Classical Homeopathy

The Principles of Healing Established by Christian Samuel Hahnemann, M.D. (1755-1843)


Some Brief Homeopathy Biographies

C. Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843). Founder. German, moves to Paris.
Reads a very large number of works published in medicine, ancient and contemporary, in nine languages. Degreed and begins practicing medicine in 1779. In 1790 in an experiment on himself, he produces the symptoms of malaria by injesting Cinchona bark, which was a popular and effective treatment for malaria. His vast exposure to medical literature enables him rapidly to confirm a hypothesis, actually stated approx 400 B.C. by Hippocrates, that: a substance which can cause a symptom has the potential to cure it. Extensive research, lead by Dr. Hahnemann, yields Homeopathy: homo (similar), pathy (disease), referencing the simple fact that to cure a disease, one must use a substance which can produce the symptoms in a healthy person, by which the disease manifests in that patient. Experience shows that one must use a single dose of the minimum amount that can produce a curative response, which threatens the financial foundation of the powerful apothecaries; Hahnemann is an outcast from the conventional medical establishment, attacked and ridiculed his entire life in spite of facts such as this: in 1831 when cholera sweeps across Central Europe, and homoeopathy receives its first wide-spread use, it is 96% effective against that disease, compared to 46% for conventional treatments. His legacy ranks among the greatest gifts to humankind.

Clemens Maria Franz von Bonninghausen (1785-1864). Lawyer, botonist, German nobility.
Contracts tuberculosis, orthodox medical treatment fails, writes a farewell letter to his botanist friend Weihe, who is the first Homeopathic physician in the province of Rhineland and Westphalia, who cures him (with Pulsatilla). In 1830 meets Hahnemann and in communication with him from then on. Two sons become homoeopaths. Eldest son marries the adopted daughter of Hahnemann’s widow in Paris. On Hahnemann’s request, Clemens writes:

Constantine Hering (1800-1880). Master Homeopath. German, moves to America.
While he is a medical student in Leipzig, a faculty physician too busy to write asks him to author a book disclosing the fallacy of homoeopathy. While going through Hahnemann’s works for the sake of making quotations, he comes across the famous "nota bene for my reviewers", which says, among other things: “The doctrine appeals not only chiefly, but solely, to the verdict of experience ... repeat the experiment, it cries aloud. Repeat them carefully and accurately and you will find the doctrine confirmed at every step ... and it does what no medical doctrine, no system of physic, no so-called therapeutics ever did or could do, it insists upon being judged by the result.” Hering decides to accept the challenge and begins to assemble the results of Homeopathy, sufficiently so that when, in dissecting a cadaver and he inflicts upon himself a wound which infects so that he is advised to have his hand amputated, instead he seeks consultation with a homoeopath, who cures him. He drops the book commission. In his doctoral thesis, "On the Medicine of the Future", Hering declares himself to be a homoeopath. In 1848 he charters the Hahnemann Medical College of Pennslyvania, which trains over 3500 Homeopaths. He is considered the Father of American Homeopathy.

James Tyler Kent (1849-1916). Master Homeopath. American.
Allopath (M.D.), naturopath (N.D.), and chiropractor (D.C.), in Saint Louis, in 1876, when his wife becomes seriously ill, these then conventional disciplines fail, and she is cure by him with Homoeopathy. He converts his practice to Homoeopathy exclusively. At the Homeopathic Medical School of Philadelphia, with students he sees over 18,900 patients in 1896. Three of his works are considered core literature of the healing discipline. His repertory replaces Bonninghausen’s as the most widely used, a reputation which it enjoys to this day. Other prestigious repertories, like Vithoulkas and Schroyens, actually are addenda to his.

George Vithoulkas (1932- ). Master Homeopath. Greek.
His parents are killed by Nazis. In his late teens, suffering from a painful and debilitating degenerative vertebral disease, he is told there is no relief except possibly surgery, which might leave him paralysed. He stumbles on some Homeopathy books, buys many more, studies, and cures himself. Practices, teaches, and is establishing schools around the world. He has treated over 100,000 patients, and is one of the most positive forces in the dissemination of Homeopathy in the world today.