Homeopathy as a science of medical treatment has a philosophy of its own and its therapeutics is based on certain fundamental principles. These are:

· Law of Similia

· Law of Simplex

· Law of Minimum

· Doctrine of Drug Proving

· Theory of Chronic Disease

· Theory of Vital Force

· Doctrine of Drug-Dynamisation

The law of similars

The first and most important “natural law” expressed by Hahnemann, the one from which homeopathy derives its name, is similia similibus curentur—let like cure like. This means that the appropriate substance to treat a disease is one which induces similar symptoms in a healthy person. Then, it is crucial to know the symptoms associated with various substances, remedial pathogeneses. They are to be determined by drug provings on healthy persons, in which subjects take the remedy and record all physical, mental, emotional and modal changes in symptoms.

The Principle of Dilution

Hahnemann developed the system of homeopathic dilution, where one part of the starting material (usually plant extract) is diluted with 99 parts of diluent (usually alcohol and water). The mixture is then “succussed” or “potentised”, which is a rhythmical shaking of the liquid which helps to release the energy within the substance. The dilution is called a 1C homeopathic potency. The process of dilution can be repeated with the 1C potency to make a 2C potency, and so on until the desired potency is reached. Hahnemann discovered that by administering infinitesimally small doses, he not only cured ailments without undesirable side effects but in fact the cure was more effective than with larger doses. Later two more scales for menufacturing homeopathic medicines were created. The Decimal scale developed by Hering uses the 1:9 ratio for successive dilution, whereas the LM scale given by Dr. Hahnemann uses a dilution scale of 1:50,000.