There is a recognized principle in pharmacology in which a drug simply having increased effects as its dose becomes larger, research has consistently shown that exceedingly small doses of a substance will have the opposite effects of large doses. These two phases of a drug’s action is called ‘Biphasic response of drugs (1). This pharmacological principle was concurrently discovered in 1870, by two separate researchers, Hugo Schultz, a conventional scientist and Rudolf Arndt, a psychiatrist and homoeopath.

       While working with the fermentation of yeast, they found that some drug which in material doses acts as toxic agent to the ferment merely inhibits its activity, when diluted and actually acts as a stimulant, when still further diluted which had led to the enunciation of the famous Arndt-Schultz law. Saller and Dr.Boyd repeated the same study with different medicines at different periods. Saller used yeast to study the action of Merc cor, Iodine, Bromium and Salicylic acid and shows that in weak dose these substances increase the multiplication of yeast, but strong doses kill them.

       Dr. Boyd, by a series of most scrupulously planned experiments was able to demonstrate that the rate of activity of diastase is changed by the addition to the ferment of micro doses of mercuric chloride in various high potencies from 61x to 71x(2). Following these experiments, a number of experimental studies in numerous area of scientific investigation have verified this law (4). Conventional scientists who are typically unfamiliar with homoeopathic medicines have performed these studies. They have not tested or even considered testing the ultra high dilutions commonly used in homoeopathy. However, their research has consistently shown very significant effects from such small micro doses that even the researchers express confusion and surprise.

       In the 1920s, conventional scientists who tested and verified this biphasic response termed the phenomenon as ‘Hormesis’ (3). In 1987, the Journal Health Physics devoted a whole issue to reporting on a conference on Hormesis.Hormesis may be characterized by a process where by low doses of an otherwise harmful agents could result in stimulatory or beneficial effects. A biological, physiological or biochemical response to a drug at a low dose may completely opposite to that response when a large dose is administered (4).

       This research on the Arndt-Schultz law and Hormesis is important for validating homoeopathic research, because it demonstrate the evidence for the important biphasic responses and micro dose effects that specialize homoeopathy. Arndt-Schultz law is the combination of law of similia and law of minimum dose in homoeopathy and it laid the scientific foundation for the basic principles of homoeopathy.

References: