Oscillococcinum Anhängsel Pyrogenium

[Dr. Nienhuys] a retired mathematician, formerly at Eindhoven University of Technology in The Netherlands. He is also secretary of the Dutch organization Skepsis. An earlier version of this article appeared in the organization's magazine, Skepter.

The Story of Oscillococcinum [freely adapted from Jan Willem Nienhuys]

Osc. discovered by Joseph Roy (1891-1978), a French physician at the time of the Spanish flu in 1917. Examining the blood of victims he found a strange microorganism: a bacterium that consisted of two unequal balls that performed a quick vibratory motion. Roy called them "oscillococci" and thought they could vary much in size. Sometimes they shrunk so much that he couldn't see them with his microscope. But they could also grow and

get one or two more balls.

Next Roy discovered these bacteria in the blood and the tumors of cancer patients, in syphilitic ulcers, in the tubercles of tuberculosis patients and in the pus of gonorrhea sufferers. Also people who had eczema, rheumatism, mumps, chickenpox and measles turned out to harbor this "universal germ."

It is not clear today what Roy saw in his microscope. One thing is certain: he did not see the causes of those diseases. Rheumatism, eczema, and most forms of cancer are not caused by microbes, and mumps and measles are

caused by viruses, which can't be seen with an ordinary microscope. No other bacteriologist has ever reported seeing Roy's special cocci again.

Roy thought he had made a new and thrilling discovery on the road to the cure for cancer.

Roy thought of a homeopathic application. The fundamental teaching of Samuel Hahnemann (1775-1843) disease is a disturbed "life force", specific causes for diseases do not exist. He thought possibly vague environmental factors may play a role (scabies and syphilis were such factors, which he called "miasmas“). Other parts of Hahnemann's theory was that diseases can be cured if one imparts to the patient an artificial disease that produces

similar life force disturbances as the real disease. The short-lived artificial disease will drive out the real disease and then the patient is cured. The remedies act by their spiritual power and this spiritual nonphysical power

can be imparted to alcohol or milk sugar by a process of shaking or rubbing, just like iron can be made magnetic by rubbing it with a magnet.

Roy's finding fit perfectly with the homeopathic view that diseases do not have specific causes, and he thought that his discovery could be adapted to treat cancer homeopathically. Just take any abundant source of oscillococci,

and after homeopathic reinforcement, it will become a panacea.

Roy took as source the muscovy duck called Canard de Barbarie known as Cairina moschata. Completely in line with the unscientific traditions of homeopathy, Osc. As a remedy is named in Latin with the wrong name,

"Anas Barbariae, Hepatis et Cordis Extractum," even though Anas ducks are quite different from Cairina ducks.

Since 1925, Osc. has been prepared as follows. Into a one litre bottle, a mixture of pancreatic juice and glucose is poured. Next a Canard de Barbarie is decapitated and 35 grams of its liver and 15 grams of its heart are put

into the bottle. Why liver? Roy: "The Ancients considered the liver as the seat of suffering, even more important than the heart, which is a very profound insight, because it is on the level of the liver that the pathological modifications of the blood happen, and also there the quality of the energy of our heart muscle changes in a durable manner." Maybe the French tendency to call any form of not well-being a "crise de foie" ("bilious attack")

had also something to do with it. After 40 days in the sterile bottle, liver and heart autolyse (disintegrate) into a kind of goo, which is then "potentized" with the Korsakov method.

Doctor Roy thought that his concoction worked against cancer, syphilis, scabies and Tb., but Boiron only recommends it for "flu-like states".

Exaggerated: Diabetics who are afraid when during a thunderstorm their husband seems to be late, while they have a feeling of electric currents through their varicose veined legs, anal itch and itchy bumps on their wrist,

that they keep trying to wash off in a maniacal way, especially when they have a runny nose and stubbornly resist advice not to worry.

Tuberculosis patients sensitive to chilling.

Luetic patients having obsessive ideas.

1. Osc., le joli grand canard. Science et Pseudo-sciences, Cahiers bimestriels de l'Association Française pour l'Information Scientifique, No 202, mars-avril 1993.

2. Kotok A. The history of homeopathy in the Russian Empire until World War I, as compared with other European countries and the USA: similarities and discrepancies. PhD thesis, submitted November 1999.

3. Anas Barbariae, Hepatis et Cordis Extractum. The Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States, monograph #0137, June 1989.

4. Homeopathic Medicine Research Group. Dictionary of Homeopathy, First Edition, 1996.

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