Samuel Hahnemann (1755–1843)
As a general rule, the greater the dose, the greater the effect. This concept is well accepted by pharmacologists, who study how and why drugs act, as well as by physicians and other health professionals who prescribe drugs as medicines.
LESS IS MORE. By contrast, one of the basic tenets of homeopathic medicine states that the more a drug is diluted, the greater its effects. The active ingredient is subject to successive dilutions until literally none of the original drug molecules remain. Homeopathic advocates argue that, according to the “law of infinitesimals,” with dilutions of the drug in water or alcohol, accomplished with forceful shaking, the diluent acquires a “memory” that enables the preparation to work.
Homeopathic physicians see diseases as being caused by “miasms,” which create disturbances in vital (life) forces. Treatments are based on the law of similars (let like be cured by like)—that is, whatever causes a disease can cure it. Drugs must produce symptoms in healthy persons that are similar to the symptoms being treated in the patient. For example, exposure to an onion causes a running nose, sneezing, and coughing; thus, a homeopathic onion remedy can be used to treat a cold or allergic attack that produces similar symptoms. Homeopathic remedies are selected on the basis of symptoms and not, as in conventional medicine, on diseases.
German physician Samuel Hahnemann founded homeopathy, based on his opinion that medicine as practiced in the late eighteenth century was doing as much harm to patients as good. Whereas the effectiveness of homeopathic medicines may be questioned—many products have been demonstrated to be no more effective than placebos in controlled scientific studies—they are generally acknowledged to be safe.
SEE ALSO Materia Medica (c. 60), Calomel (1793), Placebos (1955), Dietary Supplements (1994), Direct-to-Consumer Ads (1997).
The eighteenth-century practice of “heroic medicine” employed highly aggressive approaches to rid the body of disease-causing impurities. In response, homeopathic medicine was introduced, based in part on the principle that less is more. Alexander Beydeman’s painting depicts Homeopathy Watching the Horrors of Allopathy (1857).