How to select the Similimum

Each drug proving contained thousands of symptoms collected from a number of provers both males and females. Many symptoms of each drug were found common to a number of drugs, but a small number of symptoms were found to be peculiar to a particular drug alone. Many symptoms were unqualified, but some symptoms were qualified and characteristic. Some drugs showed definite affinity for the mind or some organs of the body, others showed definite pathogenesis. All these findings produced a problem for the selection of a drug for the disease of a patient. Hence the second question that Hanemann had to answer was “How to select the Similimum”? Hanemann handed over the task to his legal adviser Von Boenninghausen who was helping him and contributing his experiences to the homeopathic literature, especially on the subject of “Evaluation of symptoms for the selection of the Simillimum”.