The scope of homoeopathy is a subject which has received too little considerations by homoeopaths . Hazy and confused ideas prevail .As a result we find on one hand a few sincere but misguided enthusiasts attempting the impossible and bringing ridicule up on themselves , and on the other hand , the great majority , ignorant of the higher possibilities , missing their opportunities and bringing discredit upon themselves and their  art by resorting to un homoeopathic measures in cases which could readily be cured by homoeopathic remedies . One believes too much , the other too little . Niether one knows why he succeeds in one case and fails In another.

When we say that homoeopathy does not claim to cure the incurable , that leaves the question of curability an open one . Incapacity to cure does not render the uncured incurable . The diseases , we called incurable today may curable one in the next generation .Haphazard cures do not justify boasting . The art of pharmaco – therapeutics in general , and homoeopathy in particular , is not advanced by such work . What we need is clean cut , scientific work ; work capable of being rationally explained and verified ;results attained by the intelligent application of a definite principle and a perfected technic in a sharply delimited field .

In The Genius of Homoeopathy , Stuart Close says that in defining the scope of homoeopathy it is necessary first to discriminate between disease per se ,as a morbid vital process and the material results or products in which the morbid process ultimates. With the latter , homoeopathy primarily has nothing to do . It is concerned only with disease per se , in its primary , functional or dynamic aspect . But we know that every disease produces certain pathological changes in the body .As the advancement of other branches of sciences [physics,chemistry], we can find out these changes much earlier than that in the past .Homoeopathic medicine is also effective in the cases where advanced pathology takes place.So we emphasis the word “primarily” when we say homoeopathic medicine is concerned in functional aspect.

Disease per se , Hahneman says is “ nothing more than an alteration in the state of health of a healthy individual “ , caused by the dynamic action of external , inimical forces up on the living organism , making itself known only by perceptible signs and symptoms , the totality of which represents and for all Practical purposes constitutes the disease.

In homoeopathic prescribing, in order to find out the characteristic symptom we must carefully separate the primary , functional symptoms which represent the morbid process itself , from the secondary symptoms which represents the pathological end products of the disease . If there is doubt as to which symptoms are primary and which are secondary the history will decide . In the evolution of disease in the living organism , functional changes precede organic or structural changes . “Funtion creats the organ “ is a maxim in biological and morphological science , from which it follows that “ function reveals the condition of the organ . In Lesser writings Dr J .T .KENT mentions that “All curable diseases make themselves known to the intelligent physician in signs and symptoms.In proportion as the pathology progresses, the signs and symptoms decreases.” We find out that common symptoms are increasing as pathology advances and the characteristic symptoms or individualising symptoms of the patient are decreases .

The sphere of vital dynamics is the true and only sphere of homoeopathy . Its field is the field of disordered vital phenomena and functional changes in the individual patient , irrespective of the name of the disease or of its cause . Its object is the restoration of order and harmony In vital functioning in the individual patient . Its laws are the laws of motion operating in the vital realm , which govern all vital action . Its fundamental principle is is the universal principle of Mutual Action – “ Action and Reaction are Equal and Opposite .

The unprejudiced observer notices only the deviations from a former healthy state of the diseased individual , which are felt by the patient himself , remarked by those around him and observed by the physician . All these perceptible signs represent the disease in its whole extent , that is , together they form the true and only conceivable portrait of the disease .”The totality of these, its symptoms of this outwardly reflected picture of the internal essence of disease, that is, of the affection of the vital force must be principal, or the sole means, whereby the disease can make known (its nature and what remedy is required”[ organon, aphorism 7)

Hahnemann says, that every intelligent physician, having a knowledge of rational etiology, will first remove by appropriate means, as far as possible, every exciting and maintaining cause of disease and obstacle to cure and endeavor to establish a correct and orderly course of living for his patient, with due regard to mental and physical hygiene. Failing to do this, but little impression can be made by homoeopathic remedies and what slight impression is made will be of short duration.

In estimating the possibility of successful homoeopathic treatment of deficiency diseases we must, of course, recognize that the action of drugs is by eliciting a response from a living cell; they can’t do this from those that are dead or restore them to life. It is of no use to attempt the impossible. But we should also recognize that no organ or tissue become suddenly destroyed, unless it be by trauma and that there are all degrees of failure of functions, and if the failure has not gone too far it should be, and we believe it is, possible to restore it to the normal by giving the similimum. To this end we need a deeper acquaintance with our remedies. We are using practically the same materia medica that we did 100 or more years ago. It requires no alteration, but it does need to be added to, not by the addition of more remedies…. but by fresh provings to peruse the action of our drugs into the realm of endocrine organs. If we do not increase our knowledge of the capabilities of our drugs, our homoeopathic art will become static. It will make no progress.

Following the exclusion method adopted by Dake in his “Therapeutic methods”, and using a modification of his phrasing, the sphere of similia may be defined as follows:
1.Homoeopathy relates primarily to no affections of health where the exciting cause of disease is constantly present and operating.
2.It relates primarily to no affections of health which will, of themselves, cease after the removal of exciting cause by physical, chemical or hygienic measures.
3.It relates primarily to no affections occasioned by the injury or destruction of tissues which are incapable of restoration.
4.It relates primarily to no affections of health where the vital reactive power of the organism to medicine is exhausted, obstructed or prevented.
5.It relates to no affections of health, the symptomatic likeness of which may not be perceptibly produced in the healthy organism by medical means, nor to affections in which such symptoms are not perceptible.

The sphere of similia is thus limited to those morbid functional conditions and processes which result primarily from the dynamic action upon the living organism of morbific agents inimical to life.

