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This version uses 1 liter of 1 molar solutions as the initial material before homeopathic dilution in examples


Three potency scales are in regular use in homeopathy. Hahnemann created the centesimal or "C scale", diluting a substance by a factor of 100 at each stage. The centesimal scale was favored by Hahnemann for most of his life. A 2C dilution requires a substance to be diluted to one part in one hundred, and then some of that diluted solution is diluted by a further factor of one hundred. This works out to one part of the original solution mixed into 9,999 parts (100 x 100 -1 ) of the diluent.[1] A 6C dilution repeats this process six times, ending up with the original material diluted by a factor of 1,000,000,000,000. (100 × 100 × 100 × 100 × 100 × 100, or 1006). Higher dilutions follow the same pattern. In homeopathy, a solution that is more dilute is described as having a higher potency. Higher potencies (that is, more dilute substances) are considered by homeopaths to be stronger and deeper-acting remedies.

Hahnemann advocated 30C dilutions for most purposes (that is, dilution by a factor of 1060). A popular homeopathic treatment for the flu is a 200C dilution of duck liver, marketed under the name Oscillococcinum. Comparing these levels of dilution to Avogadro's number, one liter of a 12C homeopathic remedy created from diluting 1 liter of 1 molar solution contains on average only about 0.602 molecules of the original substance per liter of the 12C remedy. Similarly, the chance of a single molecule of the original substance remaining in a liter of 15C remedy dose is about one in 1.7 million, and about one in 1.7 trillion trillion trillion (1036) for a 30C solution.

Commonly, critics of homeopathy, as well as homeopaths themselves, attempt to illustrate the dilutions involved in homeopathy with examples. Hahnemann is reported to have joked that a suitable procedure to deal with an epidemic would be to empty a bottle of poison into Lake Geneva, if it could be succussed 60 times.[2][3][4] Another example given by a critic of homeopathy states that a 12C solution is equivalent to a "pinch of salt in both the North and South Atlantic Oceans",[2][3] which is approximately correct.[5] One third of a drop of some original substance diluted into all the water on earth would produce a remedy with a concentration of about 13C.[6]

Another common illustration involves comparing homeopathic dilution to dissolving the therapeutic substance in a swimming pool.[7] One example inspired by a problem found in a set of popular algebra textbooks states that there are on the order of 1032 molecules of water in an Olympic-size swimming pool[8] and if such a pool were filled with a 15C homeopathic remedy, to have a 63% chance of consuming at least one molecule of the original substance, one would need to swallow 1% of the volume of such a pool, or roughly 25 metric tons of water.[9][10][11]

For further perspective, 1 ml of a solution which has gone through a 30C dilution would have been diluted into a cube of water measuring 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 metres per side, which is about 106 light years. Thus, homeopathic remedies of standard potencies contain, almost certainly, only water (or alcohol, as well as sugar and other nontherapeutic ingredients). Homeopaths maintain that this water retains some "essential property" of the original material, because the preparation has been shaken after each dilution.[12] Hahnemann believed that the dynamisation or shaking of the solution caused a "spirit-like" healing force to be released from within the substance. Even though the homeopathic remedies are often extremely diluted, homeopaths maintain that some healing force is retained by these homeopathic preparations.[11]

Some homeopaths developed a decimal scale (D or X), diluting the substance to ten times its original volume each stage. The D or X scale dilution is therefore half that of the same value of the C scale; for example, "12X" is the same level of dilution as "6C". Hahnemann never used this scale but it was very popular throughout the 19th century and still is in Europe. This potency scale appears to have been introduced in the 1830s by the American homeopath, Dr. Constantine Hering.[13] In the last ten years of his life, Hahnemann also developed a quintamillesimal (Q) or LM scale diluting the drug 1 part in 50,000 parts of diluent.[14] A given dilution on the Q scale is roughly 2.35 times its designation on the C scale. For example a remedy described as "20Q" has about the same concentration as a "47C" remedy.[15]

