Homeopathy Medicine
Copeland's Cure: Homeopathy and the War between Conventional and Alternative Medicine COPELAND'S CURE: Homeopathy 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 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 from 1918 to 1923. Although the American Medical Association denounced homeopathic practitioners, Copeland's bill to legitimize homeopathic medicine passed Congress in 1935, and the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act 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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