Homeopathy

System of medicine originated by Hahnemann, who regarded disease as a dynamic derangement of health. not as an entity, and taught that disease may be cured by a drug which produces a similar condition when administered to a well person, or that "like cures like"; that the efficiency of drugs is increased by their attenuation, that is, dilution with large amounts of some inert substance; that the mechanical proce es of attenuation "potential i zed" or developed their "spiritual power," and that the effect of small doses frequently repeated was much greater than that of larger amounts at le frequent intervals. Opponents of homeopathy contend that the effects of a drug upon the sick cannot be measured by those upon the well, that the majority of cures said to be due to homeopathy would have occurred without any treatment, and that disease must be regarded as more or le of an entity. Whether the theories of Hahnemann were right or wrong, any candid opponent must admit that he did good service in calling attention to many valuable drugs, such as belladonna, aconite, and nux vomica, to the utility of small doses frequently repeated, to the importance of experimenting as to the effects of drugs, to the greater value of fresh vegetable drugs over the dried, and to the importance of the careful preparation of medicines. At the present time the line between practical homeopathy and other systems is not very clearly defined, and members of all schools borrow freely from the experience of others.