Hahnemann, Samuel

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

ha'neh-man, Samuel (1755-1843), a German physician, the founder of homeopathy. He was born at Meissen, Saxony, in which city his father was a skillful decorator of the sort of china known as Dresden ware. It was intended that the boy should follow his father's calling, but he took to the profession of medicine. He studied at Leipsic, where he supported himself by translating medical works. He was familiar with Latin, Greek, the chief modern languages of Europe, and with Arabic as well. A translation from English into German of Cullen's Materia Medica, a description of the drugs then known, appears to have been the turning point in his life. His attention was arrested by the article on quinine. He experimented on himself, finding that a dose of quinine produced symptoms of ague, for which that drug is a sovereign remedy. Experiments with other drugs led him to the conclusion that medicine cures diseases by producing symptoms similar to those of the disease itself, that is to say, by exciting a mild form of the disease itself. Expressed in Latin, this principle runs, "Similia similibus curantur." The corresponding English expression is "Like cures like." He published a Materia Medica of his own, and a number of works describing his system of medicine. In 1820 he was forbidden to teach, publish, or practice until the time of his death. In 1855, on the centennial anniversary of his birth, a monument was erected to his memory at Leipsic, the scene of his former triumphs and humiliations. The name suggested by him for his system of remedies was homeopathy, a Greek word meaning likeness of condition or feeling. His adherents and followers have spread over the civilized world. They maintain a large number of medical colleges and form a considerable body of practitioners. In the public mind, homeopathy is associated with the giving of drugs in infinitesimal quantities. The school is popularly credited with having influenced the so-called regular or allopathic physicians to use drugs less freely. See Medicine ; Disease