Homeopathy in Organic Livestock Production

Glen Dupree, DVM

Written for both organic farmers and homeopaths, this book is a comprehensive and indispensiable guide for the application of homeopathy on sustainable livestock farms.
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Genus Epidemicus Prescribing

Homeopathy is generally considered to be a medicine of the individual because of its basic tenets.  This individualistic approach would seem to limit the usefulness of Homeopathy in epidemics and in herd health.  Such is not the case thanks to the genius of Samuel Hahnemann.

Relatively early in the development of Homeopathy, Hahnemann was put in the position to treat an entire population in the face of an epidemic.  Through observation of the symptoms present in the population, Hahnemann recognized that there were consistent symptoms which ran through the patients affected by the epidemic.  

From these consistent symptoms, he concluded that the epidemic could be treated in the same fashion individuals are treated – based on the unique symptoms present.  It was at this time that he developed the concept of the Genus Epidemicus – the remedy for the epidemic.

In the face of an epidemic/contagious outbreak (remember the definition of acute disease), the common symptoms of the contagion – the ones manifest by the majority of the affected population – are grouped and analyzed as if they were present in an individual.  From this analysis, a small group of remedies for the epidemic present themselves.  The remedy which most closely resembles the symptoms of the epidemic is selected and given to the affected population at large.

With this approach, most of the affected individuals will be helped.  The ones who are not improved by this Genus remedy, or who have lingering symptoms, must then be treated individually because the remaining symptoms are a manifestation of the activated chronic disease of the individual, not of the acute disease of the epidemic.

Using this approach, herds, flocks, kennels, and communities can be treated with Homeopathy in the face of an outbreak or epidemic as readily as an individual can be treated under normal circumstances.