A brief history of Homoeopathy
Homoeopathy has been well established for almost 200 years. Homoepathic practitioners have over 2,000 remedies available to them, although most diseases are in fact treated by less than 100 of these remedies today.

Homoepathy was developed by Dr Samuel Hahnemann (1755 - 1843), although some credit must go to Paracelsus, born around 1493, who put forward the original theory.
 
History tells that Hahnemann was translating a scientific paper by William Cullen, a Scottish physician, on his theory why Cinchona Bark (a source of quinnie and a popular drug at the time) was successful in treating Malaria. Hahnemann found that he disagreed entirely with the findings. In his youth he had travelled in a particular part of Hungary where Marsh Fever or Malaria had been rife. He had used the herb, Cinchona Bark, but his experience did not support the conclusions of Cullen's paper. He decided to carry our some experiments of his own.

Firstly, he took a does of the herb himself and he found that he developed symptoms very much like Marsh Fever. He realised that the cure of the disease could cause the symptoms of the of the disease. He tried it on his family, friends and volunteers and they all developed the same sort of symptoms. He experimented with this one drug on many people and the majority of them told the same story.

So he developed the principle that a substance which will create the symptoms of a disease in a healthy person will actually cure that disease in a sick person. Hahnemann called this principle "Similia, similibus curentur" or "let like be cured by like".

He went on to "prove", as it is called some 67 remedies on his many healthy students, family and friends. His findings were published in a Materia Medica of 1810. Many of the substances Hahnemann used were highly poisonous, for example arsenic and mercury, and to avoid the toxic effect, he experimented with smaller and smaller doeses. By experimentation, he found that successive dilutions of a substance became progressively more medicinally active, and less toxic.

Hahnemann developed the system of homoepathic 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 rhythmical shaking of the liquid which helps to release the energy within the substance.

The dilution is called a 1C homoepathic 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.
   
Such was Hahnemann's success, particularly with endermic diseases, that homoeopathy quickly spread throughout Europe and across to America. Dr Frederick Harvey Foster Quin introduced homoeopathy into Great Britain in the late 1820's and 1849 founded the London Homoeopathic Hospital.

Understanding The Human Being
Advances in technology have encourged a view of the human being as a machine whose breakdown results in illness. On this basis important chemotherapeutic drugs have been developed which can oppose and control disease processes. Anthroposophic medicines work differently.

They make use of Man's relationship to the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms from which they are prepared. They base their action on a "fourfold" understanding of the human body which explains the interrelationships of bodily, soul and spiritual activities within the human organism. This interaction determines the balance between health and illness.

All of Nature in Man
Rudolf Steiner saw Man primarily as a "fourfold" being. To understand this, we need to consider the human being in relation to the kingdoms of nature.

Firstly consider the mineral kingdom. It is dead, inanimate - a stone does not move unless an external force is applied to it. It is physical structure only, without life of its own. Steiner called this the "physical body". In the human body the skeleton is the most mineralised "stone-like" part and can be likened to the mineral kingdom.

Then there is the plant kingdom. Clearly the plant has a physical structure, but unlike a stone it possesses a life force which enables it to grow, to have shape, to multiply, to live. Steiner named this the "etheric body".

Next the animal kingdom. An animal has a physical body and an etheric body, like a plant. Animals differ from plants however, because they also achieve a certain level of conscious awareness. They have feelings which are expressed through drives, desires, pain and pleasure.

We can say that animals are not only living beings, but "ensouled beings" with feelings. Steiner called this the "astral body".

Human beings share all three kingdoms of nature - the physical body, the etheric body and the astral body - but the human being is unique. Humans differ from animals in that they have self awarness. Humans, unlike other living beings, possess an "ego".

The power of this individual ego enables humans to walk erect, to speak and think, to be creative, to develop (and also to destroy) civilisations. It also enables humans to enter into the spirit of things in a way that is unique among living beings. We see evidence of this in the artistic and social achievements of humanity.

The human being has certain capacities which animals lack. Animals do not have a creative culture. Wasps build their nests the way they have always done, and nothing new has been consciously developed by them over the centuries.

