The History of Homeopathy
by Safih Choat

The evolution of any branch of science has never occurred through the isolated acts of a single scientist. Even if a discovery is attributed to a single person, it is certainly based on previous knowledge.

This is what happened with homeopathy, built on concepts such as the principle of similars, infinitesimal doses, the single medicine, among others.

These precepts were already known by many doctors, from Hippocrates to Hahnemann, with several of them using them mainly – those of similar ones – in their treatments and observations 1 .

The oldest mention of treatment by the law of similars was found in a papyrus from 1500 BC.

However, this principle was applied in a very subjective way and not through observation of the symptoms caused in the organism, as was introduced experimentally by Hahnemann.

The work of Hippocrates (460-350 BC) is a milestone in medical science and art, and this enlightened Greek physician is considered the Father of Medicine 2 . In his time, Hippocrates introduced the methodical evaluation of signs and symptoms as a fundamental basis for diagnosis.

In terms of treatment, he advocated that two therapeutic methods could be used successfully: “cure by opposites” (Contraria Contrariis Curentur), consolidated by Galen (129-199 AD) and Avicenna * (980-1037), which is the basis of allopathic medicine; and “cure by similars” (Similia Similibus Curentur), revived in the 16th century by Paracelsus ** (1493-1591) and consolidated by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann, when he created Homeopathy 3 .

In this article, Homeopathic Medicine is discussed solely and exclusively from a historical point of view.

To this end, we will focus on the history of medicine and emphasize the process of separating medicine into homeopathy and allopathy, which today constitute two completely distinct methods of therapeutic approach but which had the same origin in the works of Hippocrates.

ORIGINS OF HOMEOPATHIC MEDICINE

For Hippocrates, treatment consisted of three basic principles4 :

- Natura medicatrix — that nature is responsible for restoring the patient's health and it is up to the doctor to treat the patient by imitating nature, in order to bring him back to a perfect state of balance.

- Contraria Contrariis — this is the so-called law of opposites, in which symptoms are treated directly with measures contrary to them.

- Similia Similibus — this is the so-called law of similars; it said that the disease could be overcome by applying measures similar to the disease.

Hippocrates said that these two forms of treatment were effective in restoring health, therefore the law of opposites and the law of similars were not opposed in his thinking.

He always treated the patient comprehensively and rarely referred to the illness in isolation.

Galen, in the 2nd century, was the precursor of a medical doctrine that prevailed for approximately 1,500 years. It was based on treatment by opposites and the classification of disease and medicinal agents into four items — cold, hot, moist and dry — with the aim of facilitating prescription — for a so-called hot disease a so-called cold treatment was used.

This antagonism of forces (hot/cold; wet/dry) was often found in pre-Socratic Greek philosophy, and was prominent in the thought of the philosopher Heraclitus 5 .

In the 16th century, Galenic medicine was taught in the vast majority of medical schools.

This medical approach was mainly based on “healing by opposites”, that is, illnesses were treated using medicine that had the opposite effect.

Pain, for example, would be relieved with the use of sedatives, without any major concern about its origin.

The view of the human body was therefore completely mechanistic and, in a way, simplistic.

During this period, a large number of epidemics ravaged Europe, and the population had a short life expectancy.

The use of therapeutic techniques such as leeches, bloodletting, administration of vomitives, purgatives and sweating agents, among others, was widely accepted and used based on very fragile criteria.

Furthermore, some doctors did not differentiate the treatment method, believing that most diseases could be treated in the same way 6 .

At this point, Hippocrates' concepts were already fragmented, as the great doctors followed only one of the concepts — generally that of the opposites.

In this context, the revolutionary (but not new) ideas of Paracelsus emerged, presenting a vision totally opposite to the prevailing one, considering the human being as an integrated and harmonious whole, made up of mind and body.

He believed that the anima governed the organism, similar to the vital principle of homeopaths.

Paracelsus was a staunch opponent of “healing by opposites” (he even burned books written by Galen and Avicenna in a public square) and believed that an illness could be conveniently treated by similarities 7 .

