More than 200 years ago, a German, Samuel Hahnemann, tested Quinine on himself trying to find out why it was a relief for those suffering of Malaria. Quinine gave him cold and a temperature, which are symptoms of Malaria. That led him to set up a general principle: “simila similibus curantur”, whatever is similar cures similar complaints. He acted thus against the convention of the time which led doctors to try and eliminate the symptoms.		Both simple concepts went well with a time when human Physiology was very little known.     Hahnemann spent the rest of his life trying all kinds of natural substances to cure illnesses with similar effects, once the effects of those substances had been successfully tested. At present, Homeopathy is still based on Hahnemann’s list and the instructions he prescribed.
Worried as he was for the toxic and secondary effects of his medicines, he tried to dilute them. This way he obviously found that the secondary effects decreased to the point of disappearing as the dilution kept increasing. He did not infer the positive effects were rooted in the substance but in the dilution. Hence the second homeopathic law or ‘law of infinitesimals’.

    Homeopathic medicines come with their dilution level specified. 40X means dilution 1:10, shake, dilution 1:10, shake, .. and so forth up to 40 times. Another example: 200 C (for the oscillococcinum, indicated for influenza), which means 1:100, 200 times, which means that we could find the molecule of a substance in 1 followed by 400 zeros of water molecules. The whole universe only has 1 followed by 80 zeros of elemental particles. Actually, Hahnemann did not know Avogrado’s number yet.

    Today we know that the positive effects of his Medicine were due to the placebo effect, as there is not medicine in his medicines. His patients got relief out of them at the same time as nature proceeded with its self-repairing function since it was not harmful as other remedies of his time, like bleeding , mercury and so on.

    However, the present homeopaths know perfectly that their concoctions have not got a single molecule of the substances written on the label. They are just water and alcohol, which makes them appeal to a third law, the “law of remembrance”. That water remembers that those molecules were there some time earlier.
    Curiously enough, one way to find out the true results of a product is to carry out scientific tests resorting to infinite dilution. If the effect does not go away at a null concentration it holds true that the effect has nothing to do with the substance being tested.

Thus, those pills which are being sold in our chemists(!) are just lactose or sucrose with a drop of dilution in which there is nothing. Moreover, it seems that the water memory is transferred to the pills although it evaporates very quickly. All the pills are the same and do not harm anybody, so there is no need to worry. The latest in homeopathy? Benveniste receives electromagnetic waves by means of a coil round a vase, stores them in the computer and they are ready for you to download them from Internet to activate the water.

We wonder why the health authorities do not legally act against this huge fraud. To sell a new medicine in a pharmacy numerous tests and years of waiting are necessary, but there is no need for control if it is a homeopathic medicine. To check whether a homeopathic medicine contains the substance it claims to have on the label is like deciding whether holy water has been blessed or not.

Dr. Binkhus