Copeland's Cure: Homeopathy and the War between Conventional and Alternative Medicine.COPELAND'S CURE: Homeopathy homeopathy (hōmēŏp`əthē), system of medicine whose fundamental principle is the law of similars—that like is cured by like. and the War between Conventional and Alternative Medicine NATALIE ROBINS "The sacred tire of a wise ambition" is how Royal Copeland described homeopathy. Copeland, an early 20th-century physician, U.S. senator, and medical educator, spent his life promoting this form of alternative medicine which is based on the notion of giving people natural substances that induce mild symptoms mimicking their illnesses. As a child, Copeland witnessed how a homeopathic treatment saved his father's life. This was soon after an era of crude and sometimes barbaric conventional treatments, including bloodletting bloodletting, also called bleeding, practice of drawing blood from the body in the treatment of disease. General bloodletting consists of the abstraction of blood by incision into an artery (arteriotomy) or vein (venesection, or phlebotomy). and large doses of mercury. Homeopathic treatments were seen as gentle cures. Philadelphia physician Samuel Hahnemann developed the practice, and Copeland was its advocate as health commissioner of New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. from 1918 to 1923. Although the American Medical Association American Medical Association (AMA), professional physicians' organization (founded 1847). Its goals are to protect the interests of American physicians, advance public health, and support the growth of medical science. denounced homeopathic practitioners, Copeland's bill to legitimize homeopathic medicine passed Congress in 1935, and the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act The United States Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (abbreviated as FFDCA, FDCA, or FD&C), is a set of laws passed by Congress in 1938 giving authority to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to oversee the safety of food, drugs, and cosmetics. of 1938 acknowledged the practice. Robins' book ends with an analysis of Copeland's legacy: Homeopathy remains an unproven practice that nevertheless is part of modern alternative medicine. Knopf, 2005, 352 p., b&w illus., hardcover, $24.95. |
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