Paracelsus also introduced the concept of dosage, since doctors administered massive amounts of drugs to patients, which ended up poisoning them. He also used new techniques for preparing medicines based on his knowledge of alchemy. He made numerous contributions to medicine and chemistry, introducing numerous medicines composed of inorganic and organic substances, some of which were still used until recently, such as opium (sedative), iron (antianemic) and mercury (antiseptic), among others. He merged medicine with astral forces. He rejected and publicly fought against classical science, which led to great intellectual isolation, since at the time his ideas were not recognized by other great men of science 8,9 .

Paracelsus determined a treatment based on the various signs and symptoms that the patient presented, following the law of similars. He prepared everything he prescribed and was against mixing medications, in addition to believing that drugs should be administered not by quantity, but mainly by their characteristics.

We thus find several similarities with Hahnemann's practice, despite the fact that he never referred to Paracelsus.

It is unlikely that Hahnemann was not familiar with the work of Paracelsus, since, in addition to translating countless books, he was a great scholar of the evolution of medicine; what he probably wanted was not to associate homeopathy with Paracelsus, for fear of suffering even more criticism — Paracelsus was considered the “cursed doctor”, for having fought the great masters followed by the doctors of his time (Machaon, Apollinus, Galen, Avicenna, Averroes and others), with a doctrine constantly linked to the occult.

The creator of homeopathy, Christian Frederich Samuel Hahnemann, was born on April 10, 1755 in the small town of Meissen, in the Electorate of Saxony (Germany). S

My father was a porcelain painter and his work was admired by the great lords of the time; despite this, he did not have a good financial situation.

In 1775, Hahnemann went to Leipzig, where he was allowed to attend classes at the university.

To pay for his studies, he translated medical books from English to German and taught other languages.

Although the University of Leipzig was excellent, it did not have the facilities for the clinical training that he so enjoyed, and so after two years of study he left for Vienna with the intention of practicing medicine.

There he gained experience with the famous Dr. Von Quarin, the royal physician.

His resources enabled him to stay for less than a year, when he was invited by the governor of Transylvania to catalogue his library and classify his coin collection. Hahnemann also became a sort of medical advisor and gave consultations, although he had not yet graduated.

He stayed in Transylvania for two years, until he managed to save enough money to enroll at the University of Erlangen in 1779, obtaining his medical degree that same year, at the age of 24. 10

Hahnemann practiced medicine for some time, but became dissatisfied, like Paracelsus, with the results obtained with traditional medicine, choosing to earn his living by translating medical books.

In 1790, at the age of 35, while translating the Materia Medica by William Cullen (1710-1790), he was intrigued by the explanations given by the latter for the therapeutic effects of quinine.

He tried it on himself, observing manifestations quite similar to those presented by patients with malaria.

He then concluded that quinine was used to treat malaria because it produced similar symptoms in healthy people.

Encouraged by these results, he also used belladonna, digitalis, mercury and other compounds, obtaining similar results.

Supported by his experimental evidence and Hippocratic philosophy (Similia similibus curentur), Hahnemann devised a new form of treatment, based on healing by similars 11 .

From that moment on, Hahnemann began to research the “law of similars”.

In 1796 he published Essay on a new principle for ascertaining the curative powers of medicinal substances, in which he summarized his experiments and reported some facts previously observed by other authors.

That same year, he returned to the medical profession, treating his patients by applying his new ideas.

The year 1796 became known as the starting point of homeopathy.

Therefore, the foundations of homeopathic medicine are created, which diverge, in essence, from the allopathic therapeutic concepts of traditional medicine.

It is worth noting that Hahnemannian conceptions revived much of the Hippocratic tradition – attention to diet, the importance of climatic, ecological and psychological factors and the existence of vital energy.

Since some plants and substances were toxic and sometimes had significant adverse effects, Hahnemann decided to dilute the medicines as much as possible so that their toxicity would be reduced.

With the promising results of the new therapy, he decided to return to clinical practice for good.

The story goes that at this time there occurred what some consider to be a “triumph of chance and intelligent observation”, which strongly boosted the study of homeopathy. Hahnemann owned a small cart, with which he traveled throughout the interior of the country to treat the population.

He began to notice that patients who lived further away were cured more effectively and quickly, and he associated this with the movement the cart made as it passed over the holes in the road.

He then began to shake the medicines (dynamize) and base their preparation on two precepts: dilution and dynamization. From that moment on, the results obtained were very positive, and Homeopathic Medicine began to spread and gain popularity 12 .

