तो यह अपराध् है ।
इस स्थिति में कोई भी दवा की जायेगी तो बच्चे को बुखार के साथ नई बीमारी शुरू हो जायेगी और RECOVERY दूर चली जायेगी ।
हमें व्यक्ति के INTERNAL CURATIVE MECHANISM का सम्मान करना चाहिए।
SINGLE REMEDY SINGLE DOSE
अगर आप चाहते है कि आपकी चिकित्सा से चमत्कार हो, अगर इसे स्वंय अपनी आँखो के सामने देखना चाहते है,
अगर आप टायफाइड बुखार को 24 घंटे में खत्म करना चाहते हैं,
अगर निमोनिया को 48-72 घंटो में ठीक करना चाहते हो, [RADIOLOGICALLY],
अगर पेशाव के 100-135 पस-सेल्स को 48 घंटो के भीतर गायब देखना चाहते हो, या
अगर अपनी चिकित्सा से एलोपैथों को आश्चर्यचकित कर देना चाहते हो, तो इसका सिर्फ और सिर्फ एक ही रास्ता है- ‘‘सदृश औषध् की एक मात्रा’’
वो चिकित्सक जो बुखार के कई दवाओं के मिश्रण, पेटेन्ट और वायो कम्बीनेशन देते है, या अतिसार के लिए एलो, पोडो, क्रोटोन टिग0 वो होमियोपैथिक सिद्धान्त या सिमिलिया, सीमिलिवस, क्यूरेन्टर के अनुसार चिकित्सा नहीं है
अब उन्हे एक सच्चा प्रयास के लिए अग्रसर होना चाहिए और होमियोपैथी के प्रति न्याय करना चाहिए ।
एक रोगी को 3 बजे सुबह जाड़ा लगकर 4 बजे बुखार हो गया, इसके साथ ही ठंडे पानी की प्यास भी जाड़ा लगने के साथ ही है,
जाड़ा बन्द हो गया, बुखार भी गायब हो गया, परन्तु भयंकर सिरदर्द शुरू हो गया,
रोगी सुस्त हो गया, एवं नींद खत्म हो गयी ।
पंखा चाहता है, परन्तु किसी हड्डी में दर्द नही और ना ही शरीर में कोई शिकायत भी नही करता ।
अब इस केस को ANALYSIS एवं REPERTORISE करते है ।
1. CHILL AT 3 AM : NIGHT MID NIGHT AFTER 3 HOURS ON WALKING - ONLY FERR.
2. CHILL, NIGHT, MID NIGHTAFTER: ARS,CALAD, HEP, OP, THUJA, COFF, DROS, MAG-S, MANG, MERC, MEZ, PETR, SIL, SUL.
3.CHILL [CHAPTER] - TIME 3 HOURS- ALOE, AM-M, CAUST, CEDRON, CINNI, CINA, EUP PERF, FERR, LYSS, N-MUR, RHUS TOX, SIL, YHIYA
4. SOME RUBRICS - 3AM : ARS [COMPLETE REP.] 3-5 AM - KALI CARB [COMPLETE -REP.]
5. FEVER[CHAPTER]: SUCCESSION OF STAGE CHILL FOLLOWED BY HEAT - 78 DRUGS
अब आप स्वंय देख रहें है,
इन रूबरिक देखकर ही मन भ्रमित हो जा रहा है,
अब आप अपने रोगी को कौन सी दवा देंगे और क्या ठीक करेंगे?
अन्य जो छोटे RUBRICS इसके साथ दिखेंगे वो है, पसीना के साथ , जाड़ा के पहले गर्मी लगना, पसीना के बाद प्यास, वगैरह-वगैरह,
ये तो हमें और CONFUSE कर दे रहें है ।
अलग-अलग रेपर्टरी के अलग VERSIONS में भिन्न-भिन्न दवाएँ नजर आती है ।
अब बेचारा होमियोपैथ क्या करे?