The living organism may be acted upon or affected primarily in 3 ways.
1. mechanically,
2. chemically,
3. dynamically.
Under the head of mechanical causes of disease come all traumatic agencies such as lesions, injuries and destruction of tissues resulting from physical force, morbid growths, formations and foreign substances. Congenitally defective or absent organs or parts, prolapsed or displaced organs etc. these conditions are related primarily to surgery, physical therapeutics and hygiene.

The destructive action of certain chemical poisons such as the acids and alkalies is a sufficient illustration of the chemical causes of disease, although all such agents have also secondary dynamical effects, which come within the sphere of homoeopathy. Diseases arising from these causes require the use of chemical or physiological antidotes combined in some cases with measures for the physical expulsion of the offending substances, and followed by homoeopathic treatment for the functional derangement which remain or follow.

Dynamical causes of diseases are numerous, but they may be roughly classified as:
1. Mental or psychical
2. Dietetic, hygienic, contagious, infectious and specific-

The last three including all disorders arising from the use or abuse of drugs, and from all bacterial agents or pathogenic micro organisms which produce their effects through their specific toxins or alkaloids. Homoeopathy treats bacterial or zymotic diseases by internal homoeopathic medicines, without resorting to bactericides, germicides or antiseptics. Such agents have their use only in the field of sanitation, which is environmental, not personal. We disinfect the Typhoid patients excretions but not the patient himself.

The domain of similia may be reached by another route. Looking at the various drugs and other agencies capable of influencing health, and advancing, as before, by the method of exclusion, it may be said:
1. The homoeopathic law relates to no agents intended to affect the organism chemically.
2. It relates to none applied for mechanical effects simply.
3. It relates to none required in the development or support of the organism when in health.
4. It relates to none employed directly to remove or destroy the parasites which infest or prey upon the human body.
5. The homoeopathic law relates to no agents or drugs administered for their direct or so called physiological effects.

According to Stuart Close, circumstances arise occasionally which make it necessary, temporarily, for the homoeopathic physician to use drugs in “physiological” doses for the palliative effects. Although the ruling principle of his medical life is, cure by symptom similarity, and that end is always held in view, as an ideal, he is not thereby forbidden the use of palliative measures in cases where they are appropriate and necessary.

Hahnemann, after showing the futility of antipathic medication as a curative method, and pointing out the dangers incidental to its use, admits the utility and necessity of resorting to palliation in certain emergencies. In a note to aphorism 67 (Organon of Medicine), he says: “only in most urgent cases where danger to life and imminent death allow no time for the action of a homoeopathic remedy- not hours sometimes not even quarter hours and scarcely minutes- in sudden accidents occurring to previously healthy individuals- for e.g., in asphyxia and suspended animation from lightening, from suffocation, freezing, drowning etc- it is admissible and judicious at all events as a preliminary measure, to stimulate the irritability and sensibility (the physical life), with a palliative, as for instance, with gentle electric shocks, with clysters of strong coffea, with a stimulating odour, gradual application of heat etc. when this stimulation is affected the play of vital organs goes on again in its former healthy manner, for there is here no disease to be removed, but merely an obstruction and suppression of the healthy vital force. To this category belong various antidotes to sudden poisonings; alkalies for mineral acids, hepar sulphuris for metallic poisons, coffea and camphor (and ipecac) for poisoning by opium etc”.

As Hahnemann wrote in the Organon of Medicine, aphorism 148, “a medicine which has the power and tendency to produce symptoms the most similar possible to the disease to be cured, affects those very parts and points in the organism now suffering from the natural disease. It must be remembered that our object is to select simile only, but the similimum- the medicine whose action in the healthy correspond to the particular case in its individuality, in the finer features and more minute ramifications of the malady here presented. Symptamatology gives us a further advantage, in that it often enables us to attack maladies in their forming stage, before they have developed such lesions as physical signs can manifest. So we can us the homoeopathic medicines, effectively in the field of prophylaxis.

In the Lectures of Homoeopathic philosophy Dr.J.T.Kent says, incurable complaints will trouble any physician. From the stand point of homoeopathic philosophy, the patient who is seriously ill and presents no symptoms is incurable. The Allopath has the means of putting the patient under the influence of strong drugs and making them imagine that some thing is being done to their benefit, whereas injury is being done whenever they are patched up by strong drug. It is unaccountable, therefore, that some of our homoeopathic practitioners make use of palliatives that are so detrimental to the patient. The physician who applies the single remedy in potentised form under the law of cure any length of time will easily be convinced that there is no other way of palliation that hold out any permanent hope for the patient.

When all has been said and the scope of homoeopathy has been defined as clearly as possible, it is evident that there is a border land between homoeopathy and its related sciences around which it is impossible to draw sharp line s of demarcation. In this region each physician must be governed by his own individual judgment and the circumstances of the case. It follows that there will always be differences of opinion between individual physicians under such circumstances. The physician who is imbued with the spirit of homoeopathy endeavors always to keep his mind open and free from prejudice. While striving always to perfect his knowledge of homoeopathic technique in order that he may meet any emergency and extend the borders of his art to the farthest limits, he never forgets that the necessities and welfare of his patient are first.

REFERENCES
1,Organon of medicine (5th edition) by Dr. Hahnemann.
2. The Genius of Homoeopathy by Stuart Close.
3. The Principles and Art of cure by Homoeopathy by H.A. Roberts.
4. Lectures on Homoeopathic Philosophy by J.T. Kent.
5. Lesser Writings by J.T. Kent.
6. Principles of Homoeopathy by Richard Hughes.