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Some medical dictionaries define the term Allopathy or '''Allopathic medicine''' as the treatment of disease using conventional medical therapies, as opposed to the use of Alternative Medical or non-conventional therapies.''Stedman's Illustrated Medical Dictionary'', 27th edition (2000).The online edition of the ''Compact Oxford English Dictionary'' (2006). See Also: allopathic allopath The meaning and controversy surrounding the term can be traced to its original usage during a heated 19th-century debate between practitioners of . CURRENT USAGE OF TERM There are several definitions given for allopathic medicine, with different connotations. Modern, regular medicine Some dictionaries define allopathic medicine as conventional medicine. ''Stedman's Illustrated Medical Dictionary'' defines it as " {Link without Title} egular medicine, the traditional form of medical practice", contrasting it with "homeopathy".''Stedman's Illustrated Medical Dictionary'', 27th edition (2000). The '''', online edition (2006). Some authors within the field of Alternative Medicine suggest the meaning of allopathic medicine is derived from a literal translation of its word parts, from the greek ''allo'' meaning ''other'' and ''pathos'' meaning ''suffering.'' Homeopaths gave their opponents this label in reference to the "other suffering" or the Adverse Side Effects caused by the drugs their contemporaries prescribed.Goldberg B, Anderson J, and Trivieri L. ''Allopathic Medicine.'' The Definitive Guide to Alternative Medicine, 2nd ed. Ten Speed Press. 2002. Homeopathy and heteropathy ''Steadman's Medical Dictionary'' calls it a "therapeutic system in which a disease is treated by producing a second condition that is incompatible with or antagonistic to the first."Steadman's Medical Dictionary, 5th edition (2005). '' Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary '' also defines it as a "term applied to that system of therapeutics in which diseases are treated by producing a condition incompatible with or antagonistic to the condition to be cured or alleviated. Called also heteropathy,"Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 26th ed.(2003) ''i.e.'' treating a fever by immersion in cold water. This usage contrasts with the philosophy of homeopathy, which treats disease by prescribing agents that cause symptoms ''similar'' to the condition to be cured, ''i.e.'' treating a fever by wrapping in warm blankets. Hence the terms ''homeopathy'', meaning a treatment "similar to the suffering" and ''heteropathy'', meaning a treatment "opposing of the suffering." Usage controversy, critiques of modern medicine ''Tabor's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary'' presents the application of the term allopathy to conventional medicine as incorrect, saying it is "erroneously used for the regular practice of medicine to differentiate it from homeopathy".Tabor's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary (2001). Many have criticized the use of the pejorative term to describe modern, conventional medicine. Other terms that have been proposed to describe the conventional Western medical system of practice include: Conventional Medicine , Western medicine, Evidence-based Medicine , clinical medicine, scientific medicine, regular medicine, mainstream medicine, standard medicine, orthodox medicine, and authoritarian medicine. Nevertheless, the usage of ''allopathic'' medicine persists, by both critics and practitioners of modern, Western medicine. HISTORY OF TERM 's (1857) painting ''Homeopathy staring at the horrors of Allopathy'' ]] The term was coined by Samuel Hahnemann to differentiate homeopathic practices from conventional medicine, based on the types of treatments used. As used by homeopaths, the term "allopathy" has always referred to a principle of curing disease by administering substances that produce the opposite effect of the disease when given to a healthy human. Hahnemann used this term to distinguish medicine as practiced in his time from his use of infinitesimally small doses of substances to treat the spiritual causes of illness. William Jarvis notes that "although many modern therapies can be construed to conform to an allopathic rationale (eg, using a laxative to relieve constipation), standard medicine has never paid allegiance to an allopathic principle" and that the label "allopath" was "considered highly derisive by regular medicine."William T. Jarvis, Ph.D Misuse of the Term "Allopathy" Whorton also discusses this historical Pejorative usage: The ''Companion Encyclopedia of the History of Medicine'' states that "Hahnemann gave an all-embracing name to regular practice, calling it 'allopathy'. This term, however imprecise, was employed by his followers or other unorthodox movements to identify the prevailing methods as constituting nothing more than a competing 'school' of medicine, however dominant in terms of number of practitioner proponents and patients." In the nineteenth century, some pharmacies labelled their products with the terms allopathic or homeopathic. Hahnemann used the term to refer to what he saw as a system of medicine that combats disease by using remedies that produce effects in a healthy subject that are different (hence Greek root ''allo-'' "different") from those of the disease to be treated. He claimed that his theory of homeopathy, which attempts to mimic the symptoms (hence ''homeo-'', "the same"), was a more effective and humane alternative. Contrary to the present usage, Hahnemann reserved the term of "allopathic" medicine to the practice of treating diseases by means of drugs inducing symptoms unrelated (i.e. neither similar nor opposite) to those of the disease. He called instead "enantiopathic" or "antipathic" the practice of treating diseases by means of drugs producing symptoms opposite to those of the patient (e.g. see Organon, VI edition, paragraphs 54-56). After Hahnemann's death the term "enantiopathy" fell in disuse and the two concepts of allopathy and enantiopathy have been more or less unified. Both, however, indicate what Hahnemann thought about contemporary conventional medicine, rather than the current ideas of his colleagues. Conventional physicians had never assumed that the therapeutic effects of drugs were necessarily related to the symptoms they caused in the healthy: e.g. James Lind in 1747 systematically tested several common substances and foods for their effect on scurvy and discovered that lemon juice was specifically active; he clearly did not select lemon juice because it caused symptoms in the healthy man, either similar or opposite to those of scurvy. Practitioners of alternative medicine have used the term "allopathic medicine" to refer to the practice of conventional medicine in both Europe and the United States since the 19th Century . In the U.S., this was also referred to as regular medicine — that is, medicine that was practiced by the ''regulars''. The practice of "conventional" medicine in both Europe and America during the 19th century is sometimes referred to as the age of 'heroic medicine' (because of the 'heroic' measures such as bleeding and purging). SEE ALSO
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