Homoeopathy is a gentle form of Medicine which was known to the Ancient Greeks, a fact mirrored by its derivation from Greek homoios, meaning ‘like’, and pathos, meaning ‘suffering’. Essentially it means treating like with like.
The great physician Hippocrates first taught that there were two ways of treating a patient. Either one could cure by ‘contraries’ or by ‘similarities.’ That is, one could either give medication to counteract symptoms – the law of contraries; or medication which had the ability to produce the same symptoms as those suffered by the ill person – the law of similar.
In both the cases he believed that physician was merely creating the right conditions for the inner healing power, Vis Medicatrix Naturae to being about the cure.
Over the centuries physicians continued to practice both types of Medicine, although it was not until the 18th century that the similar principle became formulated into a distinct system of Medicine. The founder of this school of thought was an eccentric genius by the name of Samuel Hahnemann.
