Homeopathic Question

Wouldn’t a homeopathic question actually be an answer, surrounded by so much white space that you’d have to look through dozens of screens in order to find just one pixel of one letter?

But I digress. Here’s my real question: we all know how homeopathic solutions are made (when not talking about the kooks who transmit the homeopathic-ness over the phone or the Internet): you take a substance that causes the symptoms you’re trying to cure (like cures like), dissolve it in a large amount of water, shake it all about, then repeat the last two steps until you feel Avogadro rolling in his grave. Somehow, this makes the medicine super-potent (quantum vibrations) and better than regular medicine (which only treats the symptoms…which are how you determined what substance to use in the first place. Wait a minute…).

Now, here’s where my understanding falls apart. It seems, at this point, that any homeopathic medication would have to be in liquid form, seeing as it’s just plain water. But I know you can buy homeopathic pills. What the heck are they made of?

If, for instance, the pills are capsules, wouldn’t the water inside them dissolve the capsule? If the pills are some kind of geltab, what is the gel made of? And if they’re tablets of any sort, then what are they made of? It’s not like you can just dehydrate a homeopathic remedy. Or is it just that, like Zicam, none of these homeopathic pills actually follow the tenets of homeopathy? I tend to doubt that; seems like Randi would have mentioned it.

So, what do they make homeopathic pills out of?