What Is Homeopathy, Part 2

Family Guide to Homeopathy
by Dr. Andrew Lockie

(Page 2 of 3)

The Spread of Homeopathy

During the nineteenth century Hahnemann's ideas spread quickly from Germany across Europe and then to the Americas, and also eastward to Asia. Today homeopathy is well respected in some countries, notably in Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Greece, India (where it is recognized and supported by the state), South Africa, and South America, but mistrusted in others.

Homeopathy "arrived" in Britain in 1832 when a Dr. Hervey Quin began to minister to fashionable society from premises at 19 King Street in London's West End. Quin had traveled to Germany to consult Hahnemann on his own account and learned homeopathy from the Leipzig homeopaths. Later Quin became the first president of the British Homeopathic Society, founded in 1844. Thereafter, despite opposition from orthodox physicians, homeopathy steadily grew in popularity. Quin set up the first homeopathic hospital in London in 1850. The first royal patron of homeopathy was Queen Adelaide, consort of William IV, who, from 1835 until her death in 1849, was the patient of Dr. Ernst Stapf, one of Samuel Hahnemann's closest colleagues. Three very distinguished homeopathic physicians have served the present queen in the past, Dr. John Weir, Dr. Margery Blackie, and Dr. Charles Elliott. Currently, Dr. Ronald Davey holds this position.

In the United States the fire of homeopathy was lit by Dr. Constantine Hering (b. 1800). As well as formulating the Laws of Cure summarized below, he pioneered the use of "nosodes," remedies made not from plants or minerals but from diseased tissue or from bodily secretions. In 1838 he and his colleagues used a homeopathic preparation of infected sheep's spleen to cure anthrax, at one time an almost certainly fatal disease.

Materia Medicas and Repertories

Hahnemann originally published the results of his provings in the form of a book called a Materia Medica. This listed, under each remedy, the symptoms that the remedy produced in healthy people. Later work has increased the number of substances used as remedies to three thousand, although not all of these have been tested with the same thoroughness as Hahnemann's original investigations. The Materia Medicas of today contain not only details of symptoms from provings but also the effects of poisons from the science of toxicology and details of symptoms from clinical observations.

Most of the remedies found in Materia Medicas nowadays were discovered in the last century or in the early part of this century. Many homeopaths agree that there is an urgent need to update the information, in order to find out if the twentieth-century environment has changed people's responses to remedies. Some work has been done — in England, in mainland Europe, and in the United States — but there is still much to do.

Materia Medicas are used to find out which symptoms a remedy might cause. Homeopaths have also developed remedy finders or Repertories. In a repertory, there is a series of headings concerned with parts or systems of the body, such as mental, vertigo, head, eyes, nose, and so on down to toes. Under each heading there is a list of symptoms, such as pain, redness, or swelling. Alongside each symptom are printed all the remedies known to produce that symptom, together with any factors that may affect it. The symptoms are graded, with the most well proven in bold type, the second in italics, and the third in plain roman. In our repertory, or General Remedy Finder, I have stuck to a single grading system for simplicity.

Homeopathic Laws

The "Laws of Cure" were partly devised by the physician who established homeopathy in America, Dr. Constantine Hering. They state that cure takes place from the top of the body downward, from the inside outward, and from the most important organs to the least important. Cure takes place in reverse order to the onset of symptoms. Therefore, for example, an ill person will start to feel better emotionally before the physical symptoms disappear and a long-standing complaint will take longer to disappear than a recent one.

Other homeopathic laws state:

1. Small stimuli encourage living systems, medium stimuli impede them, and strong stimuli tend to stop or destroy them altogether (Arndt's law).

2. The quantity of action necessary to effect a change in nature is the least possible, and the decisive amount is always the minimum — perhaps an infinitesimal amount.

3. Functional symptoms are produced by the Vital Force in exact proportion to the profundity of the disturbance, and functional symptoms come before structural change. Remedy Finder, I have stuck to a single grading system for simplicity.

Constitutional Prescribing

Most people, when they are ill, suffer not only from the basic diagnostic symptoms of the disease but also from other symptoms that are specific to each person. In orthodox medicine, these individual symptoms are mostly unimportant. But in homeopathy, they are vital for giving the correct prescription. This is why different patients may receive different remedies for the same disease.