In 1810, he published the first edition of the Organon of the Art of Healing, a book that went through five other editions. The sixth edition was not published until 1921, many years after his death.

The Organon came to be considered the “Bible of homeopathy.” In this work, Hahnemann cites 440 physicians who used the principle of similars, from Hippocrates to his own day.

In 1811, he published the first volume of Materia Medica Pura, which he completed the following year and consisted of six volumes.

From 1812 onwards, he began teaching at the University of Leipzig to students, admirers and former doctors. To do so, he had to defend his thesis at the medical school, giving a masterful presentation on the use of Veratrum album to a packed audience, demonstrating a profound knowledge of the history of medical thought.

After his dissertation, the committee, made up of numerous opponents of his doctrine, had to admit his great erudition and approve him without reservations. He gained a large number of followers and, in 1828, published another great work, entitled Chronic Diseases.

At that time, homeopathy had already reached several other regions of the world; its creator, however, had not yet been recognized.

Hahnemann lived in Paris from 1835 until his death at the age of 88 on July 2, 1843, after which he was recognized by numerous physicians who had previously opposed his teachings.

In Leipzig, where he suffered severe criticism and persecution, doctors and pharmacists erected a bronze monument in his honor in 1851 12 .

There were many followers of Hahnemann who, after his death, continued his work.

However, those who contributed most to the development of the foundations of homeopathy were Hering and Kent. Constantin Hering was born on January 1, 1800, in Saxony, Germany, and entered the Academy of Surgery in Dresden in 1817 and the Faculty of Medicine in Leipzig in 1820.

In 1833, he went to live in the United States, where he founded several homeopathic institutes, taught and wrote a great work, Materia Medica, composed of ten volumes, maintaining, for many years, correspondence with Hahnemann, which were also later published.

Hering attended the lectures given by Hahnemann at the Leipzig Medical School and was the creator of a treatment law that bears his name — “Hering's Law” —, first presented by Hahnemann himself in one of the editions of his book Chronic Diseases, in 1845.

He died in 1880, having acquired great prestige in the medical field 13. James Tyler Kent was born on March 31, 1849, in New York, United States, and died in 1916.

He wrote several books that are still used today, such as Repertoire, Materia Medica, Homeopathic Philosophy, among others that were translated into several languages and are still reprinted today.

He created several techniques and concepts, as well as a new way of thinking about homeopathy, which many followed, being called the “Kentian School”.

His ideas contributed to the dissemination of a somewhat esoteric image of homeopathy, as his philosophy was purely intuitive 14 .

In the mid-19th century, several disease-causing microorganisms began to be discovered, leading to the belief that every illness had a specific material cause.

From then on, Pasteur, Kock and Lister introduced a more scientific approach to medicine and related sciences.

At this time, medical sciences began to acquire more materialist profiles, resulting from the influences originating from the Cartesian Philosophy of René Descartes (1596-1650) *** .

Concepts such as vital energy and integration between physical, mind and emotion are almost lost.

Illustrious scientists and thinkers, such as Isaac Newton and Francis Bacon, began to declare that science was beginning to take the wrong path 15 ...

Many of the ideas that could not be proven experimentally were disproved.

In this way, homeopathic medicine suffered a great negative impact, since proof of its mechanism could not (and in part still cannot) be obtained. What has sustained it to this day are individual experiences of its effectiveness in medical practice.

Currently, thanks to technological advances, modern equipment and the greater development of physical chemistry, it is slowly being possible to propose some mechanisms capable of explaining the action of homeopathic medicines. ***

Cartesian philosophy conceived the universe as a gigantic mechanism and living beings as complex automatons, governed by immutable physical laws, completely devoid of any psychic or spiritual principle. This mechanistic paradigm dominated all scientific thought for three centuries, later giving rise to atheism.

HOMEOPATHY IN BRAZIL

In 1841, Benoit-Jules Mure (who became known as Benedict) founded the Homeopathic School of Rio de Janeiro.

In 1842, the Homeopathic Institute of Saí (Santa Catarina) was created and the first homeopathic pharmacy was opened in Rio de Janeiro (founded by Bento Mure and João Vicente Martins).

