Young Australian Skeptics

Even though, as we all know, homeopathy lacks any scientific basis and is a complete load of charlatan crap, I’ve always been fascinated by the materia medica of homeopathy; the diverse range of agents that are used as the (supposed) starting materials in homeopathic preparations.

According to the doctrine of how homeopathy supposedly works, it should come as no surprise that many such materials are toxic or noxious in some way.

There is a comprehensive list of homeopathic ingredients here [http://​www​.remedia​-homeopathy​.com/​h​o​m​e​o​p​a​t​h​y​/​a​r​z​n​e​i​b​u​c​h​s​t​a​b​e​.​html]. If you don’t believe that the things you are about to read are really (ostensibly) the basis of homeopathic medicines, you can go and check out the site, where these things are taken from.

You can even purchase these materials – well, maybe if you buy the really weak ones, you might get an atom or two of the material advertised.

Here’s a selection of some of the lesser known and more interesting homeopathic ingredients listed on that site. I am honestly not making these up.

There are many, many more weird and wonderful substances listed; this is just a few.

Latrodectus hasselti:

This is our famous Australian friend, the redback spider. The whole spider is ground up alive as the original starting material.

Cervisia:

Beer! I find it is more therapeutic without dilution.

Natrium muriaticum:

Nat. Mur. is quite a common homeopathic ingredient, which is easy to find. Those of you familiar with old-​​fashioned Latin-​​derived alchemist-​​style chemical names may recognise it for what it is, which is ordinary sodium chloride.

Magnetis poli ambo:

This is a homeopathic dilution of water which has been “affected” with a magnet, and retains special properties from a magnet. It has to be both poles of the magnet together; using either the north pole of the magnet or the south pole yields other unique homeopathic remedies.

Boa constrictor adipis:

The fat of a Boa Constrictor. It’s “collected in person in the Amazon”, so at least you’re getting your money’s worth. Still, I don’t like the idea that homeopaths are butchering our endangered species. Yes, by the way, it is literally snake oil :)

Hypothalamus:

Hypothalamus from an ox. Don’t blame me if you end up with Creutzfeldt – Jakob disease.

Crop circle Brummen 1997:

It’s, uh, wheat taken from a crop circle. With Magical alien crop circle healing power or something? What does homeopathy doctrine proscribe that it will treat? Alien possession? Crop circle hoaxes?

Fel ursi:

The gall of a Russian Brown Bear.

Hepatitis A Nos.:

This is Hepatitis A nosode. In the case of Hepatitis A, the nosode is sterilised blood of a human infected with Hepatitis A.

In homeopathy terminology, a “nosode” is a homeopathic ingredient based on a pathogenic organism, such as a bacterium or virus, usually derived from the tissue or bodily fluids of a person or an animal infected with the disease, and subjected to homeopathic dilution. For example, in the case of whooping cough or pertussis, or Pertussinum as it’s called in homeopath pseudo-​​Latin, the starting material is sputum (phelgm or mucus that is coughed up) from a person with the disease. Gross, I know. It’s kind of like a vaccine, but it’s a BS “vaccine”, and it’s gross. It’s also a bit worrying, because if the infectious material is not sterilised and/​or deactiviated properly, it’s plausible that, even with modest degrees of homeopathic dilution, solutions made from pathogenic organisms could cause the infection.

Uranium nitricum:

Uranyl nitrate, which is supposedly “potentised in the research reactor of Seibersdorf”. Wait, so it’s a solution of uranium that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor!?

Candida albicans Nos.:

This is Candida albicans, aka. the fungus that causes Candidiasis, or thrush.

Lac caninum e Schäferhund:

The lactation, breast milk, of a German Shepard dog.

Atrax robustus:

The Sydney Funnel-​​Web spider.

Rattus rattus:

Rat, specifically the fresh blood of a rat.

Anthracinum:

This is a nosode of Bacillus anthracis, the bacterium that causes anthrax. Specifically, the preparation is based on an extract of a liver or spleen of a rabbit or sheep infected with anthrax.

AIDS Nos.:

HIV nosode, from a human patient with AIDS. Oh dear.

Strontium-​​90-​​chloratum:

The radioactive nuclide strontium-​​90, present as the chloride salt.

Taenia solium Nos.:

Tincture of ground up porcine tapeworm.

Desoxyribonucleinicum acidum:

Yes, DNA. I wonder where the DNA is from? Doesn’t the body already contain enough of it? Of course, many foods that you eat contain a bit of DNA.

Sanguis menstrualis Nos.:

It’s uh, menstrual blood. Ewww.

Uluru:

Yes, they mean that big rock in the Northern Territory. I wonder what it treats?

Carboneum 14:

This is Carbon-​​14, the rare, long-​​lived radioactive nuclide of carbon that is the basis of radiocarbon dating, for example. Of course, essentially all organic materials and living things in the world can be considered as containing C-​​14 in homeopathic concentrations. Carbon-​​14 occurs in the atmosphere and in all livings things at a concentration of about one part per trillion relative to total carbon, which corresponds to a homeopathic “12X” or “6C” concentrations.

X-​​Ray:

So, they start off with a bottle of alcohol, and irradiate it with X-​​rays, and the alcohol is supposed to remain infused with special magical X-​​ray powers, and can then be subject to homeopathic dilution.

Gamma-​​ray:

Just like the preparation of “bottled X-​​ray”; except they’ve supposedly used gamma rays from a radioactive source instead of x-​​rays. As far as whatever absorbs the radiation is concerned, there is little difference, in terms of physics. “Manufacture: A bottle with alcohol was irradiated with a cobalt-​​60 source with an output of 4.39 Gy per minute.”

Kugelblitz:

Ball Lightning. I wonder how they make a tincture of ball lightning?

Pest Nos.:

This is a nosode of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium responsible for bubonic plague, or the “Black Death”.

Carcinosinum mamma:

Watery excretion of the breast cancer of a woman. Ewww.

Variolinum Nos.:

This is a dilution of the pus extracted from the pustules of a human patient infected with the Variola virus. Yes, it’s bloody smallpox.

Plutonium nitricum:

Plutonium, specifically plutonium nitrate.

Positronium:

Positronium is a bound state of an electron and a positron (a positively charged antimatter electron) orbiting each other. Yep, it’s supposedly genuine homeopathy-​​grade antimatter. Positronium is intrinsically highly unstable and will decay in a fleeting fraction of a nanosecond after it is formed, with the positron and the electron mutually annihilating into gamma ray photons. Of course, forming it at all requires some serious experimental physics hardware.

Excrementum canium:

Last but not least, the most amusing of these homeopathic remidies. Specially prepared homeopathic… dog shit. According to the website, the breed of the dog that the faeces comes from is specially chosen; its mother is a German shepard and its father is a mixture between a Hungarian shepard dog and a Setter, with the dog being fed a specific diet of cow entrails.

Tags: Homeopathy, Pseudoscience

This entry was posted on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 5:00 pm and is filed under Homeopathy, Luke Weston, Pseudoscience, Skeptic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.