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Abstract. Metaphors play an important role in the terminology of anatomy and pathology. Homoeopathic cures based on the metaphorising object are common as well. Pure homoeopathy, based on physical similarity, cannot clearly be distinguished from verbal homoeopathy, based on homonymy or homophony.
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The 'word' is the clue to the 'world'.1 When Plato in his Cratylus examines a theory of 'correctness of names' to the effect that the names of things are coded descriptions from which their true nature can be extracted by the alleged science of etymology,2 he in fact expresses a world-view which was firmly embedded in the Greek system of thought. The Greeks indeed believed that the term defining an object held the essence, the eTi>M.ov, of this object, so that homonyms and homophones should be in absolute sympathy with each other.3 This belief is particularly obvious in the field of medicine, where a disease or diseased part of the body often bears a name identical with, or closely resembling, that of the remedy. This phenomenon was first called verbal homoeopathy in the year 1927 by the American scholar E. S. McCartney, who pointed out that for the ancients an identity or similarity of name also meant an identity or similarity of function or power.4 It is very difficult, however, to make a clear distinction between homoeopathic medicine pure and simple and so-called verbal homoeopathy. In the former the curative power would be based on a resemblance in appearance, while in the latter the name alone would be enough to exert some sort of magic influence. Obviously in many cases there will be a combination of both The following examples will make this clear.
The well-known homoeopathic principle similia similibus curantur ('like things by like are cured') finds a very good illustration in the first chapter of the second book of the Cyranides, a medico-magical prescription book of the fourth century AD.5 This chapter is completely devoted to the therapeutical virtues of the bear, which are said to be very high because of the complete similarity of this animal to a human being. The bones of its head are used to cure headaches, its eyes for eye-diseases, its ear-wax for earache, its teeth for toothache, and...