HOMCGOPATHY

system of thera- (1755-1843), a Ger. physician, the main theory of which is that a disease is cured by drugs which produce in a healthy person similar symptoms to those of the disease, the therapeutic effect of any drug being ascertained or ‘proved’ by administering it to healthy persons in gradually increasing doses. In regard to the dose of a drug which should be given in homoeopathic treatment opinions differ; but most homoeopathists are agreed that small doses are nece ary, while the drugs should be administered in the same form as when it was ‘proved.’ Hahnemann also promulgated a theory that all chronic diseases were due, directly or indirectly, to psora Gtch), syphilis, or sycosos (fig-warts) —a theory which has been entirely disproved with the advance of the science of medicine, but which has had the unforunate effect of a isting the opponents of homoeopathy to ridicule the main theory of the system, with which it has really no connection. Considerable succe has attended the introduction of homoeopathic methods of treatment, and according to its advocates, the development of serum therapy (e.g. in diphtheria, tetanus, plague) bears out the truth of the fundamental theory. In,