This is not a thread about whether homeopathy works. We know that is bunk of the highest order and there is no medicine in the “medicine”. (If you disagree with me, start your own thread.) What I am asking is do we have any examples of anything, especially medicines, where the above statement is true?
Vaccines don’t qualify because, while they are relatively small doses, no one (except homeopaths) is claiming they become more powerful as they are reduced. They are small doses because larger ones would not work any better, yet would do more collateral damage.
I don’t think that there’s anything that this could be point-blank true with, except maybe for a few special cases with living (or self-replicating agents) that can grow and change in the diluting medium.
Otherwise - well, whatever you’ve got, let’s dilute it by a factor of a trillion trillion. Whatever it is, however it works, you’re going to tell me that having that much less of it will work better?
It’s not strictly analogous, but I can store 98% sulfuric acid in carbon steel vessels and run it through carbon steel lines, but if I let it get diluted to 70% it’s going to make short work of my tanks and pipes.
The homeopathic idea that more dilution equals more strength does have a significant problem. If that were true for any substance, how would you know when to stop diluting? Logic suggests that an infinite dilution would have an infinite (positive) effect, otherwise there would be a point in the curve where the effects started to go down.
I guess applying logic to such an illogical concept doesn’t make much sense. Still, if no one can come up with an example, we have no analogy.
While I don’t doubt your statement, can we assume that the dilution ratios are quite different from most homeopathic ones and we are on an entirely different scale range?
As mentioned up above, bleach works similarly, and I am sure there are many examples of substances that have an optimal dilution. Substances that work better and better the more you dilute them though, not so much.
I’m thinking of a lump of undissolved catalyst in the bottom of a test tube as a starting point. Adding water wouldn’t increase the concentration of the catalyst in the solution, but it might increase the total amount available to react with.
