This friend of mine is taking a homeopathic remedy for a cold. He explained that it’s “the vibration of the molecules of the plant” that is the active remedy here. What’s up with this?
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Homeopathy was founded by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843). He enunciated what remain today the guiding principles of homeopathic medicine, the foremost of which is the Law of Similars: if a large amount of medicine produces a given symptom, then a small amount of the medicine will stimulate the body to combat that symptom. This isn’t a completely crazy concept; modern vaccines use the same basic idea. The twist with homeopathic medicines is that they reverse the usual understanding of dose effectiveness. Mainstream science holds that, generally speaking, the potency of a drug increases with the dose. Homeopathy–in particular, the Law of Infinitesimals–says the medicine’s effectiveness decreases with the dose. The less you use, the better it works! Which might lead one to conclude that it works best if you don’t use any at all.
Homeopaths don’t say that, of course, but it’s the practical impact of the fantastic dilutions they employ. Two scales are used, X and C. A 1X solution means the original medicine (the “mother tincture”) was diluted with water, alcohol, or whatever to one part in ten, or 1/10; 2X is 1/100; 3X is 1/1,000; etc. A 1C solution is 1/100, 2C is 1/10,000, 3C is 1/1,000,000, and so on. Most homeopathic remedies range from 6X to 30X. At 30X, chances are that a given dose of the medicine doesn’t contain a single molecule of the original, but some dilutions go a lot higher than that. I’ve heard of one cold remedy with a dilution of 200C, which mathematically is less than one molecule per all the known matter in the universe.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Slug Signorino.