References

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  1. ^ In standard chemistry, this produces a substance with a concentration of 0.01%, measured by the volume-volume percentage method.
  2. ^ a b Homeopathy Investigated, A. D. Bambridge, Diasozo Trust, Kent, England, 1989, ISBN 0948171200
  3. ^ a b Homeopathy and Hinduism, Peter Andrews, The Watchman Expositor, Vol. 7, No. 3, 1990.
  4. ^ Pouring a 1 liter bottle of poison into Lake Geneva would only result in about a 7C remedy, since Lake Geneva has a volume of about 89 cubic kilometers of water (Temporal Mapping of Phytoplankton Assemblages in Lake Geneva: Annual and Interannual Changes in Their Patterns of Succession, Orlane Anneville, Sami Souissi, Frederic Ibanez, Vincent Ginot, Jean Claude Druart, Nadine Angeli, Limnology and Oceanography, Vol. 47, No. 5, Sep., 2002, pp. 1355-1366.)
  5. ^ A 12C solution produced using sodium chloride (also called natrum muriaticum in homeopathy) is the equivalent of dissolving 0.36 milliters of table salt, weighing about 0.77 grams, into a volume of water the size of the Atlantic Ocean, since the volume of the Atlantic Ocean and its adjacent seas is 3.55 x 108 cubic kilometers (The geology of the Atlantic Ocean, Kenneth Orris Emery, Elazar Uchupi, Springer, 1984, ISBN 0387960325) or 3.55 x 1020 liters.
  6. ^ The volume of all water on earth is about 1.36 billion cubic kilometers (Earth's water distribution, Water Science for Schools, United States Geological Survey website, 28-Aug-2006 ; Water resources, P. H. Gleick, In Encyclopedia of Climate and Weather, ed. by S. H. Schneider, Oxford University Press, New York, vol. 2, 1996 pp.817-823.).
  7. ^ Review, critique, and guidelines for the use of herbs and homeopathy, James Glisson, Rebecca Crawford and Shannon Street, Nurse Practitioner, April 1999
    •AN OPEN LETTER TO ABC NEWS 20/20 WITH BARBARA WALTERS and JOHN STOSSEL, The editors of Explore Magazine
    •Medical Theory & Homeopathy, Dennis Hudson, 2001
    •Remedies, Homoeopathicworld.com The Way Of Permanent Cure website
  8. ^ Assuming an Olympic swimming pool contains 2.5 x 106 liters of water, there are about 8.3403 x 1031 molecules of water in an Olympic swimming pool.
  9. ^ Section 5.3, Beginning Algebra, 10/E, Margaret L. Lial, John Hornsby, Terry McGinnis, Addison-Wesley, Copyright: 2008, Published: 01/02/2007, ISBN 0321437268
  10. ^ The description in the algebra textbook suggests that there are about 100 molecules of therapeutic material remaining in the pool after 15C dilution, which is a reasonable assumption. However, the textbook incorrectly states that to be certain of encountering one molecule of the original substance, a person has to consume 1% of the pool's volume. Unfortunately, this claim misstates the probability; to have a 95% probability of ingesting at least one molecule of the original material, a person has to drink about 3% of the pool, or about 75 metric tons of water (assuming that after dilution, 100 molecules of the original material remain). In general, consuming a fraction r of N molecules leads to a probability of approximately 1 − e−nr of consuming at least one of the n molecules of the original substance, where N is assumed to be a large number. A 15C dilution prepared using one liter of original substance will produce a volume-volume concentration of 10-30 liters of original material per liter of diluent, or 10-27 milliliters of original substance per liter of diluent. In a 2.5x106 liter pool, there is therefore 2.5 x 10-21 milliliters of original material. If the original material has a molar mass of M (in grams/mole) and a density of D (in grams/ml), then there will be 2.5 x 10-21 D/M moles of original material in the pool, or n=1505.535 D/M molecules of the original material. The textbook example assumes that D/M of the original material is about 0.0664 (for comparison, water has a value of D/M of about 0.0554).
  11. ^ a b "Dynamization and Dilution". Retrieved 2007-07-24.
  12. ^ Resch, G, (1987). Scientific Foundations of Homoeopathy. Barthel & Barthel Publishing. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ Robert, Ellis Dudgeon (1853). Lectures on the Theory & Practice of Homeopathy (PDF). London. pp. 526–7. ISBN 81-7021-311-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  14. ^ Little, David. "Hahnemann's Advanced Methods". Simillimum.com. Retrieved 2007-08-04.
  15. ^ If a dilution is designated as q on the Q scale, and c on the C scale, c/q=log10(50,000)/2=2.349485.


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