Monument to Dr. C.F. Samuel Hahnemann, Scott Circle, Washington, D. C. erected by the American Institute of  Homeopathy and dedicated and presented to the U. S. Government on June 21, 1900. Sculptor, C. H. Niehaus.  Architect, J. F. Harder.

     In 1951 Alphonse Gay demonstrated that microdilutions have dielectric indices which differ from their liquid vehicles and are specific both for the substances in dilution as well as for the degree of dilution. His apparatus consisted of "a type of capacitance, a mercury armature and a dielectric easily interchangeable . . . introduced in circuit with a galvanometer."
     The changes in capacitance of the various microdilutions were recorded as fluctuations of the galvanometer from zero. He obtained sinusoidal curves for microdilutions ranging up to 10 to the 60th power of Strychnos nux vomica, Pulsatilla nigricans, Lycopodium clavatum, Cinchona officinalis, Ignatia amara, Castoreum, Moschus, sodium chloride and Sepia officinalis.
     In 1952 Gay and Boiron reported the result of a series of exhaustive investigations into the action of microdilutions . In a comparison between the capacitance of distilled water and sodium chloride, carried through identical stages of dilution to 10 to the sixtieth power, both dilutions gave sinusoidal curves which approximated each other fairly closely except that at 10 to the 26th, 38th and 54th power they were in direct opposition.
     In addition they found that "Ohms law is not applicable for microdilutions . . . that the electrical resistance is not linear for frequencies between 1.050 and 2.650 periods per second."
     In 1953 Gay extended his work in collaboration with Jean Boiron. Using the same apparatus, in 100 out of 100 attempts they were able to distinguish  a flask containing sodium chloride, diluted out 10 to the 54th power, (which by my reckoning is the same as 27c and is well beyond Avogadro's limit -j.b.) from six other identical flasks containing distilled water.

John R. Benneth
gian@cyberhighway.net