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Homeopathy for Pregnancy, Birth, and Your Baby's First Year
By Miranda Castro St. Martin's Press
Copyright © 1993 Miranda Castro
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4668-9055-8
CHAPTER 1
UNDERSTANDING AND USING HOMEOPATHY
The History of Homeopathy
SAMUEL HAHNEMANN (1755–1843)
Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, was born in Meissen in Saxony on 10 April 1755 into an era of change and political upheaval. The Seven Years' War, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars threw Europe into turmoil; the Industrial Revolution brought social change and technological and scientific advances; there was also a revolution in thought – the political, spiritual and intellectual movement now known as the Enlightenment. The freedom of thought and opinion it encouraged was important for the birth and development of homeopathy.
Hahnemann was born into a poor and devout family who encouraged their son in his education. He qualified as a doctor in 1791 and practised medicine in Leipzig for about nine years, but he became increasingly disillusioned by the cruel and ineffective treatments of his time (blood-letting, purging, poisonous drugs with horrendous side effects) and gave up his practice, concentrating instead on study, research, writing and translation.
One of the major works he translated was Dr William Cullen's A Treatise on Materia Medica. Cullen (1710–90) was an Edinburgh teacher, physician and chemist, and his book included an essay on Peruvian bark or Cinchona (which homeopaths call China), from which quinine, the treatment for malaria, is derived. Cullen attributed Cinchona 's ability to cure malaria, with its symptoms of periodic fever, sweating and palpitations, to its bitterness. Hahnemann, sceptical of this explanation, tested small doses on himself:
I took by way of an experiment, twice a day, four drachms of good China. My feet, finger ends, etc., at first became quite cold; I grew languid and drowsy; then my heart began to palpitate, and my pulse grew hard and small; intolerable anxiety, trembling, prostration throughout all my limbs; then pulsation, in the head, redness of my cheeks, thirst, and, in short, all these symptoms which are ordinarily characteristic of intermittent fever, made their appearance, one after the other, yet without the peculiar chilly, shivering rigor. Briefly, even those symptoms which are of regular occurrence and especially characteristic – as the stupidity of mind, the kind of rigidity in all the limbs, but above all the numb, disagreeable sensation, which seems to have its seat in the periosteum, over every bone in the whole body – all these made their appearance. This paroxysm lasted two or three hours each time, and recurred, if I repeated this dose, not otherwise; I discontinued it and was in good health.
In other words, Hahnemann observed that Cinchona produced in a healthy person the symptoms of malaria, the very disease that it was known to cure, a discovery which was a cornerstone in the development of homeopathy.
In the fifth century BC, Hippocrates, the 'father of medicine', wrote that there were two methods of healing: by 'contraries' and by 'similars'. Although country people throughout the world have always used the principle of cure by 'similars' successfully in their own folk-medicines, the standard medical assumption has always been that if the body produced a symptom the appropriate treatment would be an antidote, an opposite or 'contrary' medicine to that symptom. For example, constipation would be treated with laxatives, which produce diarrhoea.
During the sixteenth century, Paracelsus, a German doctor known as the 'father of chemistry', made new departures in medicine and pharmacology based on chemical experiments and direct observation of nature. He set the stage for the germ theory by stating that the causes of disease were external, seed-like factors introduced into the body through air, food and drink. He believed in the natural recuperative power of the human body and saw nature in every person as a vital spirit. He investigated the law of similars and by using only one medicine at a time and giving careful attention to dosage, noted that a very small dose could overcome a great disease.
Hahnemann embarked on further experiments which confirmed this principle. By observing the symptoms any substance produced when given to a healthy person, Hahnemann found the healing properties of that substance. This testing procedure was called 'proving'.
He referred to it as similia similibus curentur, or 'let like be cured with like'; this principle became the first law of a system of healing he called 'homeopathy', from the Greek homoios (similar) and pathos (suffering or disease), in order to differentiate it from orthodox medicine, which he called 'allopathy', meaning 'opposite suffering'.
Over several years he conducted many provings on his family and friends, and also studied accounts of the symptoms shown by victims of accidental poisonings. Finally he set up in medical practice again, but with a different basis for his prescriptions. He used the material he had gathered from the provings and for each of his patients looked for the similimum – the remedy whose 'symptom picture', based on the provings, most matched that of the patient. His methods were met with disbelief and ridicule from his colleagues, but the patients flowed in and his astonishing results verified his theory.
He also differed from conventional practitioners in giving only one remedy at a time. In an age when apothecaries made fortunes by mixing numerous substances, many of which were highly noxious, this earned him many enemies.
