THE PROVING OF NEPTUNIUM MURIATICUM
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T H E P R O V I N G O F
NEPTUNIUM MURIATICUM
In the spring of 1998, French homeopaths decided to carry out a proving that lived up to
both the expectations of the international homeopathic community and the principles
Hahnemann set out in the Organon. We, therefore, chose to use the remarkably complete
and detailed method given by J. Sherr to study the remedy which is the subject of this
proving. As we are required to observe the criteria which give this type of study scientific
validity, in particular the double blind principle and the use of placebo along with the active
product, we also thought it desirable to try, insofar as possible, to attain a degree of
compatibility with tests used by the pharmaceutical industry. Perhaps this type of approach
will make it possible to bridge the gap between these two seemingly irreconcilable worlds.
I METHODOLOGY
We selected 20 provers, each of whom received six doses of one potency. They were
asked to record their symptoms in a notebook and report them to a supervisor, of necessity a
homeopathic doctor. The supervisor in turn recorded them in another notebook. After a
week of observation, the provers began taking the remedy doses. They were instructed to
take up to three doses a day over two days, with the understanding that it was imperative
that they stop taking the remedy as soon as the first symptoms appeared.
The various potencies were divided as follows: five received the remedy in the 7 C
potency, five in 12 C, five in 30 C, the last five received placebo. Each of the 120 doses was
randomly assigned a number known only to the laboratory that prepared the remedy. In
addition, the substance was chosen by a single person, a member of our study group, who
did not disclose the identity of the substance until the proving was completed, that is, until
the provers’ and supervisors’ notebooks were handed in to the director of the experiment.
THE PROVING OF NEPTUNIUM MURIATICUM
8
Obviously, this person did not participate in the proving, in order that the double blind rule
might be completely respected.
For reasons related specifically to the health or availability of the provers, it was not
possible for everyone to take the doses at the same time, which is why the experiment took
place from October 1998 to April 1999. In spite of this, there did not seem to be any
exchange of information between provers and/or supervisors that might have influenced the
result.
The remedy chosen for the experiment—a metallic salt, neptunium chloride—had never
before been made into a homeopathic remedy. Our choice was guided mainly by our desire
to complete homeopathic knowledge about the basic constituents of matter—atoms.
Therefore this work follows as part of the provings of other elements on Mendeleev’s
Periodic Table of the Elements carried out over the past few years, namely, by increasing
order of atomic mass: Hydrogenum, Helium, Oxygenum, Neon, Cobaltum, Germanium,
Molybdenum
, Indium, Tantalum, Tungstenum, Iridium, and Plutonium.
II NEPTUNIUM
With atomic number 93, neptunium is found between uranium (92), the last of the natural
elements, and plutonium (94) on the Periodic Table. Like its two closest neighbors, it
belongs to the actinide series, so named because of the chemical affinity with actinium (89).
First of the artificially produced elements, neptunium starts the series of the 11 transuranic
elements, all radioactive, heavy metals. How neptunium was discovered is of interest as, in
a way, it already bears the remedy’s imprint.
1) History
The work of Frédéric Joliot and Irène Curie (the son-in-law and daughter of Marie Curie)
at the beginning of the 1930s showed the probable existence of elements higher than
uranium. Various groups of atomic physicists started searching for the hypothetical "eka-
rhenium," the name of the element above which the new atom should logically be placed in
the Periodic Table. Thus, in 1934, in Rome, Enrico Fermi and Emilio Segrè announced the
discovery of the first transuranic element obtained by the bombardment of a uranium
nucleus using a source of thermal neutrons (slowed by water). However, to the great
displeasure of its creators, the chemical and radioactive characteristics of the new element
were difficult to interpret, as they were incompatible with and contradicted those
theoretically expected. It was only in 1938 that Otto Hahn, Fritz Strassmann and Lise
Meitner (from Berlin and Stockholm) published the results of their work on the discovery of
the Italians. The bombardment of a uranium nucleus by neutrons, instead of giving birth to a
new heavier element, had caused a uranium isotope
1
, uranium 235, found in very low
quantities (0.72%) in natural uranium, to split into two unequal fragments. Thus, the first
nuclear fission in history took place without its authors’ knowledge. However, as early as
1934, another German physicist, Ida Noddack, intuitively understood Fermi and Segrè’s
misconception, but had not been able to establish proof as she did not have the necessary
equipment to carry out the experiment herself.
The start of the Second World War put an end to the collaboration between laboratories
and sounded the death knell for nuclear research in Europe. The quest for transuranic
1
Nucleus of the same element but with a different number of neutrons.