Hahnemann surmised from this that he had indeed discovered a new system of medicine, in which a drug and a disease that produce similar symptoms cancel each other out in some way, thereby restoring the patient to health. He described this phenomenon as similia similibus curentur, or “like can cure like”, which is the first and foremost rule of homoeopathy.

In 1796 Hahnemann’s first work on this new system of medicine, A New Principle for Ascertaining the Curative Powers of Drugs and Some Examination of Previous Principles, was published. In it he stated “One should imitate Nature which at times heals the chronic illness by another additional one. One should apply in the disease to be healed, particularly if it is chronic, that remedy which is able to stimulate another artificially produced disease as similar as possible and the former will be healed”. He called this principle of healing “homeopathy” from the Greek, homeo, meaning similar, and pathos, meaning suffering. In 1810 he set out the principles of homoeopathy in the Oganon of Rationale Medicine and two years later began teaching homoeopathy at the University of Leipzig.