homœopathy

[Gr. homoios =like, similar, and pat he =a pa ive state, suffering, or pathos =suffering.] Med.: The system of medicine which aims at cur ing diseases by administering medicines which produce symptoms similar to those which they are designed to remove. The Latin dictum on the subject is "Similia similibus curantur." Its founder was Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), born at Mei en in Upper Saxony. In 1790, while investigating the operation of Peruvian bark in intermittent fevers, he found that a dose of the bark which he took produced in himself phenomena like those of the fever it was designed to combat. Pursuing his experiments, he believed he had discovered a general law that like was cured by like, and in 1810 published his Organon of the Healing Art , in which he explained his system, calling it for the first time homœopathy. Thus to rub the affected part with snow is beneficial in frostbite, so are heated spirits of wine or oil of turpentine in burns. He appealed also to the effects of vaccination in preventing or mitigating small-pox. This, however, curing like by like, though there is a certain analogy between the two cases. Hahnemann and his followers have attempted experimentally to ascertain what therapeutic agent to prescribe in each case. Experience has shown them that the doses should be exceedingly minute. The great majority of medical men reject the system, though it has many advocates here and abroad. Homœopathy is opposed to Heteropathy or Allopathy (q. v.).