Hahnemann did not stop there: dissatisfied with the side effects of his medicines, he experimented with smaller and smaller doses. He found, however, that when he diluted a medicine sufficiently to eradicate the side effects, it no longer effected a cure. He developed a new method of dilution: instead of simply stirring the substance after each dilution he shook it vigorously. This shaking he called 'succussion' and the resultant liquid a 'potentised remedy'. He found now that not only did the remedy lack side effects but the more he diluted it using succussion, the more effectively his remedy cured. He believed that the shaking released the strength or energy of the substance and dissipated its toxic effects.
Hahnemann numbered the potentised remedies according to the amount of times they had been diluted: a remedy diluted six times (taking out one hundredth of the liquid each time and adding 99/100 alcohol) was called a 6C (see here). Initially he prescribed remedies that had been diluted up to the sixth potency; then he experimented with the higher dilutions, finding them more effective still. Eventually he prescribed up to the 30th potency, and his followers took dilution even further.
This process of dilution incurred further derision from the medical establishment, who could not explain, and therefore could not accept, how anything so dilute could have any effect. Yet despite opposition, homeopathy survived and spread remarkably quickly – because it was remarkably effective.
Samuel Hahnemann lived before the germ theory of disease had been proposed, before thermometers, the X-ray and antibiotics made medicine appear increasingly 'scientific'. Yet he himself was an innovative scientist of sufficient intellect and culture to combine science and metaphysics. Consciously and unconsciously, he drew on the traditions of German folk-medicine, alchemy and magic, as well as the developments in chemistry, pathology, pharmaceutics and medicine which were beginning to make diagnosis and treatment both more accurate and more humane. In later life he became a religious free-thinker, believing that God permeated every living thing, and that he was divinely chosen and guided in his work. His development of a safe and effective system of medicine has given the world a priceless gift.
Hahnemann's literary output was prodigious. He proved about a hundred remedies, wrote over seventy original works, translated many texts on a wide range of subjects and also corresponded widely. In 1810 he published the first edition of The Organon of Rational Medicine (later The Organon of the Healing Art), which ran to six editions, each one modified and expanded. In it he set out clearly the homeopathic philosophy. In the same year, when Leipzig was besieged in the Napoleonic campaigns, his treatments of the survivors of the siege and the victims of the great typhus epidemic that followed were highly successful and further increased his reputation.
Between 1811 and 1821 Hahnemann published his Materia Medica Pura in six volumes; this represented the results of his provings – thousands of symptoms for sixty-six remedies. In 1828 came Chronic Diseases and Their Homeopathic Cure, in which he elaborated on the philosophy of The Organon, added more remedies, discussed the use of higher potencies and introduced the concept of 'miasms' to account for the failure of some patients to respond to treatment with remedies which clearly matched their symptoms. Among such people he found a family history of certain diseases and was able to link a tendency to a particular condition to the patient's 'inherited' health. He developed a way of treating these blocks to health homeopathically (see Miasms).
In 1831 cholera swept through central Europe. Hahnemann advocated the remedy Camphor in the early stages andCuprum metallicum, Veratrum album, Bryonia alba or Rhus toxicodendron in the later stages. He also stressed that clothing and bedding should be heated to destroy 'all known infectious matters' and advised cleanliness, ventilation and disinfection of the rooms, and quarantine. (These ideas were far ahead of his time: the work of Pasteur on the germ theory of disease and that of Lister on disinfection was still to come.) Cholera was more successfully treated with homeopathy than with orthodox medicine; mortality rates varied between 2.4 and 21.1 per cent compared with 50 per cent or more with conventional treatment.
He gave lectures about his theory at the university, which often deteriorated into violent tirades against current medical practices earning him the nickname 'Raging Hurricane'. A few medical practitioners were prepared to go against mainstream opinion, trained under him and took his teachings out into the world.
In the 1820s, when homeopathy arrived in the USA, the state of orthodox medicine was, if anything, worse than it was in Europe. The practice of almost completely draining the body of blood (four-fifths was let) was advocated, even for children. A drug know as 'Calomel' (Mercurius chloride), which had been introduced originally to cure syphilis, was used as a standard purgative; its side effects were loss of teeth, seizure of the jaws and death from mercury poisoning.
Homeopathy was easily accepted, and flourished. Homeopaths were seen to be well-educated, hardworking people, and the metaphysical background appealed to many church people. It was adopted in particular by followers of Swedenborg (1689–1772), a visionary who believed himself a vehicle for a new religious revelation. His writings appealed to people who were studying the new sciences, such as Darwinism, and who were concerned about the conflict between science and orthodox religion. For many homeopaths this blend of reason and mysticism was ideal.
