Homeopathic dilutions
Insoluble solids, such as quartz and oyster shell, are diluted by grinding them with lactose (trituration).
[4] To counter the reduced potency at high dilutions he formed the view that vigorous shaking by striking on an elastic surface – a process termed succussion – was necessary.
[4] It has been said that Hahnemann came to this conclusion after deciding preparations subjected to agitation in transit, such as in saddle bags or in a carriage, were more "potent".
[5]: 16 Hahnemann had a saddle-maker construct a special wooden striking board covered in leather on one side and stuffed with horsehair.
[17]: 322 In Hahnemann's time it was reasonable to assume that preparations could be diluted indefinitely, as the concept of the atom or molecule as the smallest possible unit of a chemical substance was just beginning to be recognized.
Some homeopaths developed a decimal scale (D or X), diluting the substance to ten times its original volume each stage.
An example given states that a 12C solution is equivalent to a "pinch of salt in both the North and South Atlantic Oceans",[24][25] which is approximately correct.
[26] One-third of a drop of some original substance diluted into all the water on earth would produce a preparation with a concentration of about 13C.
[35] Homeopaths maintain that this water retains some "essential property" of the original material, because the preparation has been shaken after each dilution.
[36] Hahnemann believed that the dynamisation or shaking of the solution caused a "spirit-like" healing force to be released from within the substance.
This concept is inconsistent with the current understanding of matter, and water memory has never been demonstrated to have any detectable effect, biological or otherwise.
In fact a great deal is known about the structure and properties of liquid water, from both theoretical and experimental studies, because of its importance in biochemistry, its relative molecular simplicity and the quantum mechanical nature of hydrogen bonding which make it a popular substance to study in theoretical chemistry.
[39][40][41] Another such study, published in 2003 by Swiss chemist Louis Rey, claims to have found that homeopathically diluted solutions of sodium chloride and lithium chloride have a very different hydrogen bond structure from normal water, as measured by thermoluminescence.
[44][45][46] Some products with both low and high dilutions continue to be sold, but like their counterparts, they have not been conclusively demonstrated to have any effect when tested against placebo.
