Introduction: A Physician to Remember.

Perhaps more controversial and important than anyone else in medical history, Samuel Hahnemann's work truly revolutionized medicine. It is in contrast to the treatments of the past, where medicine was both brutal, invasive, and could arguably cause as much harm as healing, where a man was so innovative that his philosophy was to become the framework for homeopathy-which is practiced throughout the world today.

At a time when doctors were practicing the techniques of bloodletting and purgation and prescribing toxins such as mercury, Hahnemann began to wonder if they were really curing patients, or if they were making patients weak and helpless. He refused to follow the existing ideas of medicine and turned his study to the observable, experiment, and logic.

The basic principle that "like cures like," meaning that a substance that would produce a disease in a healthy person may be able to cure a disease producing that set of symptoms in the sick person, was a radical change and encouraged a move from disease nomenclature to symptomatic classification and tailored medicine.

Individualism is another key concept of homeopathy, meaning that there is not one patient who is the same as another; Hahnemann took into account the mental state of the patient, along with the physical, their environment and lifestyle. He championed minimal dosage and this too became one of his most famous principles of homeopathy.

However, apart from his medical principles, his contribution to the field is perhaps even more apparent in how he made medicine human again. The role of care and listening intently to the patient as well as using medicine that heals the patient and does not necessarily hurt them are some of his most enduring beliefs, which is the basis for modern day treatment. Whether or not the controversial nature of his work is acceptable, there is no doubt that Samuel Hahnemann made medicine both better and more humane for centuries to come.

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