British Homeeopathic Journal April 1994, Vol. 83, pp. 126-128

Medical Institute of Ukrainian Association of Folk Medicine SIR-- In 1991 the Health Ministry of Ukraine, the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Red Cross Organization and the Children's Charity Fund of Ukraine estab- lished the Ukrainian Association of Folk Medicine with the purpose of studying the most important achievements of traditional approaches to disease prevention and management. Our Association is now among the leaders in the field of popular and non- traditional medicine.

In 1992-1993 the Association established a Medical Institute, Medical College and Medical School with therapy and stomatology as their main branches, and teaching special- ists able to use successfully the experience of popular medicine as well as the most impor- tant approaches of homoeopathy, reflexoth- erapy, phytotherapy, medical astrology, etc. Recently, the Association has also organized the Chair of Homoeopathy and Homoeoth- erapy at its Medical Institute and the Inter- national Homoeopathic Society, where a clinic provides the basis for scientific research and for practical training.

We would like to make our international co-operation useful for all participants and we propose the following areas for such co-operation: - - Scientific contacts and discussion and joint

scientific research programs; - - Post-graduate students studies in different

fields of non-traditional and folk medicine; - - World-wide scientific communications and

information exchange (teaching programs, software exchange etc.);

- - D e v e l o p m e n t and sale of hom0eopathic drugs;

- - Establishment of hom~eopathic drug pro- duction in the Ukraine, of joint ventures dealing with these drugs, and of agencies for foreign drug companies.

We are interested in discussing with you the possibility of establishing an International Homceopathic Institute in Kiev.

We would also like to acquaint ourselves with the teaching plans of other colleges, medical schools, etc., to compare them with o u r s .

P R O F E S S O R N A T A L I A K O S T I N S K A Y A Chairman of the Association

Medical Institute of Ukrainian Association of Folk Medicine

9 Tolstoy Str. Kiev, 252004

Ukraine

.,World Congress for Holistic Medicine SIR--The first World Congress for Holistic Medicine organized by the international association 'Peace Through Culture' and sponsored by the Government of the Crimean Republic with the participation of Crimean Medical Institute was held on 2-9 October 1993. Representatives attended from the Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Germany, Austria and Poland. The programme was full and varied.

The aim of the congress was to synthesize traditional and western medicines. The most numerous participants were healers, the majority of whom had no formal medical edu- cation. Some of them showed certain excep- tional abilities while others proposed new methods for medical and non-medical ther- apy, special diets, healing by dance and sing- ing etc.

The reports and discussions revealed 2 tendencies among hom0eopaths: the preserva- tion of Hahnemann's hom~eopathy and the different ways of reforming it. The aim of the reform is to find quickly the effective hom~eo- pathic medicine using acupuncture diagnosis, extrasensory perception, astrology, and other methods.

Perhaps such a tendency is present in all countries and not only in the former Soviet Union where life is proceeding in a compli- cated manner and everybody is in a hurry to find out something new.

It was of interest to hear the opinions of other hom0eopaths on Kiev's homceopathic

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Volume 83, Number 2, April 1994 127

centre which continues to work in the classical hom~eopathic style.

T A T I A N A P O P O V A , MD Ukraina Society

6 Zoloti Vorota St Kiev-34. UCR SSR

Plymouth Homoeopathic Hospital SIR- - I was interested to see the cover illus- tration of the July 1993 issue of the British Homoeopathic Journal showing the Plymouth Hom0eopathic Hospital though Bernard Leary did not mention it in the article on 'The smaller hospitals'.

The hospital building still exists, in Lockyer Street, Plymouth, though it ceased to function as a hospital about 20 years ago. It was opened as the Homoeopathic Hospital in 1993, when the Dispensary and Cottage Hospital in Union Street proved too small. Initially there were 20 beds, and the demand for homceo- pathy was such that in 1900 over 15,000 OUt- patients were seen, 558 accidents and emergencies and 124 inpatients. In 1902 it ceased to be a 'cottage hospital' as there was a resident physician. By 1918 the hospital had 50 beds, but many of the occupants were now surgical war casualties, and progressively the homoeopathic patients were 'diluted' by general patients. The name was changed to the Devon and Cornwall Homoeopathic and General Hospital in 1919. In 1929 it was renamed the Central Hospital Plymouth, and general and universal medical treatment was offered, though any patient wanting to be treated homceopathically was offered that facility. The British Homoeopathic Congress was held in Plymouth in September 1930, but by 1934 the hospital had become an annexe to the main Prince of Wales Hospital (later Greenbank Hospital, which has just closed).

In 1962, when I was working in the Ply- mouth Hospital group, it was still a hospital, but had resumed cottage hospital status, for although it was a gynaecological unit with 2 wards and an operating theatre, it had no resi- dent medical staff. The name was at that time still on the wall as depicted in the cover pic- tu re - fac ing Lockyer Street (on the left), but disappeared approximately 2 decades ago, with the closure of the gynaecological unit and conversion of the building to private dwellings. I hope this may be of some interest to your readers.

D. R. HOLCOMBE, MD 1 Ashleigh Road

Kingsbridge Devon TQ7 1HB

Quality control SIR- - I t is hard to believe that the hom0eo- pathic community still debates on the lack of quality control devices that might prove effec- tive on high dynamizations; patently that is the problem, though seldom stated, for in our days lower dynamizations are promptly ana- lysed by standard chromatography tests in serious hom0eopathic pharmaceutical firms.

Hom0eopathic medicines above Avoga- dro's number have been susceptible of analy- sis by many methods, be they expensive or simple. Sophisticated and high-tech instru- mentation includes NMR spectrophotometry, and above all Perkin Elmer (and Aminco Bowman) spectroftuorometers which are more practical for this purpose. They produce precise fluorescence-graph imaging of even the highest dynamizations, and have been studied for nearly 5 years now at the National School of Medicine and Hom~eopathy, a state professional institution at Mexico City. The results have been confirmed in other institu- tions (like the National University), and this work was presented to the 1990 OMHI Con- gress in Mexico city and published in the pro- ceedings. 1 Using an Aminco Bowman spectrofluorometer, the first list of homoeo- pathic preparations has been produced, with polychrests screened in the main dynamiza- tions (way beyond Avogadro's 12c). If flu- orescence of an ethanol sample (activated or non-dynamized) is surprising, imagine flu- orescing patterns in high dynamizations of Zincum, Magnesia carbonica, or Stannum, which are non-fluorescing elements in their natural form.

With a less expensive and complex approach we have the very interesting pH studies published by Meera et al. and by research teams from Brazil and Mexico. This parameter has also proved reliable, and we are certain all the dynamizations can eventu- ally be listed according to their pH values. In general hom~eopathic medicines tend to be less alkaline than the non-dynamized control ethanol. Recent preliminary blind pilot stud- ies from this Biomedical Research Program (University of Baja California) showed the freezing points of several remedies to be