Introduction: Medicine's Maverick.

 

Samuel Hahnemann can be said to be one of the most controversial, but one of the most significant, physicians throughout medical history. Where medical remedies were often brutal and painful, in his time there was a doctor of considerable acclaim who proposed a new, entirely different theory and practice of medicine that promoted healing through softness, individual approach, and using the body's own defenses. That physician and his new found healing system became the very foundation of homeopathy, the use of which continues today.

It is not merely that he simply suggested a new way of treating patients, however; Hahnemann also brought about a change in the underlying thought process of medical practice in the 18th and 19th centuries, shifting emphasis away from intrusive, harmful treatments toward taking a more patient focused approach, a concept which continues to guide health care today.

In order to fully comprehend his significance to modern medicine, we need to appreciate the setting he worked within; in the years in which Hahnemann was at the pinnacle of his career, commonly prescribed treatments included bleeding and purging, or the administration of lethal substances like mercury, with often little help and often to the detriment of the patient. In this period of medicine, there were neither professional standards, any ethical guidelines in place, nor a scientific understanding of treatments. Rather than experiment and observation, treatments followed precedent.

Distressed by the treatments and theory behind it, Hahnemann momentarily withdrew from medicine for a short period before returning to it with a system that was grounded in experimentation, detailed and careful observation and rigorous logical reasoning, a medical shift away from its more intrusive, harmful, and unscientific practice.

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