General and Systematic Veterinary Pharmacology

REVOLTS IN MEDICINE

• By the beginning of 19th century the principle of shotgun prescription flourished (Shotgun prescription is one that contains a number of substances with no therapeutic efficacy. It is a result of ignorant attempt to cure the disease, no matter what may be its nature).
• Gregory advocated methods like venesection, leeching emetics and drastic purgatives. Large doses of purgatives were given. The patient either survived or died. This sort of symptomatic treatment was referred to as allopathy meaning 'other suffering'. This term allopathy is now being used to refer modern medicine.
• Samuel Hahnemann introduced homeopathy meaning ‘similar suffering’ at the commencement of 19th century. In Greek, “homos” means same and “patheia” means suffering. He was known as the father of homeopathy. Homeopathy introduced by him had two newer principles that ‘like cures like’ and ‘dilution potentiates the action of drugs’.