April 10 is celebrated as the World Homoeopathy Day to mark the birth anniversary of the creator of the alternative medicine, Dr Samuel Hahnemann. Homoeopathy is the branch of medicine and is derived from the Greek words’ Homeo’, which states similar and ‘pathos’, which means disease. Homoeopathy is an alternate form of medicine that accepts the principle of generating one’s body’s remedial powers.
The term Homeopathy first appeared in print in 1807 but was invented by the German doctor in 1796. He was a well-known linguist, researcher and scientist. This year marks the 265th birthday of Dr Hahnemann.
Origin of Homeopathy
Dr Samuel Hahnemann didn’t like the practice of bloodletting and was against the mainstream medicines. He was so much unsettled with the medicine. As a result, he gave up his practice in just three years and worked as a translator and a writer.
One fine day, while translating William Cullen’s (Scottish physician) piece ‘A Treatise on the Materia Medica’, Hahnemann found a claim that malaria could be effectively treated by cinchona, a flowering plant due to its astringency. After analysing on its properties, he came up with a principle which said, ‘that which can produce a set of symptoms in a healthy individual, it can treat a sick individual with a similar set of symptoms’.
Dr Hahnemann named this principle, ‘like cures like’ and it ultimately became the foundation of homoeopathy.
Homoeopathy in India
Homoeopathy is one of the most popular medical systems practised. This system is a recognised medical system in India under the Homoeopathy Central Council Act, 1973. It is one of the medical systems in the AYUSH-- ‘Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy’ ministry.
The country is one of the major markets in the world for homoeopathy. Academic homoeopathy institutes in our country comprise 36 per cent of the total AYUSH colleges and 38 per cent of medical practitioners in AYUSH are homoeopaths.
Why it is celebrated
World Homeopathy Day is celebrated to raise awareness about the medical system and to improve the user-friendliness to homoeopathy. It is also significant to know the plans required to develop homoeopathy on a larger scale and its tests. It is also essential to concentrate on the quality of education, improving the success rate of an average practitioner in homoeopathy.
