Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843) was a German physician, best known for creating the pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine called homeopathy. Hahnemann studied medicine and in 1781, he took a village doctor's position in the copper-mining area of Mansfeld, Saxony. Hahnemann was dissatisfied with the state of medicine in his time, and particularly objected to practices such as bloodletting. He claimed that the medicine he had been taught to practice sometimes did the patient more harm than good. After giving up his practice around 1784, he devoted himself to developing a new system of alternative medicine which was based on a principle "like cures like"" and he named it homeopathy."