ABSTRACT
The concept of hormesis started with the ndings of Hugo Schulz (1887, 1888) that a number of chemical disinfectants stimulated the metabolism of yeast at low concentrations, although they were inhibitory at higher concentrations. Schulz created a major controversy because he used these ndings to assert that he had discovered the explanatory principle of homeopathy, a medical practice then in serious conict with what is today called traditional medicine. Thus, before Schulz’s biphasic doseresponse could receive a fair assessment by the scientic and medical communities, it was rejected and dismissed. These actions were based on issues other than science. Schulz and his dose-response would become quickly marginalized, ridiculed, and treated as a scientic outcast for the next 50 years (Calabrese 2005, 2011).
