The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7243 p477
5 April 2003

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Letters to the Editor

Homoeopathy

"Like cures like" maxim called into question

From Mr J. Sharp, HonMRPharmS

Tony Pinkus (PJ, 22 March, p401) assures us that the guiding principle of homoeopathy is not, as is widely believed, the concept of the infinitesimal dose, but the law of similars. I take this to be the law originally stated by Hannemann as: "Let like be treated by like." I have seen this law amplified in a homoeopathic reference work as: "A medicine which in large doses produces the symptoms of a disease will, in small doses, cure that disease."¹

I have in my possession a package purchased at a local pharmacy, labelled as a homoeopathically prepared remedy containing calcium phosphate "in homoeopathic potency 6x". The indications given on the label are "general debility, impaired digestion, teething troubles and chilblains". The reference from which I have already quoted1 claims calcium phosphate as a treatment for "headache from change of weather, severe stomach pain after eating, heartburn, fractures slow to heal, rheumatic pain, painful periods, cold hands and feet, enlarged adenoids, acne, inflamed gums and pyorrhoea". If the "like cures like" principle is valid, it could be inferred that, in non-homoeopathic form, calcium phosphate would cause this remarkably diverse range of conditions. Is Mr Pinkus able to tell us what evidence there is that ordinary calcium phosphate displays such singular pharmacological versatility?

John Sharp
Woodley, Berkshire

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