Homoeopathy – 1990 Bicentennial of the discovery by Dr Samuel Hahnemann, of homoeopathy.

Mint unhinged set of four stamps, honoring the great man who founded homoeopathy. This is the complete set of four stamps issued by the Homoeopathy Society in New Zealand to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Dr Hahnemann's great discovery.

These are not actual postage stamps. Sold "as is."

===

Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann (1755 – 1843) was a German physician, best known for creating the system of alternative medicine called homeopathy.

Following up the pioneering work of the Viennese physician Anton von Störck, Hahnemann tested substances for the effects they produced on a healthy individual, presupposing (as von Störck had claimed) that they may heal the same ills that they caused. His researches led him to agree with von Störck that the toxic effects of ingested substances are often broadly parallel to certain disease states, and his exploration of historical cases of poisoning in the medical literature further implied a more generalised medicinal "law of similars". He later devised methods of diluting the drugs he was testing in order to mitigate their toxic effects. He claimed that these dilutions, when prepared according to his technique of 'potentization' using dilution & succussion (vigorous shaking), were still effective in alleviating the same symptoms in the sick. His more systematic experiments with dose reduction really commenced around 1800-01 when, on the basis of his 'law of similars,' he had begun using Ipecacuanha for the treatment of coughs and Belladonna for scarlet fever.

He first published an article about the homeopathic approach in a medical journal in 1796. Following a series of further essays, he published in 1810 "Organon of the Rational Art of Healing", followed over the years by four further editions entitled The Organon of the Healing Art, the first systematic treatise & containing all his detailed instructions on the subject.

Add this item to your watchlist.