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Every science has certain fundamental
principles which guide the whole system. Homeopathy as a science of medical
treatment has a philosophy of its own and its therapeutics is based on
certain fundamental principles. These are:
- Law of Similia
- Law of Simplex
- Law of Minimum
- Doctrine of Drug Proving
- Theory of Chronic Disease
- Theory of Vital Force
- Doctrine of Drug-Dynamisation
These fundamental principles are elaborated in the following sections. |
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Law of Similia |
| Homeopathy is a system of medicine founded on
a definite law 'Similia Similibus Curantur' which means 'like cures like'.
The word Homeopathy is a Greek derivation where 'homeos' means 'similar and
pathos means 'suffering'. So Homeopathy may be defined as the therapeutic
method of symptom-similarity. The recognition of this law was there even
before Hahneman. Paracelsus, Hippocrates, and ancient ayurvedic texts have
on occasions mentioned this law. But it was Hahneman who recognized the
universality of this law and lifted it from oblivion to make it the basis of
a complete system of medicine. According to this system, the choice of the
medicine is fundamentally based on the principle that the medicine must have
the capability of producing most similar symptoms of the disease to be cured
in healthy persons. In aphorism 26 of 'Organon of Medicine', Hahneman states
this law: "A weaker dynamic affection is permanently extinguished in the
living organism by a stronger one, if the latter (whilst differing in kind)
is very similar to the former in its manifestations." |
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Law of Simplex - The Single Remedy |
Hahneman in aphorisms 272-274 of ' Organon of
Medicine' states that only one single, simple medicinal substance is to be
administered in a given case of time. This is due to the following reasons:
- The homeopathic remedies were proved singly, and the Materia Medica
was built up on the observed effects of drugs given singly, either in
planned provings or in accidental provings.
- Only one remedy can be the most similar at any given time to the
condition of any given patient.
- Moreover, if more than one remedy is used the doctor will never know
which element was curative and our source of future guidance is obscured.
- If more than one drug is given in one prescription the possibility of
synergistic action cannot be ruled out, but it cannot be argued that the
effect will be the sum total of the effects of the separate drugs. The
ingredient drugs may even result in interactions that may have adverse
effects in the body. A mixture of more than one remedy in a single dose
would constitute a new remedy which would require to be proved as such for
a proper estimate of its probable effects.
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Law of Minimum |
The suitableness of a medicine for any given
case does not depend on its accurate homeopathic selection alone, but
likewise on the proper size of dose too. Under this principle we give
medicine to the patients in very minute doses. The minute dose means that
quantity of a medicine which is though smallest in quantity produces the
least possible excitation of the vital force and yet sufficient to effect
the necessary change in it(§ 246). The quantity is minimum, yet appropriate,
for a gentle remedial effect. This concept of minimum dose lead to the
discovery of a practical process called potentisation. Administration of the
minimum dose has the following advantages:
- To avoid unwanted aggravation
- The specific dynamic action which produces the uncommon,
characteristic, distinguished symptoms of the drug, is produced by the
minimum quantity of drug.
- The smallness of the dose does not allow the drug to do any organic
damage nor there is any risk of drug addiction and drug effects.
- The concept of minimum dose can be verified by Arndt-Schultz law that
small doses stimulate, medium doses paralyze and large doses kill. I other
words, the action of small and very large doses of the same substance on
living matter is opposite.
- The Law of Least Action, formulated by Maupertius, the French
mathematician, states : "The quantity of action necessary to affect any
change in nature is the least possible, the decisive amount is always a
minimum, an infinitesimal."
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