Samuel Hahnemann | Biography

Samuel Hahnemann is the founder of homeopathy, the concept that a disease can be cured by infinitesimal doses of a substance that in larger quantities mimics disease symptoms. During Hahnemann's life time, physicians routinely used bleeding and purging to treat disease, and many medicines were more likely to poison than to cure. Hahnemann was horrified by the toll such treatment took on patients and developed homeopathic medicine as an alternative.

Hahnemann was born on April 10, 1755, to Christian Gottfried and Johanna Christian Hahnemann, in Meissen, Germany. Hahnemann was highly intelligent but not physically strong as a child. His early schooling was often interrupted so he could help to support his family. Even when in school, his family also had trouble affording his tuition. When he was 15, his teachers proposed giving this bright student lessons for free. He was especially gifted in languages and later turned to translation for part of his income. After finishing school in Meissen in 1775, Hahnemann enrolled in the University of Leipzig to study medicine. However, he was frustrated with the quality of the teaching and left in late 1776 for Vienna. In Vienna, Hahnemann received medical training but was only able to remain a short time, again due to lack of funds. Nearly two years later, once he had saved up enough money, he entered the University of Erlangen and completed his medical studies. He was awarded his degree in August 1779 and began to practice medicine in 1780.

His first position was in Hettstedt, a small German mining town. While there, he witnessed an outbreak of a fever which intensified his disgust with current medical practices. He next moved to Dessau, where he focused his energy on chemistry. In Dessau, he met his future wife, Johanna Küchler, whom he married on November 17, 1782. The first of their 10 children was born the following year. Hahnemann and his young family initially lived in Gommern, where he continued to study chemistry and wrote extensively on the topic. In 1785, Hahnemann and his family moved to Dresden where the opportunities to study chemistry and medicine were greater.

The first hints of homeopathic medicine appeared in a 1788 paper authored by Hahnemann in which he recommended a highly diluted solution of silver nitrate to treat chronic sores. In 1789, he and his family moved back to Leipzig where he devoted himself to research, translations, and writing about chemistry and medicine. While living in a rural suburb of the city, Hahnemann came across a reference to cinchona bark, which was used to treat malaria. Hahnemann was curious about how the medicine worked and tried it on himself. He felt that cinchona caused the same symptoms as malaria: fever, chills, and exhaustion. Hahnemann conducted many experiments, which he called provings, to determine the precise effects that a substance would have on a healthy person. In 1810, he published Organon der rationellen Heilkunde (Handbook of Rational Healing), the book in which he set out the principles of homeopathic medicine.

The first principle was the law of similars, and the second principle was the law of infinitesimals. These two laws reflected Hahnemann's theory that provoking symptoms similar to those caused by a disease could help the body fight off the disease. He used herbs and plants, minerals, and other materials and proposed that they were most effective when they were highly diluted (present in infinitesimal amounts). The third principle had to do with prescribing homeopathic medicines. Hahnemann based prescriptions on the whole person with regard to his or her lifestyle and temperament, rather than just the symptoms of a disease. After publication of the book, Hahnemann began publicizing homeopathic medicine and giving lectures. He later published Materia medica pura (Pure Materia Medica) which included details about his provings and treatments of specific complaints.

Hahnemann's theories were met with scorn by the medical community, arguing that homeopathy was ineffective and science was on their side. A major argument against homeopathy is that substances are diluted so much that they no longer exist in a solution. In several places, laws against homeopathy were passed. To avoid prosecution and to continue his studies, Hahnemann and his family moved frequently. In 1830, Hahnemann's wife died, and five years later, at the age of 80, Hahnemann remarried. His new wife was Melanie D'Hervilly, a Frenchwoman. Shortly after they married, they moved to Paris where Hahnemann died in July 1843.

In the last decades of his life, Hahnemann witnessed a widespread acceptance of homeopathic medicine. A driving force behind its acceptance was the fact that homeopaths, the practitioners of homeopathic medicine, did not use bleeding, purging, and other brutal medical treatments. Acceptance of homeopathy has continued intermittently ever since. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, it was virtually replaced by medicines such as antibiotics. Towards the end of the 20th century, however, there has been renewed interest in homeopathy. Modern medicine considers homeopathic treatments as placebos at best and quackery at worst, but such criticism doesn't detract from Hahnemann's commitment to improve the practice of medicine. In rejecting standard medical practices of the day and promoting health measures such as exercise and a sensible diet, he showed himself to be a doctor ahead of his time.