वो सबको छोड़कर 2, 4 या 6 दवाओं का समिश्रण तैयार करता है । जिन दवाओं में मुख्य रूप से ठण्ड, गर्मी, प्यास होती है इनको 2 - 2घंटे पर देने का आदेश देता है, पिर रोगो की तकलीफ 3-4 दिनों में कम जो जाती है और होमियोपैथ खुश हो जाता है कि उसकी दवा ने बुखार ठीक कर दिया और उसने रोगी को ऐलोपैथ के पास जाने से बचा लिया ।
यह होमियोपैथ जान ही नही पाता है कि मिश्रण ने VIRAL या BACTERIAL INFECTION को अन्दर ही दवा दिया है, जो कि अपने COURSE के अनुसार चल रहा है और कुछ समय बाद वह वापस आ जायेगा ।
जब मैने अपनी होमियोपैथिक कैरियर का शुरूआत किया था तो इन सभी का प्रयोग किया था, अपने आत्म विश्वास को वापस पाने के लिए सभी को आजमाया था, कई दवाएँ व कई-कई बार रिपीटिशन करता था जिसका परिणाम यह होता था कि केस ऐलोपैथों के पास चला जाता था, जो कि यह कहते हुए जाते थे कि सीरियस बीमारियों का ईलाज होमियोपैथी में है ही नहीं ।
हममें से सभी के साथ ऐसा ही हुआ है, लेकिन एक बात हम सभी मानते एवं जानते है कि किसी भी स्थिति और कैसी भी परिस्थिति हो, अगरRIGHT SIMILIMUM दवा मिल जाती तो एक केस भी हमारे पास से कहीं भी नही जाने वाला था।
अगर हमें रोगग्रस्त रोगी का ईलाज करते, ना कि रोगी में ग्रसित बीमारी का ।
सही मानिए,
अगर इस एक लाईन को सही तरह ‘‘इसके भाव के साथ’’ समझ गयें, तो कोई रोग हमसे बच नही सकता और ना हमें डरा सकता है, क्योकि अब हमें रोग नही रोगी दिखाई देने लगेगा ।
तब ही हम अपनी चिकित्सा में रोगी के साथ, होमियोपैथी के साथ और साथ ही अपने साथ भी न्याय कर सकेंगे । ये चीजें हमारी उत्साह और साहस बढ़ाने वाली है, आइये, हम बीमारी से लगें ।
हमें ध्यान रखना होगा,
आज की नई MODERN MEDICINE को देखिये, जिसमें ‘‘टीकाकरण’’ भी है, यह होमियोपैथिक सि(न्त की देनें है, इसमें जरा भी संदेह नही होना चाहिए।
अब करोड़ रूपये का सवाल यह है कि अगर ऐलोपैथ, होमियोपैथिक को अपना सकते है जैसे कि TUBERCULOSIS से रक्षा के लिए TUBERCULAR BACILLI को रोगी को देते है और TETANOUS TOXID को TETANOUS ठीक करने में उपयोग कर है, और वो भी बार-बार नही बल्कि 3-3 महीनों पर एक खुराक का डोज देते है और जिससे इन्सान स्वस्थ रहता है, तो क्यों नही हम होमियोपैथ अपने ‘‘सि(ान्तों’’ पर भरोसा करते है?
जब एक ऐलोपैथ, एकल औषध् सि(ान्त एवं एक डोज पर विश्वास करने लगे है
हम इन सबके बाद, किसी रोगी की रक्षा करने के लिए 1 या 2 दवाओं की एक साथ क्यों जरूरत पड़ती है?
जिनका की सि(ान्त ही है, एक दवा और एक खुराक ।
आईये, वापस अपने केस पर चलते है,
यहाँ इस केस में ठण्ड, ठण्ड का समय या ठण्ड का प्रकार, सिरदर्द पसीना का समय ये महत्वपूर्ण तो है पर ज्यादा नही ।
यह जाड़ा और कपकपी सिर्फ बीमारी का एक लक्षण है और एक साधरण प्रक्रिया है, गर्मी उत्पन्न होने के एहसास का ।
यह अपने आप ही पैदा होता है, जब कोई व्यक्ति रोग के गिरपफत में होता है ।
CHILL और SHIVERING का उत्पन्न होना को मान लें शरीर की एक ऐसी प्रक्रिया जिसके कारण गर्मी उत्पन्न होने की व्यवस्था शुरू हो रही है । ऐसा इसलिए होता है कि शरीर जड़त्व पैदा कर, गर्मी उत्पन्न करता है क्योंकि शरीर उस गर्मी से BACTERIA या VIRUS या PARACITE को खत्म करना चाहता है ।
यह शरीर की अपनी व्यवस्था है, अपने आप को बचाने के लिए।
इसमें कोई संदेह नही है कि अलग-अलग व्यक्ति में अलग तरह की सुरक्षा की व्यवस्था होती है, पर इस रोगी की रेपर्टरी से दवा SELECT करना सही नही हो सकता हे बल्कि CONFUSION बढ़ा रहा है ।
अगर इन सबको ध्यान में नही रखेंगे तो क्या दवा PRESCRIBE करेंगे ।
हम लोग रोगी व्यक्ति के ईलाज में ध्यान दें
व्यक्ति या उसके व्यक्तित्व में जो परिवत्र्तन आया है, उसे समझे तभी SIMILIMUM दें सकेंगे ।
NO DOUBT , प्रत्येक लक्षण, चाहे वो दर्द हो या जाड़ा या किसी तरह का बुखार, यह रोगी व्यक्ति का प्रतिनिध्त्वि करते है, लेकिन इसके कुछ और भी प्रतिनिध् , जो इसका प्रतिनिध्त्वि करते हैं और ये होते हैं, मुख्य प्रतिनिध् िजो VITAL FORCE के है । पर नयी बीमारी में जिसको की अन्य मुख्य लक्षणों के साथ जोड़कर SIMILIMUM तक पहुँचाते है ।
डा0 अशोक गुप्ता
क्लिनिक, गंज नं-2 इलमराम चैक, संयुक्त अस्पताल के सामने, बेतिया, प० चम्पारण
मो०: 9931093995
टी0वी0 एक खुराक में ठीक
टी0वी0 एक खुराक में ठीक
एक रोगी जिसे दिन के समय बुखार आता था और दिनों-दिन जिसका वजन गिर रहा था, एक मेरे पुराने रोगी का रिश्तेदार था, जिससे मिलने के बाद रोगी ने कहा कि देखिए ना, मुझे लगता है कि किसी ने मेरे पर जादू कर दिया है, एक दिन किसी ने मेरे घर में ताबीज पफेंक भी दिया और उसी दिन से मेरा शरीर गल रहा है ।
तब मेरे पुराने रोगी ने कहा कि आप मेरे साथ मेरे डाक्टर साहब के पास चलिए वो ठीक कर देंगे । उक्त वक्तव्य के साथ रोगी अपने रिश्तेदार के साथ क्लिनिक में आते ही बताये ।
मैंने रोगी को चेक किया एवं Anti-tubercular test लिख दिया और रोगी को Stramonium-30/1 एक खुराक खिला दिया ।
अगली बार रोगी Test Report लेकर आया, जिसको देखने के बाद पता चला किReport-Positive था यानि रोगी को Tubercularsis हो चूँका था ।
मैंने रोगी से पूछा-क्या हाल है?
