Homeopathy

Though born in the head of a young man called Hanhemann, from Germany, Homeopathy has made inroads in India, not only because of its acceptance by the people who look towards it for treatment but also by those who study it as a form of medication. Based on the Law of Similars, the three cardinal points of homeopathy are:

a) use of medicines, the totality of whose symptoms are similar to (not necessarily the same as) those produced by the disease in question.

b) use of a single drug at a time.

c) use of minimum dose.

d) A homeopath understands two aspects of medicine and the human body: the symptoms produced by a drug on a healthy man's system, and the various symptoms produced in the course of several diseases. He fits them both together and in his analysis takes into account the patients temperament, moods and general attitudes.

Homeopathy came to India in 1835 when Dr.Honigberger tried to introduce it in the court of the Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Punjab. It did not really grow roots. Sixteen years later Dr. Tonnere, a French man took the same system of medicine to Calcutta. Though he himself was not too successful, it was in Bengal that homeopathy first struck roots. Today it is practiced all over India with special colleges training fresh doctors every year.