Basic laws of homoeopathy
1.) Law of similarity:
Homoeopathy is a medical system with remedies, which are prescribed by the law of similarity. This similarity refers to the similarity between the symptoms of the patient (not the name of the disease, which is the diagnose) and the symptoms produced in healthy persons by a drug.
2.) Remedy proving in healthy persons:
The prior condition of using a drug homoeopathically is the proving of that drug in healthy persons. If a healthy person take such a drug the organism will produce different symptoms. As Dr. Hahnemann observed in his experiment with the drug "China": He got symptoms like malaria and china is able to cure malaria.
3.) Single remedy:
In classical homoeopathy the remedy that is most similar to the symptoms of the patient is given. Not two or three remedies, it should be looked for the one remedy that covers the symptoms of the patients the best, similar to the symptoms that arose in the remedy proving.
4.) Minimum dose:
If such a drug is given to a patient according the law of similarity and the drug is given in a high dose the patient will suffer a great change for the worse of his symptoms. To avoid such an aggravation of the symptoms Hahnemann invented a process of reducing the material dose of the substance. He standardized that process and called it potency (see Potency).
If these four criteria come together in a remedy for a patient it is called a homoeopathic prescription.