Etymology
Homeopathy derives its name from the Greek words “Homoeo” (meaning similar) and “Pathos” (meaning suffering).

What is Homeopathy?
Homeopathy is an alternative healing science based on nature's law of cure. Although the Homeopathic principle was mentioned in ancient Ayurvedic texts as Tadarthakari Chikitsa (treatment by similars) and this concept of healing was known even during the times of Hippocrates and Paracelsus, it was rediscovered and formalized into a system of medicine by Dr. Christian Gottfried Frederick Samuel Hahnemann.

Discovery of Homeopathy
Dr. Hahnemann, dissatisfied by the then existing system of medicine, gave up clinical practice and started translating or editing medical literature instead since he was a master of several languages. When translating Cullen's materia medica, he was not convinced by the explanation offered for the cure of malaria by an extract from the Cinchona bark. Having decided to experiment upon himself, he began consuming the extract in regular doses. To his surprise, in a few days, he started manifesting signs and symptoms that were very similar to those of malaria. After experimenting with other substances similarly, he realized that a substance capable of producing a particular set of symptoms in a healthy person is capable of curing similar symptoms in a diseased individual.

Principles of Homeopathy
    Law of Similia (Similia Similibus Curentur which means that like cures like)
    Law of Simplex (Only one remedy must be used at a time and it must be simplistic)
    Law of Minimum (The dose and dosage of the remedy must be minimal)
    Doctrine of Drug Proving (Remedy research must be carried out on humans by the process of drug       proving)
    Theory of Chronic Diseases (Chronic diseases are caused by miasms which need to be removed       first)
    Theory of Vital Force (The spiritual dynamis that animates the material human body and maintains       health)
    Doctrine of Drug-Dynamization (Remedies are prepared by potentizing the original crude substance)

Mode of action of Homeopathic medicines
Homeopathic remedies are bioenergetic therapeutic agents, which act as immunomodulators so as to restore health by stimulating the healing powers of the deranged vital force. In simple words, the homeopathic medicines, being highly diluted by the process of dynamization, retain only the healing energies of the original drug molecules without the molecules themselves, thus making them absolutely safe and gentle. They induce an artificial disease in the body that is similar and stronger than the natural disease. This evokes a curative reaction from the body, which constantly endeavors to maintain that perfect dynamic equilibrium between the physical, psychological, and spiritual processes. A single remedy that covers the entire case right from the pathology to the patient's personality is called that individual's constitutional remedy or the similimum.

Homeopathic remedies are not placebos
Homeopathy has often attracted criticism from modern day scientists due to the fact that during dynamization, once the 12C potency is reached, Avogadro's number is surpassed, which means that not even a single molecule of the original substance remains in the medicine. However, theories have been propounded on the quantum theory whereby energy packets are released during the processes of trituration and succussion (methods of dynamization in homeopathy) due to the friction between the drug substance molecules and the molecules of the vehicular mediums such as water, alcohol, or saccharum lactis (sugar of milk). These bioenergies are stored in the memory of the vehicular molecules and these energies are responsible for subtly stimulating the immunity and harmonizing the functions of the body. This memory storage, although not demonstrable, has been likened to the hereditary information storage by genes on the chromosomes in the DNA.
It has been proved that while strong stimuli destroy or inhibit cellular activity, moderate stimuli inhibit or have no effect at all. On the other hand, weak stimuli may actually stimulate cellular activity. This observation definitely speaks in favor of homeopathy. Also, cures brought about by homeopathic medicines in infants and even in animals, bust the ideation of homeopathy being merely a placebo science.

The Homeopathic treatment process
Homeopathy has the reputation of bringing about cures rather than simply suppressing the symptoms because it treats the patient as a whole and not part-by-part. It takes into consideration the individual's personality, temperament, constitution, attitudes, attributes, complete past and family history and predispositions, behavioral patterns, diet and regimen, socio-economic position, and uniqueness in the manifestation of the disease. Hence, the case taking procedure is the longest and most essential part of the treatment. The homeopathic physician meticulously and systematically records all the necessary details of the patient, analyzes and evaluates the case to eventually arrive at the similimum for the case.