nancy brown
Perhaps by current "scientific" methods, homeopathic remedies may show no detectable levels of the original substance, but don't forget that germs were undetectable at one point as well. Just because science doesn't have the ability to prove it doesn't mean it doesn't work, as evidenced by many, many success stories of homeopathic healing, whether animal or human.
Ignaz Semmelweis was a physician in the 1800's who noted the correlation between a physician's unwashed hands (germs) and women dying of peurperal fever after childbirth. He was mocked for this (after all, germs could not be seen, so they must not be there) and women continued to die as a result.
The Semmelweis reflex or “Semmelweis effect” is a metaphor for the reflex-like tendency to reject new evidence or new knowledge because it contradicts established norms, beliefs or paradigms.
The difference here is that homeopathy is not a new idea at all. It's been around a very long time and I suspect it will continue to be as the numbers who have been healed keep increasing.