रोगी ने कहा-डाoसाहब, आपकी एक खुराक दवा ने कमाल कर दिया है, अब मैं अच्छा महसूस कर रहा हूँ और डाक्टर साहब मैंने अपना वजन भी चेक किया हूँ-1kg किलो वजन भी बढ़ गया है ।
मैंने रोगी से कहा-बहुत अच्छा है, पहले वाली दवा लगातार समय से खाते रहिए ।
रोगी बीच-बीच में 3-4 बार आकर ठीक होने की रिपोर्ट देता है और SL के साथ Continue करते रहा ।
एक महीने के बाद पिफर Anti-Tubercular test कराने को बोला,
रोगी जब रिपोर्ट लेकर आया तो रिपोर्ट देखकर मैं दंग रह गया क्योंकि रिपोर्ट Nigative था ।
Tuberculosis जैसे रोग में इतनी जल्दी रोग मुक्त होना, इसे होमियोपैथी की अद्भूत उपलब्ध् नहीं तो और क्या कहेंगे ?
इस केस में निम्न रूबरिक लिये गये थे ।
1. Delusion-injured, about to recieve is
2. Fear, injured of being
3. Superstitious
4. Delusion, House, surrounded, house is.
एक रोगी जिसे दिन के समय बुखार आता था और दिनों-दिन जिसका वजन गिर रहा था, एक मेरे पुराने रोगी का रिश्तेदार था, जिससे मिलने के बाद रोगी ने कहा कि देखिए ना, मुझे लगता है कि किसी ने मेरे पर जादू कर दिया है, एक दिन किसी ने मेरे घर में ताबीज पफेंक भी दिया और उसी दिन से मेरा शरीर गल रहा है ।
तब मेरे पुराने रोगी ने कहा कि आप मेरे साथ मेरे डाक्टर साहब के पास चलिए वो ठीक कर देंगे । उक्त वक्तव्य के साथ रोगी अपने रिश्तेदार के साथ क्लिनिक में आते ही बताये ।
मैंने रोगी को चेक किया एवं Anti-tubercular test लिख दिया और रोगी को Stramonium-30/1 एक खुराक खिला दिया ।
अगली बार रोगी Test Report लेकर आया, जिसको देखने के बाद पता चला किReport-Positive था यानि रोगी को Tubercularsis हो चूँका था ।
मैंने रोगी से पूछा-क्या हाल है?
रोगी ने कहा-डाoसाहब, आपकी एक खुराक दवा ने कमाल कर दिया है, अब मैं अच्छा महसूस कर रहा हूँ और डाक्टर साहब मैंने अपना वजन भी चेक किया हूँ-1kg किलो वजन भी बढ़ गया है ।
मैंने रोगी से कहा-बहुत अच्छा है, पहले वाली दवा लगातार समय से खाते रहिए ।
रोगी बीच-बीच में 3-4 बार आकर ठीक होने की रिपोर्ट देता है और SL के साथ Continue करते रहा ।
एक महीने के बाद पिफर Anti-Tubercular test कराने को बोला,
रोगी जब रिपोर्ट लेकर आया तो रिपोर्ट देखकर मैं दंग रह गया क्योंकि रिपोर्ट Nigative था ।
Tuberculosis जैसे रोग में इतनी जल्दी रोग मुक्त होना, इसे होमियोपैथी की अद्भूत उपलब्ध् नहीं तो और क्या कहेंगे ?
इस केस में निम्न रूबरिक लिये गये थे ।
1. Delusion-injured, about to recieve is
2. Fear, injured of being
3. Superstitious
4. Delusion, House, surrounded, house is.
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