Homeopathic drug proving
From Wiki4CAM
Drug proving is a homeopathic methodology of systematic investigation of the pathogenic (disease-producing) power of medicine on healthy human beings of different ages, sexes, and constitutions. These recordings of drug proving give the only reliable knowledge of medicines which is very essential to cure disease homeopathically. It is a concept unique to homeopathy, whereby the pathogenic effect of a drug substance is ascertained on the basis of its effects on healthy human beings. Drugs are given to healthy human volunteers, and the effect thus produced on the physical and mental planes is noted, to evolve the Drug Picture. The proving experiment by Hahnemann was by no means unique, as others before him had tried the same approach, such as, for example, Anton von Störck [1731-1803] and Albrecht von Haller, [1708-77], who Hahnemann hugely admired, and whose Materia Medica he translated in 1806.
Different medicines must be proved thoroughly in order to obtain full details of their curative properties. The drug must be proved on (healthy) human beings because:
- Animals do not give subjective or mental symptoms.
- Effects of the same drug on animals and on human beings are different.
- We do not get the modalities and finer symptoms in animal provings.
- The symptoms of the drug and the disease will be mixed together.
- Moreover, the action of the drug on the sick person is different from its action on a normal person.
