Bob's snake bite

I'm glad to see that Bob recovered.

The paper gives us some good information. The doc tells us that he is using a couple of solutions diluted to 30C. Okay, if we assume that the molar properties of the substance is the same as the solvent (they aren't but assuming so is most likely being generous) then that means that there is 1 molecule of stuff for each 100^30 molecules of solvent.

Let's use water as the solvent. There are 1.27x10^26 molecules of water in a gallon. 100^30 molecules of water is 7.87x10^33 gallons. A tanker car holds 3500 gallons so we have 2.3x10^30 tanker cars filled with our solution of water + 1 molecule of whatever. A little more precise and a lot more visual: 2249718785151856017997750281214.8 tanker cars. If the doctor's bag held a tanker of solution then he would have a 1 in 2249718785151856017997750281214.8 chance of having the one tanker that had the one molecule of whatever stuff he was using.

And then to administer it he diluted it with water. In homeopathy this would increase its potency. Just think that through a bit.

I am glad that Bob recovered. I am always in awe of the way biological system operate and adapt. Nature fixed Bob, not the doctor. Do not confuse the correlation of events (bite -> doc administers -> Bob gets better) with causation as I am pretty sure his "medicine" did nothing more than whatever the solvent alone would have done. (Alcohol and water are common solvents used, neither if which have been shown to counteract snake bite venom.)

This is not a treatise against the substances the doc says he was using. Those things may have medicinal value and may warrant scientific investigation/trial/actual dosage workup. But it literally does not matter what he said he used. He could have administered ostrich shell at 30C and latex at 30C (diluted in water of course) and you would have experienced the same exact outcome.

A Canadian consumer watchdog group investigates:

Part 1 on YouTube

Part 2 on YouTube


Notes:

I didn't spend an enormous amount of time on the math, I just banged it out on my calculator. Check the numbers and if I've messed up we'll fix it and add a note.

The solute molecules are likely larger than the solvent molecules so there would be less than stated. If smaller then more than stated. Either way, the dilution is so huge that if the molecule size differs by a factor of 100 it still does not change the fact that the doctor's solution is nothing.
 

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