§ 236
The most appropriate and efficacious time for administering the medicine in these cases is immediately or very soon after the termination of the paroxysm, as soon as the patient has in some degree recovered from its effects; it has then time to effect all the changes in the organism requisite for the restoration of health, without any great disturbance or violent commotion; whereas the action of a medicine, be it ever so specifically appropriate, if given immediately before the paroxysm, coincides with the natural recurrence of the disease and causes such a reaction in the organism, such a violent contention, that an attack of that nature produces at the very least a great loss of strength, if it do not endanger life.
1 But if the medicine be given immediately after the termination of the fit, that is to say, at the period when the apyretic interval has commenced and a long time before there are any preparations for the next paroxysm, then the vital force of the organism is in the best possible condition to allow itself to be quietly altered by the remedy, and thus restored to the healthy state.1 This
is observed in the fatal cases, by no means rare, in which a moderate dose of opium given
during the cold stage quickly deprived the patients of life.
But if the stage of apyrexia be very short, as happens in some very bad
fevers, or if it be disturbed by some of the after sufferings of the previous paroxysm,
the dose of the homœopathic medicine should be administered when the perspiration
begins to abate, or the other subsequent phenomena of the expiring paroxysm begin to
diminish.
It is only when the suitable medicine has with a single dose destroyed
several fits and manifest health and ensued, but after some time indications of a new
paroxysm appear, only then can and must the same medicine be given again, provided always
the totality of the symptoms is still the same. This recurrence of the same fever after an
interval of health is, however, only possible when the noxious influence that first
excited the intermittent fever still continues to act upon the convalescent, as happens in
marshy districts; in which case a permanent cure is often only possible by the removal of
this exciting cause (as, for instance, a residence in a mountainous country if the case
was one of marsh intermittent fever).
§ 238 Sixth Edition
Not infrequently, the suitable medicine has with a single dose
destroyed several attacks and brought about the return of health, but in the majority of
cases, another dose must be administered after such attack. Better still, however, when
the character of the symptoms has not changed, doses of the same medicine given according
to the newer discovery of repetition of doses (see note to § 270), may be given without
difficulty in dynamizing each successive dose with 10-12 succussions of the vial
containing the medicinal substance. Nevertheless, there are at times cases, though seldom,
where the intermittent fever returns after several days’ well being. This return of
the same fever after a healthy interval is only possible when the noxious principle that
first caused the fever, is still acting upon the convalescent, as is the case in marshy
regions. Here a permanent restoration can often take place only by getting away from this
causative factor, as is possible by seeking a mountainous retreat, if the cause was a
marshy fever.
As almost every medicine causes in its pure action a special, peculiar
fever and even a kind of intermittent fever with its alternating states, differing from
all other fevers that are caused by other medicines, homœopathic remedies may be
found in the extensive domain of medicines for all the numerous varieties of natural
intermittent fevers and, for a great many of such fevers, even in the moderate collection
of medicines already proved on the healthy individual.
But if the remedy found to be the homœopathic specific for a
prevalent epidemic of intermittent fever do not effect a perfect cure in some one or other
patient, if it be not the influence of a marshy district that prevents the cure, it must
always be the psoric miasm in the background, in which case antipsoric medicines must be
employed until complete relief is obtained.
Epidemics of intermittent fever, in situations where none are endemic,
are of the nature of chronic diseases, composed of single acute paroxysms; each single
epidemic is of a peculiar, uniform character common to all the individuals attacked, and
when this character is found in the totality of the symptoms common to all, it guides us
to the discovery of the homœopathic (specific) remedy suitable for all the cases,
which is almost universally serviceable in those patients who enjoyed tolerable health
before the occurrence of the epidemic, that is to say, who were not chronic sufferers from
developed psora.