From the back-cover:

'The proving is a vital part of homeopathy. It is the process by which remedies are discovered, explored and added to the materia medica. Without provings we would not have any information on non-toxic substances and only the crudest picture of the toxic ones.

Understanding how a proving works and how to read a proving gives us a much clearer picture of what we know about a remedy and how we know it. We can make a clearer judgement of how accurate and how comprehensive is the information found in the materia medica and so understand accurately how well it matches the picture of our patient's disease.

69 pages.

Our comments

From page 33 there is a section on ''How to Conduct a Proving'. All types are described from the casual, the dream proving, the meditative, the seminar group to the more credible Hahnemannian. An important area is discussed on page 41 concerning whether supervisors should know the identity of the substance tested. Peter Fraser comments that it is not necessary as it allows them to be 'more relaxed about what is happening to the provers'. We would have to point out that it is precisely because of this practice that much homeopathic research is all too easily dismissed by sceptics as imagination.

On page 41 it is also stated: "Placebo should not be used in a proving. It does not provide any useful information but does cause confusion and the questioning of which symptoms are meaningful." We would argue that it provides a cautionary check on a group hysteria developing among the provers.