Copeland's Cure

December 13, 2004
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 of Savage 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. Agent, Lynn Nesbit.

March 15, 2005
After more than 150 years, homeopathy remains one of the most popular (and perhaps counterintuitive) alternative therapies. At a time when bloodletting and blistering were standard treatments, homeopathy's introduction was embraced by a grateful populace. Not so grateful were the "regular" physicians, who founded the American Medical Association a few years after the creation of the American Institute of Homeopathy, the first national medical organization. Robins ("Savage Grace") delves into both the development of homeopathy and its ongoing clash with mainstream medicine. While this is not a biography of Dr. Royal Copeland, homeopathy's primary U.S. champion in the early 20th century, Robins details Copeland's career as a physician and later as a politician and public health official. She completes the book with balanced interviews with today's primary players in the ongoing "war," outlining efforts to bring homeopathic research into the randomized, placebo-controlled arena of modern medical research. This well-researched, detailed work is best suited for academic and larger public libraries. -Andy Wickens, King Cty. Lib. Syst., Seattle

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2005
Few outside of the medical community may understand the difference between allopathic medicine and homeopathic medicine. It is likely that even fewer are aware of the history of homeopathy, or of where it stands in relation to, say, chiropractic or holistic medicine. Robins' comprehensive account lays all that out around the life and times of U.S. senator, doctor, and dogged champion of homeopathy Royal Samuel Copeland. Paying careful attention to detail, Robins explains the birth of the formal practice of homeopathy, which is based on the principle of like curing like, and the origins of its ongoing love-(mostly)hate relationship with allopathy, which is understood to be based on using opposites to treat illness and disease. Robins answers every point in support of homeopathy with an equally credible counterpoint in support of allopathy, referring final decisions to readers by quoting physician Jennifer Jacobs, coauthor of " Healing with Homeopathy " (1996), who says, "Ultimately all healing is a personal journey." (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)