Foxes use the same technique as their ancestors did for catching chickens. They do not look back upon their history and apply what they have learned to developing new and more effective methods. They do not participate consciously in the process of their own development and evolutio. Man therefore is made up of physical, etheric, astral and ego as a fourfold being.

The Human Body
Anthroposophic medicine also considers the human being to be made up of three functional systems.

"Sense-Nervous" system:
We have nerves everywhere, but the main centre of the nervous system is in the head and the spinal column. The sense-nervous system centres on cooling , hardening processes, often developing their over-activity in old age when these processes increase. A good example of this is rheumatism.

"Reproductive-Metabolic" system:
Centered below the diaphragm, this system includes - those parts which are in constant motion. This system works in the realm of warmth and softening, associated with the building up and enlivening processes in the body, for example inflammatory illnesses or conditions often associated with childhood, like fevers and mumps.

"Rhythmic" system:
This system balances the sense-nervouse system and the reproductive-metabolic system. The heart and lungs are situated in this rhythmic system, as is the circulation.

Under normal circumstances the three systems interact harmoniously, maintaining the health of the human being. Illness is seen as a result of disharmony, which causes an imbalance in the subtle interplay of forces which make up the whole human being. It is this picture of man which is used in anthroposophic medicine to identify the illness, so the doctor can decide on a type of treatment which may include not only medicine but also artistic therapies and counselling where necessary.

Medicinal Plants
Rudolf Steiner made a remarkable discovery about medicinal plants. He found that a plant with healing qualities often has a disortion or abnormality in its proportions or make-up - which we call its morphology - when compared to "ideally proportioned" non medicinal plants. An ideal plant would have perfect harmony between flower, leaf and root, just as teh three systems of the human being are in harmony in health. In humans, an imbalance between these systems leads to illness. Similarly in a plant an imbalance between the three parts demonstrates a healing quality.

Using the relationship of the plant parts to systems of the body, coupled with the knowledge of what makes a medicinal plant, we can identify plants that can be used in anthroposophic medicine and see which parts can be used to treat which illnesses.

Bryonia Root:
Bryonia is unusual in that its leaves and flowers are small and insignificant. Instead all its energy goes into its root, which can develop to a huge size weighing up to 10kg. This would suggest that Bryonia has a medicinal action as it is distorted from the "ideal plant". As the distortion is in the root, the action of Bryonia is centered on our sense-nervous system. Bryonia root is in fact used for streaming colds and catarrh, where the head feels as if it is bursting.

 Nettle (Urtica dioica):
Nettles appear to be just leaves. While the root system is not inconsiderable, during the growth period the nettle produces an abundance of green leafy growth. The flowers and fruit of the plant are so insignificant that many people do not even see them.

In the nettle the distortion from the "ideal plant" is in the leaf, suggesting that its medicinal action will be in our rhythmic system. Breathing and circulation depends on iron contained in the red blood cells, the haemoglobin. The nettle is uniquely capable of dealing with iron and its action is to stimulate the natural assimilation of iron in those who have lost this ability, who may be suffering from anaemia for example.
   
Chamomile:
The chamomile plant produces a profusion of flowers. From the anthroposophic viewpoint this would indicate its action would be on the reproductive-metabolic system, which includes the digestive system. Chamomile flowers are used widely for calming upsets of the digestive tract such as stomach cramps, wind and indigestion.

The parts of a plant can be related directly to the three systems in the human being. The root of the plant is cold and hard - relating to our cold, hard sense-nervous system, centered in the head. The leaves of the plant relate to our rhythmic system, which contains the breathing apparatus. In the plant the leaves, too, breathe, absorbing gases and capturing the sun's energy through the green chlorophyll pigment. The flowers and fruit of the plant relate, not surprisingly, to our reproductive-metabolic system.

The combined understanding of the full nature of Man with his three functional systems (sense-nervous, reproductive-metabolic and rhythmic), together with the knowledge of the substances of nature has allowed the development of a wide range of anthroposophic remedies from Over-The-Counter to Prescription Only medicines.