Three years later, the Homeopathic School of Brazil was created under the direction of João Vicente Martins, which was replaced by the Medical-Homeopathic Academy of Brazil in 1847. Bento Mure received severe criticism from the medical community for trying to spread ideas that were completely unknown in the country.

Disgusted with the situation, he chose to leave Brazil seven years after his arrival, leaving behind, however, the seed he had sown (he made many disciples who continued his work).

Among the great Brazilian names who became followers of homeopathy, during its implementation in Brazil, we can mention11,13 : João Vicente Martins (1810-1854); Domingos de Azevedo Duque-Estrada (1812-1900); Sabino Olegário Ludgero Pinho (1820-1869); Maximiano Marques de Carvalho (1820-1896); Antonio do Rego (1820-1896); Saturnino Soares de Meireles (1828-1909); Manuel Antonio Marques de Faria (1835-1893); Alexandre José de Melo Morais (1843-1919); Joaquim Duarte Murtinho (1848-1911); Cassio Barbosa de Resende (1879-1971).

In 1858, the Hospital of the Third Order of Penance opened a homeopathic ward, followed by the Hospital of Portuguese Charity (1859), Hospital of the Third Order of Carmel (1873), Santa Casa de Misericórdia (1883), Central Army Hospital (1902) and Central Navy Hospital (1909).

At the beginning of the century (1914), Licínio Cardoso founded the Hahnemannian Faculty in Rio de Janeiro and, attached to it, the Homeopathic Hospital of Rio de Janeiro (currently the School of Medicine and Surgery of Uni-Rio, essentially allopathic).

In 1966, during the government of Castello Branco, the inclusion of Homeopathic Pharmacotechnics in all Pharmacy faculties in Brazil was made mandatory.

In 1977, the first official edition of the Brazilian Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia was published. In 1980, the Federal Council of Medicine officially recognized homeopathy as a medical specialty, thus ceasing to be an “alternative therapy”.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

When homeopathy first emerged, it consisted of a revolutionary therapeutic technique (although with an old foundation) that used an innovative method to determine the action of a medicine — this was tested on the human body itself —, in addition to using other advanced treatment techniques for the time.

This was followed by the spread of homeopathic knowledge throughout much of the world.

However, after Hahnemann's death, the same language used in his time was maintained, and homeopathy could not be considered from the perspective of the new emerging scientific perspectives — there was no way to prove the foundations of this branch of medicine.

This mentality, initially innovative, became outdated, with the same principles persisting to this day.

Despite reports that homeopathic medicines had significant effects, homeopathy began to be questioned because there was no plausible mechanism, leading to its progressive isolation, which accentuated prejudice.

This was probably the factor that most contributed to the decline of homeopathy in relation to allopathy and its erroneous and inappropriate name of “alternative medicine”.

Currently, despite all the prejudices, homeopathy has evolved substantially in a short period of time.

Although not all homeopaths share this modernization, it is irreversible.

Furthermore, the scientific character that has been acquired is undeniable, so that, for the next century, we can expect a definitive understanding of the therapeutic mechanisms of homeopathy.

Notes, Bibliographic References & Sources used to compose the article:

* AVICENA (Ibn Sina) is considered one of the greatest scholars of Islam, being recognized mainly for his philosophical work (critical synthesis of the works of Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus). At the age of 16, Avicenna was highly regarded for his talent as a doctor, having been one of the great disseminators of the work of Galen.

** PARACELSUS (Aureolus-Phillippe-Teophrastus Bombast von Hohenhein) was born in Switzerland. His father was a doctor and instructed him from an early age in the secrets of the art of healing. However, Paracelsus soon rebelled against these teachings – considered by him to be outdated – becoming one of the most controversial doctors and alchemists of all time.

*** Cartesian Philosophy conceived the universe as a gigantic mechanism and living beings as complex automatons, governed by immutable physical laws, completely devoid of any psychic or spiritual principle. This mechanistic paradigm dominated all scientific thought for three centuries, later giving rise to atheism.

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Rev Ass Med Brasil 1997; 43(4): 347-51

AD CORRÊA, *R. SIQUEIRA-BATISTA, **LEM QUINTAS\
Carlos Chagas Filho Institute of Biophysics, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; *Faculty of Medical Sciences, State University of Rio de Janeiro; **Department of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ.