President, Dist. Homoeo. Association, Dehra Dun. We have assembled here this evening to pay homage to the memory of a great man, a great thinker, a great philosopher, a great medical scientist, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann of Germany, the discoverer of the Homoeopathic system of treatment. Great indeed is the debt the humanity owes to that great personage, though till now we are not fully cognisant of it.
The worth of the discoverers and propounders of new ideas is often realised with the lapse of more and more time when the ideas have been properly understood and tested. In their own life they are often treated as whimsical and outcasts fit only for ridicule, contempt, persecution and perhaps execution.
Homoeopathy was discovered in its present form by Samuel Hahnemann about 150 years ago, but it has yet to be discovered by the sick humanity and by the prejudiced medical scientists to enable it to play its due role in reconstructing the health of the peoples and nations of the world.
The problem of medical aid to the poverty stricken millions inhabiting this vast sub – continent of India and other parts of the world has since long been engaging the attention of social workers and thinkers. Can the so – called “scientific” system of medicine, with its prohibitive cost of diagnostic methods by examinations of blood, stool, urine, sputa and x-rays etc., and a still more expensive treatment, furnish the solution of this gigantic problem for decades to come? How long shall prejudice against new ideas so inherent in human nature, coupled with an anti – propaganda carried on by vested interests continue to obscure vision in relation to Homoeopathy which alone can furnish the answer to this colossal problem?
Homoeopathy has been dubbed as quackery and as being unscientific. One need not be surprised at it. Civilisations friend, philosopher and guide, the grand old Bernard shaw said: “Where there is no ventilation, fresh air is considered unwholesome; where there is no religion, hypocrisy becomes good taste; where there is no knowledge, ignorance calls itself science!” When Galileo first declared before the scientific world that it was the earth which moved round the sun and not vice versa, he was considered to be a heretic, and was persecuted, exiled and even burnt alive.
The discoverer of Homoeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann too suffered exile and had to seek shelter in a foreign land, but he was a bit more lucky inasmuch as he could secure a following in his own life time. Today Homoeopathy is recognised as a scientific art of healing practically all over the world. Its pioneers have been old school (Allopathic) medical men who investigated honestly and were converted.
Its great stronghold is in U.S.A. where there are numerous high grade medical colleges and hospitals catering to the requirement in Homoeopathic education and treatment. Lately England too has accorded official recognition to Homoeopathy by enacting the necessary legislation. On the list of physicians to the Royal family of England has been the eminent homoeopath Sir John Weir for quite a number of years.
In India where old prejudices perhaps die harder than in most other countries, there has been great opposition to the Homoeopathic system of treatment. There has been a persistent and organised opposition from the old school medical practitioners who have always anticipated great injury to their vested interests as homoeopathic treatment is very cheap besides being very rational, scientific an easy to understand and apply.
The heads of the medical and health departments in the governments in various states are allopaths, and on account of traditional prejudices they have been quite unsympathetic so fast as State recognition of Homoeopathy has been concerned. The common mans apathy towards homoeopathy has been due to fact that it involves a considerable modification of the existing ideas about disease and its treatment.
Naturally there has been more confidence in the Ayurvedic system of treatment which is more than 3500 years, old, or in the Allopathic treatment which is about 2300 years old and which, in addition, has been state patronished under the British rule and even after that. Homoeopathy is only about 150 years old. But in spite of the strong current of prejudices and opposition, homoeopathy has made headway in its sacred task of alleviating human suffering.
As there still exists lot of misconception about Homoeopathy, it may not be out of place to present a brief exposition of its principles and the way it works. Homoeopathy is only a new method of treatment and it has no opposition with the other branches of medical science. Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Surgery, Public Health and hygiene are basic or essential subjects which are and should be taught in Homoeopathic Medical Colleges. It is only as regards the outlook on disease, its causation and treatment that Homoeopathy strikes a different note.
To understand disease it is necessary to understand Health first. The human machine is an automatically functioning machine. “In the healthy condition of man”, says Hahnemann, “the spiritual VITAL FORCE, the dynamis that animates the material body, rules with unbounded sway and retains all the parts of the organism in admirable harmonious vital operation, as regards both sensations and functions, so that our indwelling, reason – gifted mind can freely employ this living healthy instrument for the higher purposes of existence.”
Thus, health is the state in which the automatic functioning of the human machinery, its parts, organs, endocrine glands, etc. is carried on by the Vital Force in perfect harmony and peace so as to ensure the maximum physical, mental and spiritual efficiency. The state of health is characterised by a feeling of comfort and ease, by the absence of any morbid sensations.
The VITAL FORCE is the Divine Spark of life or vital energy which is present from the very inception of life, bringing about growth and development in the mothers womb and after that throughout the rest of life till it is extinguished at death. It is the power house that supplies the impetus of growth for the whole economy, the whole individual.
Now what is DISEASE? It is a state of disease, a state in which the normal poise of the healthy state has been disturbed by the impact on the Vital Energy of some force inimical to health, resulting in a deranged functioning of the Vital Energy, on account of which man begins to feel morbid, painful sensations.
In fact, these morbid and painful symptoms and sensations are the earliest and the only indications which the Vital force gives to the individual about the invasion of its harmony, and if the disease cannot be removed at this earliest stage, then follow the other consequences of the disordered functioning of the Vital Energy, viz. disturbances in the functions of the organs and the endocrine glands, the various structural and tissue changes, the alternations in the functions of the organs and the endocrine glands, the various structural and tissue changes, the alternations in the normal nature of the blood, discharges and excreta, and the presence of various germs, worms, parasites, etc.
Now, it is at this stage that the old school physicians, the allopaths, recognise the advent of disease in the human body, which is quite natural in consonance with their materialistic conception of disease and the purely physical and objective methods of investigation, diagnosis and treatment.
In fact, these very conditions are considered by them to be the causes of diseases to which they direct the treatment. But, does it conform to reason and logic? The cause is always prior to the effects. We have already seen that these pathological changes come about sometimes after the man has been actually sick as evinced by the subjective symptoms and sensations, and so they cannot be the real cause of that previously existing sickness.
In fact, the cause of diseases is as subtle, dynamic and invisible as the Vital Energy itself. It is not a material entity which can be seen, touched, or handled physically, but it is a morbific influence or force belonging to the realm of dynamic energy which disturbs and perverts the healthy normal functioning of the Vital Energy, giving rise to morbid sensation and subjective symptoms first, and the germs, worms, pathological changes and objective symptoms afterwards.
If it were not so, how could sickness result from emotional causes e.g. from a fit of anger, or from the shock due to the death of some dear friend or relation? The only way in which the cause of disease can be discerned is by means of the signs & symptoms it produces.
The testtube, the microscope and the most sensitive scientific instruments have failed to demonstrate the mysterious way in which the chain of life is maintained within us and likewise the cause of disease and the mysterious way in which it operates are beyond the ken of the senses or the scientific instruments which can only examine the resultant effects of disease, wrongly considered by the old school of medicine to be the causes of disease.
B.A., M.D.S.
Dehradun, India