In 1846 the American Medical Association was founded, which adopted a code of ethics forbidding its members to consult homeopaths. Local and state medical societies were told to purge themselves of homeopaths and their sympathisers, but homeopathy had already made a positive mark on orthodox medicine: blood-letting abated, medical training improved and several homeopathic remedies found their way into allopathic prescribing. Public demand for homeopathic treatment continued.
The 1860s through to the 1880s saw the flowering of American homeopathy. Practitioners proved every conceivable remedy, often at great cost to their own health. There were some fifty-six homeopathic hospitals, thirteen lunatic asylums, nine children's hospitals and fifteen sanatoriums. The homeopathic training colleges, unlike their allopathic counterparts, excluded neither women nor black people.
In 1826 a young well-connected English doctor called Frederick Quin studied with Hahnemann and on his return to London set up a homeopathic practice, treating many famous people, including Dickens and Thackeray. He established the British Homoeopathic Society (later the Faculty of Homoeopathy), and in 1849 founded the London Homoeopathic Hospital, where, during the cholera outbreak of 1854, deaths were a mere 16.4 per cent, compared with the 50 per cent average for other hospitals. The Board of Health suppressed this fact, explaining, 'The figures would give sanction to a practice opposed to the maintenance of truth and the progress of science.'
After the Crimean War a medical bill was introduced in Parliament to outlaw homeopathy, but Quin's friends in the House of Lords secured a saving amendment.
If Quin was the practical and fashionable force behind homeopathy in Britain, the two most influential writers and teachers were Robert Dudgeon, who translated Hahnemann's texts into English, and Richard Hughes, a mild man with a conciliatory attitude towards the medical establishment as well as a rigorous and scientific attitude towards homeopathy. Queen Adelaide, wife of King William IV, brought homeopathy from her native Saxony to the British royal family. The royal family maintains an active involvement in homeopathy to this day. The Queen has her own consultant homeopath and carries her 'black box' of remedies with her on all her travels.
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
By the time of Hahnemann's death in 1843, homeopathy was established throughout the world, although the mutual antagonism and distrust between homeopaths and allopaths continued to hinder its progress.
Developments in medicine around the close of the nineteenth century strengthened the orthodox camp: science had proved the existence of microbes, the old practices Hahnemann had condemned were diminishing, and powerful drugs were being developed. The pharmaceutical industry, helped by the power of advertising, became an effective and wealthy lobbying force behind allopathic medicine. Meanwhile the homeopathic establishment was weakened by internal division, and the public – and many homeopaths – were drawn to the side that could put its case most clearly.
The American Medical Association moved to close many homeopathic teaching institutions and mounted a huge anti- homeopathy propaganda campaign. Consequently, by 1918 the number of homeopathic hospitals in the USA had dwindled to seven. Great optimism accompanied the introduction of penicillin: doctors thought that a medical nirvana had been reached. They regarded the taking of a homeopathic case as too time-consuming – the five- minute prescription and a cure for every ill had arrived. Little did they realise that it was the dawn of a medical nemesis.
Homeopathy has spread rapidly throughout the world. It is popular over Asia, particularly in India where it is now officially recognised as a separate branch of medicine and is fully supported by the government. Although it is poorly represented in some European countries, other parts of Europe show a fast-growing interest. In France and Germany homeopathic medicines are readily available in most pharmacies and there are homeopathic consultants at some hospitals. Homeopathy is highly respected in many South American countries, with Mexico, Argentina and Brazil at the forefront. It is spreading in Australia, New Zealand, Greece and Israel although it is non-existent in the Arab states.
In 1946, when the National Health Service was established, homeopathy was included as an officially approved method of treatment and in Britain today its popularity is increasing rapidly. It is still practised under the auspices of the National Health in five hospitals in Bristol, Liverpool, Glasgow, Tunbridge Wells and London, and by some GPs, although the limit of time on consultations often means that antibiotics are handed out with the homeopathic medicines just in case the latter do not work.
Professional homeopaths run private practices and many participate in almost-free clinics for the needy. The Society of Homoeopaths, the organisation which represents the professional homeopath in this country, promotes the highest standards. From small beginnings in 1974, the number of registered members – who use the initials R.S.Hom. (Registered member) or F.S.Hom. (Fellow) after their names – increases annually and a dozen colleges train several hundred professional homeopaths each year.
Principles and Concepts
The highest ideal of therapy is to restore health rapidly, gently, permanently; to remove and destroy the whole disease in the shortest, surest, least harmful way, according to clearly comprehensible principles.
So it was that Samuel Hahnemann, in The Organon, defined his goals for a new system of medicine. It is hard to imagine a description that could express more concisely the needs of both practitioner and patient.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Homeopathy for Pregnancy, Birth, and Your Baby's First Year by Miranda Castro. Copyright © 1993 Miranda Castro. Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press.
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