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*While it would certainly be a better approach to derive the benefits that modern science affords, all systems of medicine need not necessarily go the expensive Allopathy way, should they retain their accessibility and utility to large sections of the population, particularly in the developing countries.
e) James Tyler Kent’s Repertory is religiously used by a very large number of homoeopaths, all over the world. Computerisation of Kent’s has been a disaster, as the work defied all logic and order. It is described as an outdated telephone directory needing updating, streamlining, and refinement, if not retirement. A lot of dead wood needs to be purged out of this universally referred ‘classic’. What is the validity of prescriptions based on this much confused reference work today?
*A large number of publications on Homoeopathy are repeated editions of old-aged originals. It is time these reference works and treatises are updated incorporating relevant advancements in Homoeopathy, and in science and medicine. It is also necessary that they are made easier to refer and to understand.
f) There has been no quality control of homoeopathic medicines. A lax legal system allowed all and sundry into the field of manufacture, particularly in Asia.
*Modernising and regulating manufacture of homoeopathic medicines with appropriate quality and price control regulations is a very urgent need.
g) Complex Homoeopathy (mixed, simultaneous multiple remedies) negates Hahnemann’s basic principle of single remedy and is considered as allopathy in the garb of Homoeopathy.
*Compound formulations that contain several different drugs are a common practice in all systems of medicine now. As we argue that Hahnemann’s principles are old and need to be reviewed, this Principle of Single Remedy should also be reconsidered. If simultaneous multiple remedies are in the interest of the patient, they should be recommended.
h) The electronic gadgets, like the Homoeopathic diagnostic machine (EAV machine), being now used by homoeopaths in many countries, particularly Germany, have been shown to be a sham by research in Canada and Australia. Such fraudulent practices should be condemned.
*Instrumentation makes diagnosis less laborious and more accurate. Instead of rejecting all instrumentation, the individual items be examined for relevance and reliability and recommended for use.
A number of new procedures such as electrically or magnetically potentiated/energised water to prepare homoeopathic medicines, blood drawn from patient potentiated by medicine and re-injected, machines to filter out electromagnetic forces, application of principles of quantum physics, membrane biology, etc., have been introduced by some homoeopaths. Such methods, if beneficial to the patient are welcome, provided they have been thoroughly experimented and found to be efficient and safe. A suitable mechanism should be organised to evaluate such innovations.
i) While antidoting of homoeopathic remedies is religiously prevented by advising the patient against using coffee, tobacco, menthol, etc., the possible antidoting effects of a number of other substances like lipstick, flouridated toothpaste, tooth amalgum, chewing gum, cola drinks, etc., have been ignored.
j) On the one hand homoeopaths have departed from Hahnemann’s rules, but on the other discouraged improvements in the system, as for example Homoeopuncture which has proven to be very effective, and it also avoids the complications of the oral route, like antidoting by the stomach contents (Jayasuriya, 1997).
k) No studies have been carried out to elucidate the mechanism of action of homoeopathic medicines beyond Avogadro’s limit of 12C, where there would be no molecules of the active principle in the medication.
*This point has been hotly debated time and again. Walach et al., (1998), in a blinded controlled experiment, used an electric measurement devise (EMD) to measure electric conductivity, electric field strength, resistance and capacitance of aqua injectable (deionised and double distilled water) and natrum muriaticum in different potencies made in aqua. There was a significant difference between 6C and 30C of the salt as between the controls and test solutions but there was no difference between the salt at 30C and aqua. EMD is a highly sensitive instrument used to detect minute impurities in water. This experiment is a reiterated proof that the high dilutions of homoeopathic medicine are devoid of any molecules of the medicine. The question that still remains to be answered is ‘if there is no trace of the active principle beyond the 12C level, how does the medicine work and how is it more potential than the lower dilutions?’ There has never been a logical and scientific explanation for this.
Another important point emerges from serial dilutions. In the source material, a plant or an animal, different chemical compounds are present in different quantities. Some are more abundant than others, while still others are present in minute quantities. When ethyl alcohol, or any other solvent for that matter, is used for extraction, the specific compounds and their quantities in the solution depend upon the solubility characteristics. Even if present in large quantities in the source material, a particular compound will not be in the solution if it is insoluble in the solvent used, while a soluble compound will all be there. Then when serial dilutions are made from this ‘mother tincture’ , the compound that is in the smallest quantity in the solution will be the first to disappear and the compound that is in the largest quantity will be the last. Thus, the chemical composition of homoeopathic potencies changes from dilution to dilution. In such a situation the therapeutic effects of different potencies cannot be the same. The issue of a higher potency being stronger than the lower one is relevant when all the potencies are chemically identical. The point is that different potencies are chemically not identical.
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