Chronic Diseases Theoretical Part

Overview

This is Hahnemann's seminal work containing the basic concepts of miasmatic theory, extracted from the two-volume set- Chronic Diseases.

Details

The Chronic Diseases; Their Peculiar Nature and Their Homoeopathic Cure (Theoretical Part), by Samuel Hahnemann, was published in four volumes from 1828-1830.

The basic concepts of the miasms comprise part one (Theoretical Part), which was published in a separate edition in 1904.

Hahnemann's thoughts concerning the nature, development, and cause of disease foreshadow much of the modern perspective. His counsel regarding common mistakes in case analysis is an invaluable roadmap.

Additional issues are addressed in the preface to each volume. The Preface to Vol. lll, published in 1837, entitled "Concerning the Technical Part of Homoeopathy", is particularly important.

In it Hahnemann details his 'most useful' method of giving the homeopathic medicine "only in solution, and this solution in divided doses."

Further, he states "in taking one and the same medicine repeatedly (which is indispensable to secure the cure of a serious chronic disease), if the dose is in every case varied and modified only a little in its degree of dynamization..." it can be given be given with good results.

These statements and other parts of the Preface depict the evolution of what would become Hahnemann's LM potencies.

Contents

Publisher's Preface -- 5-6
Author's Preface -- 7-20
Nature of Chronic Disease -- 21-241
Sycosis -- 49-152
Syphilis -- 53-166
Psora -- 67-241
The Medicines -- 242-269

Dr. Samuel Christian Frederic Hahnemann, M.D.

(1755 - 1843)

Samuel Hahnemann was the founder of Homoeopathy. He established the fundamental principles of the science and art of Homoeopathy.

He is called the Father of Experimental Pharmacology because he was the first physician to prepare medicines in a specialized way; proving them on healthy human beings, to determine how the medicines acted to cure diseases. Before Hahnemann, medicines were given on speculative indications, mainly on the basis of authority without experimental verification.

Hahnemann discovered the remedial powers of drugs and inert substances such as gold, platinum, silica, vegetable charcoal, lycopodium, etc. By preparing the medicines through potentization, these inert and insoluble substances became soluble in alcohol or water and were charged with medicinal force.

Dr. Hahnemann espoused the law of cure known as "Similia Similibus Curentur", or "Like Cures Like". This means that a remedy that produces symptoms in a healthy person will cure those same symptoms when manifested by a person in a diseased state. This law of cure has been verified by millions of homoeopaths all over the world since the time of Hahnemann.

Hahnemann discovered the primary and secondary actions of remedies. The primary action results from the first encounter between the vital force and the external agent, and the secondary action is a result of the vital force's reaction to the symptoms of that primary encounter. This discovery led him to the curative powers of poisonous substances.

Dr. Hahnemann described the different aspects of 'acute' and 'chronic' diseases. Acute diseases are transitory; they have a beginning and an end, whereas the chronic diseases are co-existent with life. Either they are present in a manifest or a latent state. From this work came the chronic miasms of Psora, Syphilis, and Sycosis.

Dr. Hahnemann was the progenitor of several modern medical approaches. Deeming the treatment of insane patients to be cruel and harmful, he advised a humane treatment for the insane. He cured many insane patients with homeopathy, and became famous for this success.

Dr. Hahnemann was quick to recognize poor hygiene as a contributory cause to the spread of disease. His success with cholera and typhoid fever was in part due to this recognition.

Hahnemann also emphasized the importance of nursing, diet, bed rest, and isolation of patients during epidemic diseases. Hahnemann described 'Noxious' principles as the precursors of certain disease states.

Hahnemann's three major publications illumine the development of homeopathy. In the 'Organon of Medicine' (revised six times), we see the fundamentals laid out.

'Materia Medica Pura' records the exact symptoms of the remedy provings. In his book, 'The Chronic Diseases, Their Peculiar Nature and Their Homoeopathic Cure', he showed us how the natural diseases become chronic in nature when suppressed by improper treatment.

Dr. Hahnemann treated thousands of difficult and chronic cases that defied the best care from allopaths all over Europe. Thus, he became so famous that physicians from Europe and America came to him for coaching in the new science and art of healing, called Homoeopathy.

Heritage

The Chronic Diseases; Their Peculiar Nature and Their Homeopathic Cure

The first English edition was by Geddes M. Scott, MD of Glasgow, Scotland in 1842. It was translated from the 1832 French edition. In 1845, William Radde published a translation made by Hempel from theGerman.

Because of complaints of poor translation and missing symptoms in the Hempel translation, a further translation (of 1600 pages), direct from the German, was made by Louis Tafel in 1896, and published by Boericke and Tafel. It is this massive volume that is currently available from Indian booksellers.

The basic conecpt of the "miasms" are discussed in part one (theoretical part) and 48 Anti-psoric remedies are discussed in part two. The "Theoretical Part" was reprinted by Boericke and Tafel as a separate edition in 1904.

From:
The Heritage of Homoeopathic Literature
copyright 2001 by Julian Winston
Reprinted with the permission of the author