... THAT CONSEQUENTLY HOMEOPATHY WILL IN NO OTHER FIELD BE MORE WIDESPREAD THAN IN VETERINARY-MEDICINE - ON THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY HOMEOPATHY IN GERMANY

The subject of this article is the historical development of veterinar y homoeopathy in Germany until 1945. Turning away from drastic healing methods around 1800, Samuel Hahnemann started to develop his homoeopa thic system which since the 1820ies was also applied in the treatment of animals, especially by laymen. The number of homoeopathically-orien ted veterinarians remained small. This is also true for veterinary-hom oeopathic articles claiming to be scientific while there was a conside rable number of popular articles to be found. The professors of the ve terinary teaching institutions rejected homoeopathy. At the end of the 19th century hardly anything was heard about veterinary homoeopathy, at least among the professionals. Scientific success in human and vete rinary medicine pushed Hahnemann's teachings and those of his successo r3s into the background. In the 1920ies homoeopathy was revived and th e position of the renowned surgeon August Bier played an important par t in that. Members of the ''Studiengemeinschaft fur tierarztliche Homo pathie'' (Study Group for Veterinary Homoeopathy) which was founded in 1936 started to investigate the effects of homoeopathic drugs systema tically. The war put an end to this project. The present situation of veterinary homoeopathy in Germany can be described as follows: Neither have allopathy and homoeopathy been united, as it had been predicted, nor has classical medicine accepted homoeopathy as a scientific disci pline. Hahnemann's demand to make his teachings a part of the veterina ry studies remains unfulfilled until today.