This is in striking contrast to orthodox medicine where objective findings, results of X-rays, ultrasounds, CT scans, laboratory findings and other tests, will determine further management of the patient. An American homeopath Constantine Hering published his work 'The Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica' in ten volumes. Another homeopath, T.P. Allen, compiled 'Encyclopaedia of Pure Materia Medica' in eleven volumes. Participants have used no objective tests to compare the results, only compilation of subjective feelings. The slogan 'Similia Similibus Curentur' became primarily important as the battle cry of homeopathy for public consumption.
Every successful doctrine has to have a simple leading axiom.
The 'Princeps Regulator' described by G.E. Stahl in 1707 was accepted by Hahnemann as the 'Vis Vitalis', the hypothetical life principle. The Vital Force was one of the brainchildren of Stahl. Fire was explained on the basis of a hypothetical substance called Phlogiston, a spirit of combustion, an essential part of all combustible matter that was released in the process of burning. Fire and its accompanying heat was a substance detached from burning matter, although no one could explain why, if this were the case, metals weighed more after burning than before. Lavoisier proved that Phlogiston of Stahl was only a fiction of his imagination, more hindering than helping in explanation of various chemical reactions.