Introduction: A medical revolutionary .

Samuel Hahnemann is perhaps one of the most controversial yet revered medical pioneers to ever live. Unlike the aggressive and often damaging treatment that was typical in his day, he promoted a revolutionary approach emphasizing mildness, individual needs and the human body’s inherent capacity for healing. He also founded Homeopathy which is still practiced in some parts of the world today. The medical profession of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was, to a great extent, violent, invasive, and to say the least, largely inefficient; Bloodletting and purging were commonplace, and harsh and toxic substances like mercury were frequently given. These treatments often left the patient with more suffering than they originally had, not less, and the profession lacked scientific principles, working more by tradition than scientific principles derived from observation. Hahnemann believed that, 'like cures like' (similia similibus curentur), a fundamental principle suggesting that something that would cause symptoms in a healthy person would be able to heal the same symptoms in an ill person at minute doses. This idea gave rise to treating patients based on symptom patterns rather than diagnosing diseases and treating a set of predetermined symptoms. Hahnemann believed that every individual patient was unique, thus the physician should take into account the physical and mental states of the patient and his/her environment, and the importance of administering small doses so that they don't cause unnecessary harm. He pioneered the concept of the 'provings' in which healthy volunteers would be administered a substance in order to study its effects thus paving the way for more systematic research methods of observing and proving that which worked, as opposed to following the practices of predecessors with blind adherence. One of his most significant contributions was the humanitarianisation of medicine. He was able to see patients as individuals, not just as cases, laying the foundation for the principles of modern day patient care. Despite the controversial nature of homeopathy, there is no doubt as to Hahnemann’s contributions to modern medicine through his philosophy of compassion, observation and individual treatment.

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