Alternative medicine scholarly materials or information resources available on the Internet are those which meet the traditional tests of evaluation-author/authority, accuracy, objectivity, currency, and content-and are peer reviewed. However, individual publishing on the Internet suffers from the same drawback as its print counterpart, vanity publishing; that is, it escapes the peer-review process. Much of the Internet is promotional, and it is important to differentiate between advertising and educational Web sites. Traditional bibliographic criteria apply to all scholarly Internet Web documents, exclusively to alternative medicine sites. Two studies that appeared during the last year uncovered less than adequate net coverage of two common childhood conditions, according to comment or article: fever in the British Medical Journal, June 1997, and diarrhea in Pediatrics, June 1998. Finding information about alternative medicine may prove relatively easy if health beliefs are cultural and one belongs to a particular cultural group.

This article explores the need for and the problems with digital preservation. Digital documents are much more easily discovered and shared than their analog counterparts, but not only is there a mistaken belief that digital preservation will occur without conscious intervention, there are also outstanding technical issues to be resolved. Even when these problems are recognized, it is unclear what materials should be preserved. Medical librarians have an important role to play in these decisions and should engage with their communities and play an active role in the process.

Since its beginning in 1997, the Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet (previously titled Health Care on the Internet) has carried a column on alternative and complementary therapies. Much has changed over the past 15 years. This commentary will review some of the historically significant developments in alternative medicine research and practice.

This is the biography of a deceased medical journal, the North American Medical and Surgical Journal, born in 1826 in Philadelphia. It was a publication of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Kappa Lambda Society. In the prospectus of the North American Medical and Surgical Journal the promoters observed that a well-conducted journal would achieve the object of elevating the medical profession to its legitimate rank which up to that time had been the recipient of low public opinion. The Journal hoped to inculcate 'a higher standard of excellence not merely in the professional or ministrative but also in the ethical relations and duties of physicians'. After several successful and productive years it passed into history in October 1831, the victim of financial difficulty.

Alexander Graydon (1752–1818) was appointed prothonotary of Dauphin County in 1785, a position he occupied for the next fourteen years after which he retired to a small farm near Harrisburg. He moved back to Philadelphia in 1816 and passed away at the age of sixty-six. In his Memoirs in a chapter subtitled “Yellow Fever,” Graydon reports that “a malady not less fatal than that in Philadelphia was raging” in Harrisburg in 1793. The mortality of the two was comparable. The symptoms of the Harrisburg disease included affection of the stomach or nausea with violent retching, yellowness of the skin, and black vomit in some cases. Illness duration was perhaps a week, sometimes longer, and some died in two to three days. Other ambulatory victims with symptoms only of ague suddenly became quite ill and expired. Graydon himself was ill with a quartan ague in mid-September but had no other symptoms. He attributed the origin of the illness to marsh effluvia caused by “torrid sun acting upon moist soil, or upon impure and stagnant water.”

Bezoars are commonly viewed by the modern orthodox medical community as gastrointestinal anomalies requiring treatment. However, that was not always the case. In the past, they were widely regarded as a remedy by all levels of society, including the well-to-do and even royalty. Several bezoar stones were discovered among the cherished items reclaimed from the sunken Spanish treasure ship, Nuestra Senora de Atocha. Today, especially in rural areas, medical powers are still ascribed to bezoar stones. This column reviews a small assortment of Web sites on traditional medical uses of bezoars.

Honey is an alternative therapy firmly rooted in ancient medical armamentarium. Many of its curative properties are being revived today. Only a few rigorous scientific studies support the therapeutic value of honey, and those few studies have enrolled very small numbers of patients. It is time to take a critical look at the curative properties of this nonirritating, nontoxic, and inexpensive alternative.

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This column is intended to be a guide to Internet resources dealing with alternative and complementary therapies, also known as unconventional or unorthodox therapies. According to a landmark study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1993, these nontraditional methods for health and healing are sought after by one-third of all persons surveyed. Each article in this column will focus on an Internet site, a specific diagnosis, or a therapeutic modality. Anyone interested in submitting comments or material for publication should contact: Esther Y. Dell, The George T. Harrell Library, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania State University, P.O. Box 850, Hershey, PA 17033 (e-mail: eyd1@psu.edu). DISCLAIMER: This column serves only as a resource guide. Readers are not to assume that the coverage of subjects is comprehensive. The column editors and the journal do not vouch for the validity of the information from sources described.

This article highlights the contribution that historical information can make to the depth and interest of current medical practice and scholarship. Included are some suggested historical resources that may help shed light on a project's medical and scientific antecedents.

The Kappa Lambda Society of Hippocrates, an early medical professional organization, was founded circa 1819 in Lexington, Kentucky, amid the first economic depression in the United States. Its primary stated purpose was to elevate medicine as a profession. This article will reevaluate the acknowledged purposes and accomplishments of the Society in the social and economic context of its time, and consider the extent to which it may have advanced the professional stature and economic station of educated medical practitioners.

Results of the four-year study entitled the Glucosamine/chondroitin Arthritis Intervention Trial (GAIT) provided partial answers to those seeking relief from arthritis pain. Scientists will continue studying the efficacy of these substances as pain remedy and cartilage rejuvenator. (C) 2006 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.