The founder of homoeopathy was Dr. Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann.
He was born on 10 April 1755 in Meißen in the Principality of Sachsen as the son of a porcelain painting master.
He was highly gifted in languages, and it was with translations that he earned enough to support himself and his studies as a student trainee. He spoke Greek, Latin, English, French, Italian, Hebrew and Arabic. Through his employment as a translator he gained deep insights into the pharmacological and chemical literature of his time. He added his own critical remarks and comments to the texts which he translated, in keeping with his motto: Aude sapere - dare to be wise.
He studied Medicine in Leipzig. However, since there was neither a hospital nor any practical teaching there, in 1777 he moved on to Vienna, where the most beautiful hospital of Europe was located. After this he lived in Erlangen, and in 1779 he completed his studies. He opened a medical practice, where, however, the profession of a doctor increasingly disappointed him. At the time the daily handwork of a doctor consisted of radical therapeutic procedures. Excessive blood-lettings, clysters and other extractive measures weakened the patients without any apparent use. Medicinal therapy consisted of mixing together a large number of medicines in heroic doses. The greatest number of components found on a prescription of the time was 400. Their effect had neither been tested in any way, nor investigated by experience. These mixtures of numerous components bore the name "galenical preparations", after Galen. Even if the situation has considerably changed by our day, galenical preparations have still not entirely disappeared.
As with many discoveries it was chance which brought Hahnemann on the track of success. During the translation of the Materia Medica by Cullen (an important Scottish pharmacologist) he came across the speculative claim of the author that cinchona (the active ingredient of cinchona bark) healed tertian fever by virtue of its effect of strengthening the stomach. Since the healing of the wife of the Peruvian Vice-King in the 17th century, the use of cinchona against intermittent fevers was widespread, being sometimes successful and sometimes unsuccessful.
In 1790 Hahnemann began to test the claim made by Cullen: over the course of several days he took high doses of cinchona and soon felt the symptoms of an intermittent fever, identical to precisely those fevers which could be healed with cinchona.
And so came the birth of homoeopathy. The first principle is found by experiment: the effect of a medicine is investigated by testing it on healthy people.
He repeated the experiment, did the same with quicksilver, with belladonna, with digitalis and other substances, and found a striking agreement.
In 1796 Hahnemann published his results in Hufeland's journal under the title "Experiment on a new principle to find out the healing power of medicinal substances" and drew the conclusion that like could be cured by like (Similia similibus curentur).
In the Organon der Heilkunst (his main work, the title of which can be roughly translated as "Medicinal Primer" from Lat. organum, tool) Hahnemann formulated this principle in the following way: "In order to provide a gentle, rapid, certain and lasting cure, in every case of illness be sure to choose a medicine which causes a similar kind of suffering to the kind which it is intended to cure!“ (Rule of similarity).
There was some understanding of the principle of similarity many years earlier: in the Indus Valley a rational system of medicine seems to have been introduced between the 4th and 3rd millenium BC. In the Ayurveda book, which contains the teachings of the old Indian medicine, the principle of similarity is mentioned as a method of treatment.
The Greek doctor Hippocrates (460 - 361 BC) indicates two kinds of methods of treatment: one is according to similarities, and the other according to contrasts. The phrase "Vis medicatrix naturae" also comes from him. This means "the healing power of nature" - here the human nature is meant. After this principle had subsequently been forgotten for nearly 200 years, it was only rediscovered by Paracelsus (1493 - 1541), who rejected the principle of contrarity in favour of the principle of similarity, and defended the latter vehemently.
Hahnemann's achievement was to have saved the principle of similarity from being forgotten, but most of all he provided evidence for it by his experiments. He was the first person to organise the medicine tests in such a way that the specific effects of a medicine on a person could be systematically derived, and to describe the fact that the symptoms observed decide the therapeutic application. He was the one to develop this principle into a medical system. Hahnemann is not the inventor of homoeopathy, since the homoeopathic principle is a natural law. His achievement was to make this natural law accessible to a therapeutic system.
The result of his findings and investigations can be found in his most important works: "Chronische Krankheiten" (Chronic illnesses), "Reine Arzneimittellehre" (Pure Medicinal Teachings) and the "Organon der Heilkunde" ("Medicinal Primer"). The latter appeared in six editions, each time reworked in accordance with his increasing understanding of the natural processes and regularities of sickness and health.
Even during Hahnemann's lifetime, homoeopathy spread out within various countries in Europe. The most well-known pupils of Hahnemann are Müller, Bönninghausen, Stapf and Hering.
Hering emigrated to Philadelphia and founded the first homoeopathic academy in the world there. Homoeopathy experienced an unparalleled heyday in America. The most significant representatives of this American School are Kent, Allen, Dewey, Nash, Farrington and Clark.
From this "classic" homoeopathic school developed the Swiss school, with Pierre Schmidt, Flury, Künzli and Vögeli, the Latin American schools with Paschero and Ortega, and the Indian school (Sankaran).
In direct succession from Hahnemann, after Jahr and Bönninghausen a French school developed, with Julian, Voisin and Pierre Schmidt.
In Germany "clinical" homoeopathy developed, which in accordance with our clinical diagnoses tends to work with tried and tested indications (Müller, Stauffer, Stiegele, Mezger, Leeser).
The Vienna School, after Mathias Dorcsi, attempts to achieve a synthesis of these two directions, which were formerly contrary to each other. What must be seen as a particular desire of the Vienna School was the intutive understanding of the whole, of the nature of the patient and of the homoeopathic medicines.
The differentiation into various directions, the emergence of an economically significant pharmaceutical industry, the successes of scientific medicine, the increasing influence of professional doctors' organisations as well as financial and training problems led again and again to homoeopathy being reduced to insignificance, which served as a proof for critics of homoeopathy that there is isn't anything to it.
Today the status of homoeopathy as a medicinal method is different in the individual countries, but there is no longer an official ban on it, as was the case up to a few years ago in many European countries under a communist regime.
It is most highly recognised in Germany, Austria (in both countries there is an additional qualification or diploma of the professional organisations) and in Great Britain, where the Royal Homoeopathic Hospital and the Faculty of Homoeopathy are the only homoeopathic university and the only homoeopathic university hospital in Europe.

