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Hahnemann, a true
scientist, did not get satisfied by the then medical practice
and made a remarkable statement in a letter to his friend that
he had being putting drugs of which he knew little into bodies
of which he knew less. Then he renounced the medical practice
and turned his attention to the study of chemistry, philosophy,
pharmacy and medicine. For his livelihood he understood the
translator work and in this process, like any scientist who is
curious a bout obvious, he came across the statement about
febrifugal properties of Cinchona which was not appealing.
May be influenced
by the processed ideas of Albert Von Hailer about experiencing
on healthy human being to get pure effects of medicinal
substances and also by the works of his contemporary German
Philosopher, GWF Hegel, Samuel Hahnemann has undertaken the
experiment with Cinchona Nark on himself. He was upraised to
know that the similarity of the symptoms of ague with that
produced b Cinchona bark on himself. Then he formed a tentative
hypothesis that the specific curative power of a drug lies in
its power of producing similar symptoms in healthy individual.
For six years
Hahnemann continued his research and experiments on himself and
other family members and friends with about 50 drugs. Thence he
formulated the principle, which was hitherto recited in Vedas
and pronounced by Hippocrates and Paracelsus, “similia similibus
curentur” as the basic nature’s law to cure the ailing humanity.
There a new therapeutic science took birth.
Then on he
formulated various other principles among which four are
fundamentals of Homoeopathy viz.
1. The proving of
substances to be used as medicines, on the healthy human beings.
2. Law of similars as the basis for selection and prescription
of these remedies.
3. The single remedy
4. The minimum dose
Hahnemann has
incorporated all these instructions and principles in the book
titled “Organon of Medicine”. This is the Bible or Gita of
Homoeoapthy.
Homoeopathic
philosophy book, the organon may be divided into three sections.
Viz.
a. The theoretical, dealing with how and why remedies act b.
The didactic, meaning the rules and tenets and The practical,
which comprises the art of applying the rules in prescribing for
the actual patient, understanding the results,, and following
through the subsequent prescriptions to cure.
In the first and
last sections mentioned above the whole text deals with the
description of remedies in one way or the other. So, it means
that Organon’s 213 portion is directly connected to Materia
Medica.
At the same time
the Materia medica pura, written by Hahnemann, has got a direct
reference to Organon in the preface itself. He mentions that he
taught is this truth in Organon of Medicine, that, dynamically
acting medicines extinguish diseases only in accordance with the
similarity of their symptoms. So he asks the reader to
understand the Organon first and alter match the symptoms in
materia medica with the symptoms of the .sick individual.
Hahnemann clearly writes in material medica pura that his
instruction to use these medicines are given in organon.
As mentioned in 3
aphorism in organon that the physician must have the knowledge
of diseases, knowledge of medicine and also the knowledge of how
to apply the latter to the former. This essential application
knowledge comes from the organon whereas the knowledge of
medicines can be acquired from the materia rnedica.
The mere
knowledge of medicines and their drug properties would not be
sufficient as form their drug proving to the selection,
administration and second prescription one needs the thorough
understanding of the organon of medicine.
Even the profile
of each drug is understood on the basis of its general
characteristics, peculiar symptoms and particular symptoms. The
drug proving gives us the raw data which has to be processed
according to the principles laid down in the organon, so that we
will have a material medica in the systematic manner. Organon
helps us to place each symptom in the drug at its right position
according to its value basing on the knowledge of classification
of symptoms.
Even the clinical
symptoms, incorporated in source books and other material
medicas, are the fruits of great homoeopaths’ efforts in
treating the sick. They are arrived at by the knowledge acquired
from the clinical medicine and organon as the new symptoms
appeared or old symptoms disappeared after the administration of
the remedy belong to this category.
So, to understand
a drug in toto we need to have the knowledge if organon and at
the same time organon alone could not be useful without the
knowledge of material medica as mere principles can’t cure the
sick.
Materia medica
is the beautiful building built on the strong edifice of organon.
At the same time one must not forget the other branch that
is, Repertory.
As it is rightly mentioned that Homoeopathy is compared with a
bird with its body represented by the materia medica, wings by
organon and the tail, which gives the correct direction, by the
Repertory. So it is easily inferred that these three important
branches of Homoeopathy are inseparable.
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