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Developement of HomoeopathyDr. Hahnemann was basically an Allopathic doctor who had left the practice because of side effects and temporary relief of symptoms of Allopathy. For his bread and butter he started translating the medical books to different languages. While he was translating Cullen's Materia Medica he came across a herbal medicine called Cinchona. It was written that Cinchona can cure Malaria and it can also produce symptoms similar to Malaria on healthy individuals. This point clicked with Hahnemann and he prepared an extract of Cinchona bark and took it himself. To his surprise he developed some symptoms of malaria like chills and aching. He started doing the same experiment on different individuals and the result was the same. By this experiment Hahnemann came to know that any drug which can produce a set of symptoms on a healthy human being can be used to cure the similar symptoms in a diseased person. He gave Cinchona to various Malaria patients, the result was wonderful and a system called homoeopathy originated. Dr. Hahnemann prepared some other drugs using alcohol as a vehicle, started experimenting on different age groups and noted the symptoms produced in them. He proved nearly 30 drugs and the symptoms produced were written down systematically. The symptoms collected by drug proving were categorised in the order in a book form named Materia Medica Pura. He gave medicines to some patients and noticed that symptoms are coming back again which led him to understood that the cause for the disease should be treated. After doing experiments and observations he came to know that diseases are actually caused by some dynamic forces and he named them as miasms. He noticed that to cure a person completely these miasms should be eradicated using a similar dynamic force. This idea lead to anti-miasmatic drugs which are drugs having disease producing power similar to miasms. The principles of homoeopathy was written in book form which Hahnemann named The Organon of Medicine. Later on he started publishing these works and six editions of Organon were published. Right from the beginning of homoeopathy many doctors of other system started working against homoeopathy but who later on came to know the truth behind homoeopathy and started practising it. Physicians like Dr J T Kent, Dr Hering, and Dr. Boenonghausen followed Dr Hahnemann's mission and developed the system. They all started preparing other drugs on the basis of guidlines given by Hahnemann. Physicians came to know that by diluting the drug substance in spirit in a systematic way the medicinal power is increasing even though the quantity of drug decreases. Since diseases are due to dynamic causes the medicine also should be dynamic. By a process called potentisation the same drug in different levels of potencies were made. They found that by increasing the potency the penetrating power of medicine is increased so that it acts on a higher level than the usual material form of drugs used in other medical systems. This unique nature of homoeopathic medicine is the reason for the wonderful cures of even the mental diseases.
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