Five large meta-analyses of homoeopathy trials have been done. All have had the same result: after excluding methodologically inadequate trials and accounting for publication bias, homoeopathy produced no statistically significant benefit over placebo.1–5 And yet homoeopathy can still be clinically useful.During the cholera epidemic in the 19th century, death rates at the London Homoeopathic Hospital were three times lower than those at the Middlesex Hospital.6 The reason for homoeopathy's success in this epidemic is even more interesting than the placebo effect. At the time, nobody could treat cholera, and while medical treatments such as blood-letting were actively harmful, the homoeopaths' treatments were at least inert.Similarly, modern medicine can offer little for conditions such as many types of back pain, stress at work, medically unexplained fatigue, and most common colds. Going through a theatre of medical treatment, and trying every drug in the book, will only elicit side-effects. An inert pill in these circumstances seems a sensible option...