IRISHMAN: I agree with you to some extent about the body “already reacting”, but playing devil’s advocate here, I was suggesting it was in an UNfocused sort of way. Simply having a high fever isn’t good. Sure, it’s a natural reaction to infection, but if by launching a few killer T-cells your body can kill off the infection more efficaciously, then the energy spent on creating the fever could be used better elsewhere, no? Certain things collect in the liver or pancreas or kidneys (et al) and could perhaps draw the body’s resources there if required.

Another point… The pills were used AS pills, and never diluted. You could smell the C2H5OH when the bottles were opened (Ethyl-Alcohol was always used as the carrier for some reason- I’ve never heard of water being used). I suppose it would disolve the sugar pills? Anyway…

My Uncle’s eye turned in (spasmed) within hours and went blind after he ate the pills (a matter of a day or so until the sight was gone), so the cause & effect seemed clear at the time. Things like that don’t happen spontaneously to my knowledge.

So maybe modern Homeopathists use next to nothing in their pills, but that certainly doesn’t seem to have been the case back in the 1880-1920s. Maybe it *used* to work to some extent.

Samuel Hahnemann formulated his principles of homeopathy early on. They are the “Law of Similars” and the “Law of Infinitesimals”.

The “Law of Similars” is “like cures like”. The principle is as you suggest, that the small amount would trigger your body to react. But here’s the problem – your body is already reacting – or you wouldn’t be sick. So how does the body need a trigger to focus on the ailment you already have if it hasn’t already been focused on that ailment.

I have nausea, so I’ll take something that causes nausea to tell my body to fight nausea. Uh, but it already has a signal to fight nausea – I’m nauseated.

The “Law of Infinitesimals” is the even more bizarre part, the dilute to excess and therefore make more potent. This is contrary to basic chemistry, so the latest proposed explanation is that water has memory and somehow the special “succussions” of the water (special shaking) make the water remember what was in it even after diluting the active ingredient away. Uh huh. Right. Magic shaking.

As for it used to work, when Hahnemann developed homeopathy, the methods of conventional medicine were bleedings, leeches, and such. It was pre-Germ theory. Conventional medicine was hazardous, so doing nothing would have a better recovery rate. Throw in a little placebo to up the ante, and you have plenty of justification for homeopathy working while it really does nothing. Now that we have medicine developed on more sound principles that actually do something, homeopathy is a joke. But a dangerous joke when people turn to homeopathy instead of conventional medicine, such as chemo and radiation for cancer.

As for your uncle, maybe those sugar pills were dosed. Your phrasing suggests that the Old Doc turned the sugar pills into liquid medication. The dosing at the sugar pill level is the first step in the long process of diluting the mix to worthlessness. If so, then it is possible your uncle was dosed by something. Doesn’t make homeopathy worthwhile.

Yes, people are a bunch of cry babies, running to the doctor with every sniffle, cough, etc. when all they really need is to stay home, drink some chicken soup(hey, can’t hurt) and get some rest. Instead we hope for a “magic” pill to fix all our problems. People seem to be AFRAID to be sick, when that is what is approriate to training an effective immune system. Some times we need the doctor, but most people have no idea what is worth the doctors time and what isn’t, because they don’t try to know. Well, it’s their waste of money, but it contributes to long lines at the doctors office and expensive, non-essential testing (mainly to cover the doctors butt).

SciFi writer: hadn’t heard that description of homeopathy before. Thanks for the input. Sounds like an interesting research project.

Gary 7

This only proves that the “ol’ doc” was hideously irresponsible. It does not demonstrate any causative link between the sugar pills and the blindness.

“… It was by the simple expedient of the deliberate introduction of small quantities of POISON (say alkaloids like belladonna) to cause the SAME symptoms that supposedly gave the body the clues it needed to fight the illness.”

The thing is, that homeopathic rememdies don’t contain ANY of the substance that they are prepared from. And homeopathic practitioners claim that the more ultra-diluted preparations are more potent, which makes no sense based on anything anyone knows about biology, chemistry or physics.

“… it is worthy of investigation …”

Yes. Unfortunately, the few rigorous investigations of homeopathy that have been conducted found no difference between the homeopathic remedies and the placebo. I have heard it claimed that the placebo effect is the mechanism by which homeopathy “works”, but if that is the case, what’s the point of going through all the rigmarole of multiple massive serial dilutions?

Proving what? That biological systems show a large intrinsic variation? We’ve known that for decades.

You seem to be advocating that people should not visit their doctor when they feel unwell. I will grant you that things like the common cold, mild forms of ‘flu’ and milder cases of food poisoning, along with most minor injuries, can be dealt with without involving the medical profession. But who is best placed to make that judgement? The medical professionals.

Your position seems to me to be irresponsible, because more severe/virulent infections should be referred to medical pactitioners as soon as possible. The sooner they are treated (or isolated), the fewer other people you infect before you recover.

Yes, or, in fact, Ibuprofen. From 2-(4-(isobutyl) phenyl) propionic acid. I-bu-pro-fen. See?