Snarky! For people wanting an explanation of what homeopathy actually is, I've got a short version and a long version.
Short version: it's sympathetic magic, similar to stabbing Voodoo dolls or divining the future from chicken entrails. They dilute a substance to the point where there's almost certainly none of it left -- not a single molecule -- and use the resulting pure water as "medicine."
Heh. I think homeopathic is a term tossed around a lot to mean "herbal" or "non-perscription medicinal" or "holistic" and it's probably important to distinguish between that and what homeopathic actually means - diluted to the point of nothingness.
How Cool! I've just noticed the QED advert at the bottom, and I'm going to be speaking there! Any of you who were at the HN London meeting at Skills Matter, at QED I'll be doing a full and proper version of the talk I gave there.
"At [the] time [homeopathy was introduced: in the 18th century], mainstream medicine employed such measures as bloodletting and purging, used laxatives and enemas, and administered complex mixtures, such as Venice treacle, which was made from 64 substances including opium, myrrh, and viper's flesh. Such measures often worsened symptoms and sometimes proved fatal." [1]
In this context, giving a patient instead a medicine, which while doing no good, did no harm either, could be a very advantageous.
Short version: it's sympathetic magic, similar to stabbing Voodoo dolls or divining the future from chicken entrails. They dilute a substance to the point where there's almost certainly none of it left -- not a single molecule -- and use the resulting pure water as "medicine."
Long version: courtesy of James Randi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWE1tH93G9U