IS HOMEOPATHY GOOD MEDICINE?

When Dana Ullman's younger sister developed a nagging pain in her abdomen, their father, a pediatrician, couldn't find the cause or a cure. Neither could the five specialists who were called in on her case. Then Dana, a practitioner and leading proselytizer of homeopathy, stepped in. He prescribed a dose of calcium carbonate; two weeks later, his sister's pain had disappeared. Now whenever illness strikes, the Ullman family turns first to Dana's type of medicine.

So do millions of other Americans. After languishing for years in therapeutic backwaters, homeopathy is riding a wave of new--and controversial--popularity. Slickly packaged homeopathic remedies crowd...