| Quackery and superstition - available soon on the NHS
Put not your trust in princes, especially not princes who talk to plants. But that's what the government has decided to do. The Department of Health has funded the Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health to set up the Natural Healthcare Council to regulate 12 alternative therapies, such as aromatherapy, reflexology and homeopathy. Modelled on the General Medical Council, it has the power to strike therapists off for malpractice. This is perplexing. How does a regulator decide what is good practice and what is charlatanry when none of it has peer-reviewed, scientific evidence that it works? The prince's foundation says the new council will only register those who have qualifications from their "professional" bodies. That will encourage the burgeoning number of degrees and diplomas in complementary therapies offered by universities, such as the Thames Valley, Westminster or the University of Wales.
Base of France's foreign policy
After 1995, Mitterrand's successor, the neo-Gaullist Jacques Chirac, revived the anti-American gesticulations in their crudest form. Having carefully studied the experiences of De Gaulle, Mitterrand and Chirac, Sarkozy is trying to develop a policy that reflects today's realities and tomorrow's dangers. Sarkozy's three major predecessors started with the assumption that, when it came to any major international issue, the US was either the problem or the solution. Sarkozy starts with a quite different assumption. He starts the analysis of every issue with the assumption that the US is not involved, either as a problem or as a solution. Imagine, there is no US, he asks, are the European nations threatened by radical Islamism or not? Imagine there is no US, does the European Union depend on oil and gas imports from the Greater Middle East? Imagine there is no US, is the acquisition of nuclear weapons by the Khomeinist regime in Tehran good or bad for France and the European Union? Imagine there is no US, isn't Europe safer if Afghanistan and Iraq are transformed into friendly democracies rather than a safe haven for terrorists? Vital importance Having established the fact that an issue is of vital importance to France and the EU even if Christopher Columbus had not discovered America, Sarkozy then proceeds to ask another question.
When 17th-century women would seek out hare spittle
Despite the wonders of modern medicine, seeking treatment for infertility can still be a heartbreaking experience. But spare a thought for British women living in the 17th century. Anyone having difficulty conceiving all those centuries ago might have come across one William Sermon, a notorious physician whose 1671 book recommended a bizarre array of cures for infertility, such as drinking wine mixed with hare spittle or mouse ear. A copy of his book, The Ladies Companion, Or The English Midwife, has been unearthed in a Surrey attic and is expected to fetch up 2,000 when Sotheby's auctions it next month. Sermon (c1629-1680) is said to have decided to study medicine after witnessing a woman giving birth alone in a wood while he was out hare-shooting which may explain why hares feature so prominently in his cures.
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