I'm writing a book on the history of homeopathy in America

[derby378]

I may be asking for it.

This project could very well keep me busy for the rest of my life.

I don't even use homeopathic remedies. In fact, I'm an outright skeptic of homeopathy.

However, the history of American homeopathy, its colleges and institutitons, the effect it had on the development of American medicine, and its ability to survive a civil war and two world wars is a history that I find increasingly fascinating. The more I learn about American homeopaths in general, the more I feel an injustice has been done to their legacy and heritage.

Yes, I am already aware of other histories of American homeopathy that were written by Harris Coulter, Julian Winston, John S. Haller, and others. I've got one of Haller's books on the desk right next to me. But I feel there is something missing from all of their works, some distinct quality that has never been fully realized by any contemporary homeopathic researcher. Maybe I secretly want to become the Ken Burns of American homeopathy.

Where does DU fit into this? If any of you happen to know where I can get back issues of the Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy or even some of the Proceedings of the International Hahnemannian Association, that would be a big help. I already have a growing PDF collection of older homeopathic works, but I feel like I'm just scratching the surface.

Any thoughts, encouragement, constructive criticism, or assistance you can share will be appreciated. Thanks!

[zipplewrath]

1. Alot of things survived all that.

"... its ability to survive a civil war and two world wars is a history that I find increasingly fascinating."

Voodoo might sell better.

[SunnySong]

2. Perhaps a book on Astrology (which has also survived that time period) nt

[derby378]

3. Why?

Astrology isn't a medical discipline.

[SunnySong]

7. It seems a bit of a stretch to place Homeopathy in the medical discipline category as well.

Homeopathy has a lot more in common with Astrology than it does with medicine.

[derby378]

9. You've got a point...

As I said earlier, I'm a critic of homeopathy, but many of the first homeopaths in America were staunch anti-quackery activists. They were rebelling against many of the excesses of American medicine in the pre-Civil War era, and they weren't afraid to ostracize anyone in their own ranks who embraced the "patent medicine" industry.

[SunnySong]

11. Smile... well if someone wanted to hack my limbs off and apply leeches...

I would probably run to Homeopathy as well. Good luck on the book. I find writing books is an adventure of discovery and new beginnings to be followed by drudgery and then the final relief of being finished.

[Warpy]

14. In the early days, it undoubtedly killed fewer people than bleeding did

which made it look remarkably effectively in comparison to the medical practice of the day.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

17. "Homeopathy" and "anti-quackery" is a contradiction.

[Posteritatis]

28. The two are, ah, equally grounded in reality, though. (nt)

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. LOL

Explain how it's the leading principle behind chemtrails.

Which mysteriously developed after the invention of flight.

[derby378]

5. I don't think so...

...but I do want to cover this whole "memory of water" craze that arose out of homeopathic ideology and research.

[trotsky]

26. Well of COURSE chemtrails came after flight.

How could the lizard people and the Illuminati have spread their mind control drugs before there were planes?

[TZ]

6. You know whats interesting on this subject

Look at the influence homeopathic doctors had on the FDA after it was founded particularly in the 1950's and 60's. In fact Congress was so concerned about the undue influence of snake oil merchants on the FDA that they made new rules to abolish their influnece in the FDA. Ironic, considering what many people here accuse the FDA of.

[derby378]

10. That's something I definitely want to look into

Think there was also something in the 1980s as well.

It all stems back to the labors of Senator Royal Copeland (D-NY), a homeopath who succeeded in winning Federal protection for homeopathy with the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938. Before that, homeopathy was on the verge of being outlawed in America.

[TZ]

20. Ah yes, you are familiar with the history then

The founding head of the FDA was actually a homeopathic practitioner.
I bet you could get materials from the FDA on this for research purposes as well...

[Ignis]

31. I did not know that. Interesting info.

[Matariki]

8. That sounds like an interesting topic

I just wanted to encourage you and counter the negative comments.

I'm very skeptical of homeopathy too, but don't know that much about it. I didn't realize it's been around that long. Certainly the story must interweave with the story of medicine in general and the various alternative medicines, both good and kooky, that have sprung up over the past century or two. That's bound to be interesting.

[eShirl]

12. I wish you luck. I actually have a book of Haller's, from researching one of the first female Dr.s

in the country, Alice Bunker Stockham. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Bunker_Stockham

(She received some of her medical training at Eclectic Institute, the subject of Haller's "A Profile in Alternative Medicine: The Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati, 1845-1942.")

[derby378]

15. The Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati was, believe it or not...

...the first institution to award homeopathic medical degrees outside of Pennsylvania. Six degrees were handed out by Professor Storm Rosa to Lemuel K. Rosa (his son), David H. Beckwith, Levi E. Ober, Emory R. Tuller, George Storm, and one other individual I cannot nail down as of yet. This was back in 1849-50. After that, the eclectics kicked Rosa out of the Institute.

I know, I know, I'm in geek mode at this point.

[FLAprogressive]

13. .

[derby378]

16. More sugar!

:hi:

[MineralMan]

18. Odds are that you can find those journals in at least one

university library somewhere. The Library of Congress probably has them, as well. It'll take some searching, but if they're in a collection, you should be able to turn them up.