Many homeopaths who worked on the provings, especially the American, James Tyler Kent, noticed that different types of people reacted strongly to certain remedies and proposed that people could be placed in different categories, called "constitutional types." Homeopaths talk of, for example, "phosphoric types" (people who react strongly to phosphorus) or "Arsenicum album types" (those who react strongly to Arsenicum album). The belief is that people of one type share similarities in terms of body shape, character, and personality, and the sons of diseases from which they suffer. For instance, Natrum mur people tend to be pear-shaped, have a dark complexion, be fastidious and rigid in personality, keep themselves to themselves, crave salt, and suffer from constipation. Lycopodium types tend to be tall, gangly, and of stooped appearance, with an anxious expression, a craving for sweets, and a propensity to produce intestinal gas.

Of course, constitutional types have their limitations. In reality, each person is an individual, and so there are as many constitutional types as there are human beings, and account must be taken of the sum total of the person's inherited predispositions, past illnesses, diet, general reactions to the environment, intellectual and emotional features, and general attitude toward life. This is what is meant in this book by "constitutional treatment."

Finding a Homeopathic Practitioner

In the United States today there are several kinds of homeopathic practitioners. Some practitioners have been trained in the more orthodox forms of medicine and have an M.D. (Allopathic Physician) or D.O. (Osteopathic Physician) degree; they are licensed to practice the full scope of medicine and have added the extra dimension of homeopathy to their practice. Another group comprises nontraditional health care practitioners who have a D.C. (Chiropractor), N.D. (Naturopathic Physician), or O.M.D. (Doctor of Oriental Medicine — Acupuncture and Herbs) degree and also use homeopathy. There are also R.N.s (Nurses), D.D.S.s (Dentists), and D.P.M.s (Podiatrists) who use homeopathy in their treatment of patients. Last there are lay practitioners who have learned homeopathy in a variety of ways but lack the clinical experience of the full spectrum of disease. These practitioners, though many are excellent in the practice of classical homeopathy, often tread the borderline of practicing medicine without a license.

The best way to find a qualified practitioner is to write to the National Center for Homeopathy or the International Foundation for Homeopathy. Both organizations maintain a list of qualified practitioners. In order to be listed by the International Foundation for Homeopathy you must be a health professional and have taken their course in homeopathy. The N.C.H. also requires a practitioner to be a licensed health professional, but only demands an expressed interest in homeopathy in order to be listed.

The American Institute of Homeopathy is an organization of orthodox licensed physicians (M.D. or D.O.) who also practice homeopathy. They also have a mechanism by which they examine and certify physicians in homeotherapeutics through the American Board of Homeotherapeutics. Physicians who have passed this rigorous exam may use the initials D.Ht. after their name.

You may be put in touch with a homeopath who uses less conventional methods. There are many concepts that go under the name of homeopathy today. Practitioners are the best guides to the methods that will best suit your needs. If you discover that your homeopath's philosophy and practice do not meet your expectations, you are of course free to find another practitioner.

The homeopathic practitioner must put the care and cure of his or her patients above any particular beliefs about which branch of homeopathy is right. As Hahnemann himself said, it is not so much the theories about the causation and treatment of illness that are important, but the results.

The Consultation

At your first consultation with a homeopath, there are a great many questions to answer. He or she will want to know about the symptoms of your illness and what affects them, about your medical history from your mother's pregnancy onward, your appetite, likes and dislikes, and the regularity of your bodily functions.

Some questions are aimed at deciding which constitutional group you fit into. Your activities, occupational and recreational, are discussed, along with your emotional state.

The homeopath will prescribe a remedy, which he may dispense himself or which you can obtain from a homeopathic pharmacist; he may also give you advice on any changes you should make in your lifestyle and on the sort of diet you should follow. Hahnemann stated that nutrition was one of the principal factors that could modify the body's response to disease. He was very strict about what his patients ate, especially those with chronic illness.

In a second consultation where constitutional treatment is concerned the homeopath must interpret your response to the prescription in detail, and decide how to continue treatment.

Copyright © 1989 by Dr. Andrew Lockie

About the Author

Dr. Andrew Lockie has had seventeen years of medical experience both as a GP and as a homeopathic physician. He is a homeopathic consultant to the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine and has written numerous articles for both the medical and lay press. He has recently been appointed information officer at the Faculty of Homeopathy in London where he is responsible for handling public relations.