What is constitutional about homeopathic prescribing?
Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, wrote his first paper on the subject in 1796. Dr. Hahnemann was a medical doctor who was upset with the side effects of large amounts of toxic drugs and the way medicine was practiced in his day. Sick people were purged and drained of large amounts of blood to get rid of the ‘ill humors’ in the body. Hahnemann felt people got better in spite of this treatment, not because of it, and he wanted something more humane, gentle, non-toxic and consistent. His research led him to administer diluted forms of different herbs and medicines of the day, based on their similar action. The name homeopathy is derived from the Greek homoios meaning likes and pathos meaning disease or suffering. So homeopathy is based on the application of the ‘law of similars’. Today in the marketplace we see many substances that are advertised as homeopathic medicines but they are not really homeopathic unless they are administered according to the law of similars. There is