[derby378]

19. Already checked with LoC...

Amazingly, I couldn't find much. Maybe I just overlooked something, will try again.

There's a medical library in Galveston that looks like it can help me out a bit. I'll probably swing by there on my way back from our Democratic state convention this weekend.

[JanMichael]

21. worldcat shows that volumes from 1909 are held

in 128 libraries in the US.

Shoot me a PM-

[DavidDvorkin]

22. Shouldn't it consist only of blank pages?

[MineralMan]

30. With a microscopic dot of ink on one of every 100 pages.

The pages remember the rest of the text.

[DavidDvorkin]

38. :)

[cloudbase]

23. Try not to give us

a watered-down version.

[trotsky]

27. LMFAO

:thumbsup:

[OneGrassRoot]

24. Those of you who pounce upon alternative medicine topics...

in a negative way might want to keep one thing in mind.

I fully agree that all sorts of healing therapies and approaches have the potential to be misused and abused in many ways, be it alternative, traditional, new cutting-edge approaches, etc.

Regulation, when done well and with integrity, is a good thing. Regulation of all industries, as anything being sold for profit has the potential for human greed to corrupt things along the way, resulting in outright physical harm at times, people being taken advantage of financially, and/or simply not experiencing advertised results.

Alternative therapies are no different.

But what you may not have considered is that many HAVE NO CHOICE but to turn to alternative therapies because they simply can't afford "traditional" medicine and/or don't have access to it.

Still, people need to be aware and realize the risks versus benefits, regardless of the form of therapy, yet I suggest you may want to consider that, for many people, options are limited. Traditional medicine versus an over-the-counter herbal remedy (one which has very little potential for harm) is a path I've often had to take as someone who hasn't had insurance nor medical care of any sort for a decade.

Granted, I believe there is potential benefit to be found in many "folk remedies," but my point is that many people must turn to alternate therapies because there is no other choice, short of not treating the issue at all.

I realize many spend an absolute fortunate on alternate therapies, but I'm not speaking of those people; I'm speaking of those who are truly financially limited and this is often the only option for non-critical issues.

Most of us are doing the best we can, with what we have.

[derby378]

32. And I'll take that one further...

Everyone who uses nitroglycerin to stave off an impending heart attack owes no small gratitude to the late Constantine Hering, the first American physician to experiment with therapeutic uses for nitroglycerin.

Hering was a prominent homeopath in Philadelphia when he first learned about nitroglycerin in 1847. For a rough sketch of the first medical experiments with nitroglycerin (suing homeopathic principles), you might want to read this short article I wrote for the North Texas Skeptics:

http://www.ntskeptics.org/2009/2009august/august2009.htm#pain

[trotsky]

34. Just one point:

homeopathy ≠ herbal

Please make sure you understand the difference.

[uppityperson]

37. I checked out a NP who was into homeopathy and alt medicine and he charged me much more than my MD

He wanted me to take a whole bunch of suppliments (which he'd sell me at a cost of $600/month, will that be check, cash or credit card) and then wanted me to take some thyroid concoction he promoted for his pet issue (unfortunately I knew why my thyroid wasn't producing, it is dead and no, it doesn't need a rest but noooo, he wouldn't listen, kept telling me it just needed a rest and would recover) which he couldn't tell me how much it would cost except it would be "significant but once your thyroid recovers we can take you off of it". No, my thyroid is dead, it is a non-thyroid, a previously living thyroid, etc. And he wanted me to buy tiny bottles of homeopathic stuff to deal with my allergies, bottles that he'd make on his fancy machine hooked up to his computer, no need to actually use anything I was allergic to.

It costs me $25 co-pay to see my MD(while I have ins, then I'll apply for the poor people deduction), and under $10/month for my Rx. I can't afford that other stuff.

[Taitertots]

25. If water has a memory, why does it only remember the good stuff?

How many molecules of water in a glass of water have been passed through someone in the form of diahrea?

[Celebration]

29. eh, it remembers the bad stuff too

Unfortunately!

[TZ]

33. It doesn't have a memory

Anybody who studies organic chemistry will tell you that.
Thats the biggest piece of idiocy ever. That and the dilution idiocy. I work with dilutions and actually can measure them. We disprove that bullshit daily where I work.

[derby378]

35. That hasn't stopped a few other folks...

...from marketing bottled water in which they claim the water molecules have been somehow optimized, restructured, clustered, or something of the sort to promote optimal health and even cure disease. Not homeopathic, but based on some of Benveniste's claims.

[laconicsax]

36. Just make sure you hit a few highlights:

-The 'Law of Similars' is based on coincidence, namely the fact that the body will respond similarly to different stimuli.

-Dilution is the result of the founder of homeopathy finding that the more diluted the substance, the the more benign the reaction his patients had. He reasoned that dilution made the medicine more potent.

-Water memory was invented to counter the fact that homeopathic serial dilutions result in none of the original substance being present in the final solution. It's been proven, by the way, that the dynamic nature of liquid water prevents any structures from lasting for more than fractions of a second.

I've found these videos of to also be informative:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0c5yClip4o A talk on the scientific basis of homeopathy given by a practicing homeopath.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMGIbOGu8q0 A dramatization of homeopathy when used in a crirical care situation.

Edited to fix links