Similia Similibus Curentur

The fundamental principle of homeopathic treatment is the axiom similia similibus curentur, the like is cured by the like. Perhaps you have heard the old English saying "the hair of the dog".

It is often quoted by drunks, who thus rationalise using a small amount of the same alcoholic drink as they did the previous night, to overcome the hangover. In reality they are natural homeopaths. The principle of homeopathic treatment was known thousands of years ago. The Greek physician Hypocrites in 400 BC used remedies with similar effects to cure diseases. Curing the like by the like was the famous alchemist of the 16th Century, Paracelsus, who lived for a long time in Bohemia. And the method was more or less applied by whole generations of healing women, witch doctors and natural therapists. This is what basically happens: we know, for instance, that the deadly nightshade, Belladonna, will make a healthy person turn red, cause an instant fewer, a headache, a sore throat, sweating. If we give Belladonna to someone who is ill with similar symptoms, he could be quickly cured. Caution, however! Belladonna is poisonous. Therefore it is necessary that the dose be as small as possible, while still effective, so that we do not harm the patient. Otherwise the remedy could have dangerous side effects.

We have thus arrived at the second fundamental principle - the need to use as small a dose as possible. The founder of scientific homeopathy, the German practitioner Samuel Hahnemann, of whom there will much talk later, had developed a peculiar diluting procedure. He topped up the basic substance, the tincture of a raw remedy (the remedy dissolved in spirits), let\s say Belladonna, with ninety nine parts of distilled water mixed with spirits. He shook it up thoroughly and he transferred a mere one hundredth part of the vial\s content into another vial and again mixed it with ninety nine parts of water and spirit. And this he repeated ten times, thirty times, or even two hundred times. Our reason tells us that nothing of the basic substance could be left in the water. Some contemporary scientists say the same thing. The homeopaths say something else: the more diluted the substance, the more pervasive and deeper the effect on both the psyche and the body of the patient. And they prove it every day on millions of patients.