Orac is the nom de blog of a (not so) humble pseudonymous surgeon/scientist with an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his miscellaneous verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few will. (Continued 
Australian skeptic Peter Bowditch was challenged by a homeopath to take some homeopathic 200C belladonna tablets. Ever the intrepid skeptic and critical thinker, Peter has now answered the challenge in front of 100 people and reported his experience, beginning with a description of what he should have experienced:
A Modern Herbal by Mrs Maud Grieve, where it says that I should have been experiencing ""Strange indescribable feelings with giddiness, yawning, staggering or falling on attempting to walk; dryness of mouth and throat, sense as of suffocation, swallowing difficult, voice husky; face at first pale later suffused with a scarlatiniform rash which extends to the body; pupils widely dilated; pulse, at first bounding and rapid, later becomes irregular and faint".
What did Peter actually experience? Did he survive his plunge into homeopathy?
Find out by watching this video.
Comments
Well, I think what happened here is obvious. Peter cheated...he took too many tablets.
Posted by: Greg | June 20, 2006 1:14 PM
oh, there are a lot of possibilities why he is still alive:
the pills were "sent" to him. Maybe they were X-rayed on the way, which renders the globuli useless.
Peter B. had coffee in the morning.
Peter brushes his teeth with peppermint containing toothpaste.
When Peter had measles, his parents suppressed his fever, hence he could not shed his sulphur miasm and everyone knows that the sulphur type does not respond to Belladonna (ok, I made that up, but it sounds convincing, doesn't it)?
Posted by: Catherina | June 20, 2006 1:59 PM
The power of the missing hyphen.
Posted by: Bronze Dog | June 20, 2006 2:10 PM
Did you hear the one about the homeopath who forgot to take his medicine and died of an overdose?
Sorry about that....but the old jokes are the best!
Posted by: Tony Jackson | June 20, 2006 3:37 PM
Peter, Barry Williams, several other Aussie Skeptics, and I did this same thing back in November 2004 at the Australian Skeptics National Convention. We used sleeping pills. The recommended dose was 2, but I personally took at least 24.
Obviously, if homeopathy really worked, the maximum does would be ZERO pills. Duh.
Posted by: Phil Plait | June 20, 2006 5:51 PM
I was one of those skeptics who, along with Phil Plait, took all those 'sleeping' pills. You can see the video here. http://tinyurl.com/fpxva
Posted by: Richard Saunders | June 20, 2006 10:16 PM
Sounds like fun. Most of the homeopathic pills I've seen contain enough milk product that it's not a good idea for me to take more than, say, 3 at any given time.
Posted by: Julia | June 21, 2006 12:19 AM
Were you not concerned that the homeopaths you were challenging might cheat? If they substituted the real sleeping pills for the homeopathic sleeping and you took a much higher dose than the maximum recommended you would have suffered ill effects AND the quacks would have won...
I find that quite unnerving.
Posted by: Valhar2000 | June 21, 2006 5:14 AM
The Belgian Skeptics (IIRC) did a similar stunt years ago:
"snake poison, Belladonna or deadly nightshade, arsenic, dog's milk, petrol, and cockroach. Dog's milk does not sound that dangerous, but try milking a pit bull."
Posted by: Graculus | June 21, 2006 8:45 AM
bronze dog - give a non-native speaker a break, will you?
Posted by: Catherina | June 21, 2006 10:02 AM
Catherina, your English is far, far better than my German will ever be!
Posted by: Abel Pharmboy | June 22, 2006 1:02 PM
Don't worry too much about the little error. I wouldn't have pointed it out if the image it generated in my mind wasn't amusing. :)
I suppose sneaking toothpaste into peppermints would be one way to counteract cavities in spoiled kids who don't brush.
Posted by: Bronze Dog | June 22, 2006 5:40 PM
One reason I wouldn't pull a stunt like that: who knows what they REALLY put in those tablets?
Posted by: Roman Werpachowski | June 23, 2006 7:42 AM