Homoeopathy was founded by Dr Sammuel Hahnemann in Germany. He was a german physician who found the medicine practices of the day rather ineffective and decided to do some research on alternative drugs.
He found the basic principle of "Like cure like" of Homoeopathy. This means that a substance which produces the symptoms of a particular disease is likely to cure that disease. For instance he used the Peruvian Bark extract to conduct his first experiment.
Since the symptoms that this drug induced in the healthy subject were similar to the intermittent fever that is the primary symptom of Malaria, it was found highly effective in treating patients who were suffering from Malaria.
His experiments began in 1970 and by 1811 he had published a book. This book gave the outline for a new science of healing which he named Homoeopathy. He was criticized by the medical fraternity for his revolutionary findings.
However since his methods seemed to work, he also attracted a number of students and volunteers. Based on his experiments on these new volunteers he was able to produce the book of Homoeopathy Materia Medica.
Translations of this book still form the basis of treatment in homoeopathy to date. He was also credited with actually investigating the effects of a drug on the human body for the first time. It was truly ground breaking work.
However widespread acceptance of his work came in only after the Cholera epidemic that Western Europe faced. His medicines were far more effective in controlling the diseases and were given preference over the regular drugs.
From then onward Homoeopathy has reached many more nations and is practiced as a alternative healing medication by many. Unfortunately there is no standard training for a Homoeopathic Doctor and the skill of the doctor greatly determines his success with the discipline.
While an experienced Homoeopath will be able to instantly cure many ailments with the right drugs, an inexperienced one will also be able to cause more suffering by not recognizing the right drug for the treatment of the disease.
So while the medicine is said to have no side effects and is great for treating minor ailments of children, for the more serious and chronic ailments it may be better to get the opinion of your regular allopath.