 

Veterinary homoeopathy:

Veterinary homoeopathy has a tradition almost as long as homoeopathy in human medicine. The first publication dates back to the year 1815 (Donauer), or only five years after the publication of the first edition of the Organon. The actual upsurge, however, did not begin until 1829, with a talk by Hahnemann in Leipzig before the royal economical society. The latter had the homeopathic medicinal care of animals as its topic and was also occupied with medicinal tests on animals which Hahnehmann wanted to differentiate according to their respective state of health.
In the time which followed there appeared numerous veterinary homoeopathic publications by veterinary surgeons, doctors and lay people (Lux, Weber, Sommer and others). The circle of veterinary surgeons working with homoeopathy then expanded rapidly, and in the periodical journals there began a period of lively and serious literary activity which spanned from theoretical questions of homoeopathic medicine to articles on homoeopathic pharmacopeia, medical records and critical discussions. In total we are aware of around a thousand veterinary homoeopathic works, of which most are from the previous century.
In 1837 J.C.L. Genzke, a veterinary surgeon from Neustrelitz, published a book entitled "Homöopathische Arzneimittellehre für Thierärzte" (Homoeopathic Pharmacology for Veterinary Surgeons), and soon afterwards appeared the three-volume "Hülfsbuch: Der homöopathische Thierarzt" (Aid for the Homoeopathic Veterinary Surgeon) by F.A. Günther, which by 1844 was already in its fourth edition.
J.A.F. Theodor Träger, originally from Prussia, was active in Austria. He worked in the Prussian miliary studs for years as a homoeopathic veterinary surgeon, but then turned to Austria. He was offered the post of the chief veterinary surgeon over the whole Emperor's military studs, which however was blocked by the Vienna Veterinary Faculty.
Another veterinary surgeon one might name who worked homoeopathically in the Austrian-Hungarian territories in the previous century is Carl-Ludwig Böhm, who was also one of the most fruitful in terms of literature.
Around the turn of the century there was less activity surrounding veterinary homoeopathy. Just as before, there were veterinary surgeons and laypeople who used homoeopathy, newspapers which reported on it, and books which taught them, yet the great conflict seemed to have been fought out.
It was not until after the war that a "Homoeopathic Biological Working Group for Veterinary Surgeons" was founded in Germany under the leadership of Dr. Hans Wolter. Numerous publications and events followed, and at the universities many investigations into veterinary homoeopathy took place.
In Switzerland the Schweizerische Verein Homöopathischer Ärzte (Swiss Association of Homoeopathic Doctors) has offered lectures at the University of Zürich since the seventies (lecturer Jost Künzli) which are also open to veterinary surgeons. In 1983 the Arbeitsgruppe für Veterinär-Akupunktur und Homöopathie (Working Group for Veterinary Acupuncture and Homoeopathy) was founded, which since then has regularly held seminars for veterinary surgeons.
In Austria in 1987 the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Homöopathie und Akupunktur (AHA, or Working Group for Homoeopathy and Acupuncture) was founded, from which the Österreichische Gesellschaft für Veterinärmedizinische Homöopathie (ÖGVH, or Austrian Society for Veterinary Homoeopathy) was then formed in 1994. This took on the task of training students and veterinary surgeons interested in homoeopathy. In 1995 the title of specialist veterinary surgeon for veterinary homoeopathy was decided on by the Delegated Assembly of veterinary surgeons of Austria.