Copeland's Cure: Homeopathy and the War Between Conventional and Alternative Medicine
Sen. Royal Copeland of New York is mostly forgotten as a politician, yet he was responsible for the inclusion, and legitimization, of homeopathic remedies in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938. Robins, the Edgar Award–winning coauthor ofSavage Grace, resurrects Copeland to tell of his lifelong struggle for the acceptance of homeopathy by the mainstream medical community. Placing the spread of painless homeopathy in the 19th century in the context of such brutal treatments as bloodletting, Robins then gives a detailed recounting of Copeland's early career as a homeopathic eye doctor, with descriptions of treatments that would make a doctor today blanch. Copeland's life story serves as a backdrop for the struggle that began in the 1840s between homeopathy and the fledgling American Medical Association, which mounted a campaign to stamp it out. Robins devotes her last three chapters to a history of homeopathy in the half-century since Copeland's death; it remains a popular alternative treatment, although homeopathists are still on the fringes of accepted medicine. Robins refrains from taking a stance on the legitimacy of the practice, which has yet to be tested in clinical trials. She confines herself to giving a thorough, if dry, account of homeopathy's role in the shaping of American medicine. B&w illus.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.