Practical handbook for using homoeopathy in the context of one's own personal and family health care.

A practical guide for the general public on how to use homeopathy for personal and family health care. It addresses 116 situations likely to be encountered in everyday life, with a particular warning that self-medication is in certain situations inappropriate if not dangerous.

Dr Gemmell starts by describing the thinking behind homoeopathic medicine, the emphasis it places on relating treatment to a proper assessment of each patient as an individual person, and its freedom from toxic side effects. There is the necessary information on how to observe symptoms and select a remedy, as well as on potency and dosage.
He presents the material in four sections — accidents and first aid, the problems of women, children's problems and general problems -explaining the nature of each problem and suggesting commonsense measures to be taken whatever else is done. He then discusses the particular symptoms and personal circumstances which may be present, using these to point to the appropriate homoeopathic treatment.
He highlights the cases where self-treatment is out of place and medical advice must be sought without delay. He also highlights the cases where homoeopathy may well provide more effective help than conventional medicine, but where self-treatment is equally inappropriate and a professional homoeopathic evaluation should be obtained.

After three years in hospital posts, Dr David Gemmell worked as a principal in general practice in the UK National Health Service and abroad. He then trained in homoeopathic medicine, becoming Medical Registrar at the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital and subsequentl) Director of Education at the Faculty of Homoeopathy. He practised privately as a consultant homoeopath until his untimely death in 1995. He had all but finished his work on this new edition, which was completed for publication by his friend and colleague Dr Janet Gray.