Monday 28 July 2008

How Fucking Stupid Do Homeopaths Think We Are?

Christine Glover is, somehow, a prominent pharmacist. She is also a homeopath. She has sold 200C homeopathic "tablets" from her website.



A 1C tablet is 1 part in 100


A 2C tablet is 1 part in 10,000


A 3C tablet is 1 part in 1,000,000


A 4C tablet is 1 part in 100,000,000



And so on. We could be here all night, and I could wear out my typing finger. Basically, a 200C tablet has one part of active ingredient in 1x10^400 parts of lactose, or water, or alcohol, or whatever.



So a 200C tablet is 1 part in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,

000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,

000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,

000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,

000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000





Roughly. I think.

In other words, this is roughly equivalent to 0.1ml in a sphere with a diameter 50,000 times larger than the distance from the Sun to Pluto* ( I still refuse to accept that Pluto is not a planet). The chance of getting a molecule of active ingredient in one of Ms Glover's 200C "solutions" is approximately the same as the chance of me having a threesome with Megan Fox and Angelina Jolie.



Christine Glover's site seems to have magically disappeared. However, thanks to the magic of the interweb, you can see her 200C "remedies" here. http://web.archive.org/web/20070625133505/http://www.glovers-health.co.uk/

I'm fairly sure I'm not stupid. I'm pretty sure that a 200C "remedy" contains zero active ingredient. Yet Christine Glover can't be stupid. Impossible. She is, after all, a Former President of the RPSGB. The layman could be fooled into thinking that this is a position that requires some scientific knowledge. She is also selling veterinary products, so I assume that she has some qualification in vetting. It would surely be unethical to do so otherwise. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. Very prestigious. Of course, as we all know, the number of Fellowships you have is directly related to your academic excellence, and has nothing whatsoever to do with brown-nosing or backstabbing the right people at the right time.

*Thanks to the Randi website for sorting that out!

5 comments:

Nostrumdammit said...

One would have thought that the Trade Descriptions Act would be a suitable vehicle for bringing the homoeophaques to book.
Surely, any product labelled for retail sale as eg "Sulphur 100C" should contain at least some of said ingredient. Otherwise one is definitely being treated fraudulently.
Fraud was a crime the last time I tried it during the end of rationing in '52.

Anonymous said...

"Of course, as we all know, the number of Fellowships you have is directly related to your academic excellence, and has nothing whatsoever to do with brown-nosing or backstabbing the right people at the right time."

Yep, hit the nail on the head there, according to my experience.

Anonymous said...

The Royal Society of Medicine accepts anyone who pays the subscription. It has zero academic kudos.

Pharmacy God said...

I'm stuck thinking about that threesome with Megan Fox and Angelina Jolie.

Anonymous said...

"I'm stuck thinking about that threesome with Megan Fox and Angelina Jolie."

Aren't we all?

Glad to see you're coming out of retirement anyway.