Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Malady and medicine

With reference to the editorial "A malady and some `medicines'" (Sept. 23) and subsequent letters in these columns, I feel some readers have misunderstood the editorial's views on the excessive dependence of people and governments on alternative medicine to tackle chikungunya. Modern medicine, unlike other systems, never claims a cure for a disease when one is not there. When it has a substantial cure, it verifies it many times before going public.

But this is not true with the other systems. Their claims are not backed by the details of a particular drug, its mode of action, dosage, and side effects, if any. Then how can anyone believe these systems?

B. Mallikarjuna Rao,
Vijayawada, A.P.

The contention that homeopathy is an unproven science betrays ignorance of facts. Dr. Harris L. Coulter, an outstanding historian of homeopathic medicine, says in the book Homeopathic Science and Modern Medicine: "If it were generally considered that homeopaths do indeed cure their patients systematically and symptomatically by following procedures based upon the doctrine of similars, it would be difficult indeed to call this medicine unscientific. For what can a scientific medicine be, other than a method for curing people?"

V. Bhimeswara Rao,
Secunderabad

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Course correction for Congress
No room for chauvinism
Nainital conclave: rediscovering the party
In Assam, the guns open up again
South Asia's most militarised society
Corrections and clarifications
The race to choose Annan's successor is hotting up
Curbing the film world's male bias
A boost for Osama
Joint mechanism
Out of the box?
Ban the book
Malady and medicine
A great loss

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu