AUSTRALIAN NATUROPATHIC NETWORK
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On the 10th April 1755 Hahnemann was born in Meissen, Saxony (part of Germany) to his father Christian Gottfried and mother Johanna Christianna. His family were middle-class and quite poor. Both his mother and father taught him to read and write but he credits his father with instilling "good and worthy" ideas into his mind []

Childhood was filled with attaining "knowledge by every possible means"[] He pursued his education with great passion throughout his boyhood and became a talented linguist of eight languages. By his late teens his interests developed in medicine and sciences. Thus, he trained as a doctor, studying at Leipzig and Vienna before finally qualifying at Erlangen in 1779[]. In the latter part of 1782, aged 27, he married Johanna Kuchler, the daughter of an apothecary. They produced eleven children (9 daughters and 2 sons).

To earn sufficient income during the early years he would not only practice as a doctor but also translate medical and scientific texts.

He placed his energy into his "beloved chemistry" because of his dissatisfaction with the methods used by current medical practitioners to cure the unwell[]. Such methods included:

• Use of leeches
• Bloodletting
• Toxic substances such as Arsenic and Mercury being given as medicine.
• Sweating and salivation
• The use of purging and emetics
• The use of burning and searing with a hot iron
• The use of irritants to evoke suppurations and discharges.

In 1790 Hahnemann gave away his medical practice. During this time while translating A Treatise on the Materia Medica by Cullen, Hahnemann established the beginning of his new medical practice. He read that the drug cinchona was effective in the treatment of malaria because it was bitter and astringent and had a toning effect on the stomach. Hahnemann was not satisfied by this statement for, if it were true, then all bitter, astringent substances should likewise be effective in the treatment of malaria, and they were not. []

Hahnemann decided to experiment with the effects of cinchona upon himself and discovered that the symptoms that it produced in him were similar to the symptoms of malaria. He subsequently speculated that the curative action of the drug may lie in the similarity of the symptoms of the malarial disease and the symptoms able to be produced by the drug. As a result, he began to test other drugs of the day, such as belladonna, camphor, and aconitum, to study the symptoms that they produced. On the results of these tests, he began to think seriously about a new medical principle, the principle of cure by similars[]. Thus, the seeds of the beginning of homoeopathy were being laid.

It took a further 6 years (1796) before "he first communicated to the world by means of public print his new discovery in medicine"[] The reason for this delay was because of the enormous amount of research that he had conducted.

Allopathic doctors ridiculed and persecuted him but he was persistent and continued to perform further research. In 1805 he published a "very important book" in Latin, which was the first collection of provings ever made upon the healthy body.

In 1810 the "Organon of rational healing" was published, which later became known as the bible of homoeopathy.

In 1811 the family moved to Leipzig to spread the word and educate young medical students about homoeopathy, much to the angst of the allopaths. The struggle was extremely difficult, Hahnemann was "met with nothing but derision and contempt from his colleges".

At the university that he was teaching a small group of students joined him and pursued research and later went on to practice. Because of his growing success with treatment, jealousy arose from his allopathic colleagues and eventually they forced him to move. They did this by persecuting him and the court then prevented him from dispensing his own medicines. Hahnemann moved to Koethen in 1821, where he devoted his time completely to the practice of Homoeopathy. Even though this was a period of time when many people would travel hundreds of miles to see Hahnemann, life was still full of harassment and attacks, so he began to isolate himself. This left his cause kind of leaderless, and different sects formed within Homoeopathy- this brought out the occasional outburst by Hahnemann.

In 1828 Hahnemann published The Chronic Diseases, Their Peculiar Nature and Their Homoeopathic Cure.

In 1828 the Homoeopathic Society was formed.

In 1830 (march 31st), Hahnemann’s wife died at age 67 years. Between 1831-2 cholera spread throughout Europe. During this time Homoeopathic treatment had proportionally greater success than allopathic treatment. In 1832 the Homoeopathic Hospital and Medical School was created in Leipzig.

In 1834 Homoeopathy expanded into America.

In 1835 Hahnemann marries Miss Marie Melanie d’Hervilly Gohier from France. She is 45 years younger than him. They moved to Paris in June of that year. He continued to work hard and prospered, as did Homoeopathy. On July 2nd 1843, Hahnemann died leaving the world the legacy of Homoeopathy.

His greatest literary works are:

• The Lesser Writings of Samuel Hahnemann
• Organon of the Medical Art
• Materia Medica Pura (vol. 1 & 2)
• Chronic Diseases (vol. 1 & 2)