The cinchona bark experiment
The work of a translator finally became his destiny. When translating the “Treatise on the Materia Medica” from English in 1790, he doubted the accuracy of the effect of the cinchona bark in its application against malaria. He conducted the first drug trial, which has gone down in history as the cinchona bark trial.
Hahnemann observed a pathological condition in himself in repeated tests which seemed to be similar to alternating fever (malaria). In the following years, Hahnemann tested other drugs and came to the same observations as in the cinchona bark experiment. Over the years he developed the so-called “similarity rule” as a principle for the correct choice of the appropriate drug.
First published by Hahnemann in the “Hufeland Journal” in 1796, this year is therefore considered the birth year of homeopathy. Over the years Hahnemann wrote down his findings and in 1810 the “Organon der rationellen Heilkunde” was published. It is the reform work of an ingenious loner with the aim of finding better ways to treat and cure sick people.
The Organon is the foundation of homeopathy, the core sentence of which appears here in its entirety for the first time: Simila similibus curentur = Similar things can be cured by similar things. The term homeopathy also appears here for the first time. Hahnemann also gave instructions that are still valid today about disinfection in infectious diseases, domestic cleanliness, nutrition, child care and education.
He expressed surprising views about the cause of cholera. He attributed it, long before the bacteriological era, to “the smallest living creatures” that were transmitted from person to person. As a pharmacist and chemist, he also wrote the “Apotheker-Lexikon”.
For decades it was a much sought-after and much used reference work. Hahnemann died in 1843 at the age of 88 in Paris, working as a doctor until his death.
