Samuel Hahnemann

Samuel Hahnemann
1755-1843

was born on April 10, 1755 in Meissen, Saxony, the son of a porcelain painter. At the age of 20, he took up the study of medicine, qualifying in 1779 in Erlangen. Deeply dissatisfied with the medicine of his time, he began to search for alternative healing methods.

In 1790 while experimenting on himself with cinchona, Hahnemann discovered the “law of similars,” the method of action of homeopathic remedies: the remedy heals precisely those symptoms that it can generate when taken by healthy persons. This was the birth of homeopathy. Later on, he discovered the potentization of remedies, which is the form in which well-chosen homeopathic remedies can have their best effect. In 1810, the first edition of his “Organon“ appeared, containing Hahnemann's statement of the principles of his new method of healing.

He vehemently defended his new method, which brought him many enemies in the conventional medical profession.

He emigrated in 1835 to Paris, where he led a large practice with his second wife, dying there in 1843.