I was reading Andy Lewis’s Quackometer blog while eating lunch & came across a reference to a homepathic preparation of Tyrannosaurus rex. Hoho, I thought, you are joking; please pull the other one. And then (being of curious persuasion & also it was still lunchtime) I decided to check it out.
But no, it turns out that this ‘product’ is actually on offer – for all sorts of mind-related issues if this site is to be believed. If you’d rather shop around you can also find it here (although I apparently don’t have permission to access the specific information about the remedy), or here, or read about ‘case studies’ here.
Now, over on the syndicated version of this post, at Sciblogs, a supporter of homeopathy invited me to keep an open mind about the issue. Unfortunately the use of such an item does require the asking of critical questions; it does not mean simply taking claims at face value. And what we have here is a bunch of claims that you can buy ‘remedies’ that at one time have had a passing acquaintance of a bit of Tyrannosaurus rex. And that those ‘remedies’ actually do some good. (None of the sites I visited provided any clinical evidence of this.)
Let’s leave aside the issue of why someone, somewhere, might take it into their head that a preparation of long-dead dinosaur might be a useful addition to the homeopathic pharmacopeia, and assuming that the original solution (prior to dilution well past Avogadro’s number) did actually involve fossil remains, I do have a couple of questions.
Do those offering this concoction really really think that it once included actual T.rex? Because the chemical composition of a T.rex fossil is going to be significantly different from that of the once-living animal. (While one recent find seems to have included some organic material, this is not going to be readily available to all comers.)
And – where did they get their original sample from? (A question one could also ask of those claiming to sell homeopathic plutonium. No, really.) Because there aren’t exactly a lot of T.rex fossils lying around for the taking: around 30 specimens in total. (Although I suppose they could have purchased teeth over the internet. But would teeth do something different from the rest of the animal???)
I rather feel that it’s not me that needs to be opening the mind’s doors…
David says:
Ah, but it doesn’t matter that there is none of the original T rex in a mineralised fossil. The vibrational energy of the theropod in question is transferred to the minerals, just as vibrational energy is transferred to a sugar pill when a drop of homeopathic solution is placed on it. 😉
Alison Campbell says:
but, but … if the T.rex is dead, that means it will have lost its vibrational energy long ago, so how can there be any to transfer?? (I suspect I am being too literal-minded here, lol)
Jay says:
Remember, if you open your mind too much, your brain falls out.
Alison Campbell says:
I was strongly tempted to say that myself 🙂
Jim Thomerson says:
Given the well known therapeutic effects of modern day dinosaur (chicken) soup, perhaps there is something to this. LOL
Alison Campbell says:
@Jim: lol indeed.Sadly, I suspect that some homeopath, somewhere, will have done a proving on chicken soup…
Igor says:
“The vibrational energy of the theropod in question is transferred to the minerals, just as vibrational energy is transferred to a sugar pill when a drop of homeopathic solution is placed on it. ”
And since T Rex was more powerful than the plant source of sugar in the sugar pill, after a brief struggle, (since it’s vibrational energy it might be something along the lines of vibrating football games) vibrational energy of the dinosaur becomes the active ingridient.
P.S. I am also curious as to the source of plutonium in homeopathic remedies containing same. As far as controlled substances go, this should be above schedule I drugs. Schedule square root of negative 5 perhaps?
Alison Campbell says:
I think you win 1 Internet, Igor, that T.rex comment is classic! (PS sorry for the delay in approving your comment; I’m on leave & not checking the comments as often as perhaps I should.)
Renee says:
But since water has a memory, it probably has just remembered any bit of T-Rex it passed through, and maybe shared the memory with any other water molecules it happened to bump into. Which means all water molecules have a bit of T-Rex memory by now, and we are all actually drinking and bathing in T-Rex all the time. Plus, since it gets more potent the more you dilute it, l’essence-de-T-Rex must be pretty damn potent by now!
Look, just because your science can’t prove the theory with your “controlled, randomised tests” doesn’t mean it isn’t real, ok? :-p
Alison Campbell says:
You’re really getting into the swing of this now 🙂 (Apart from the succussion part, that is. Although I suppose a charging T.rex could generate a lot of succussion!)
Igor says:
I wonder if a homeopath who is also a creationist would claim that humans used to have an overabundance of T-Rexes who were hunted into extinction by ancient homeopaths.
Getting a little silly, but I’m getting sick of that subject and it hits too close to home.
Alison Campbell says:
well, the crank magnetism hypothesis would suggest that such a creature exists 🙂