DISCUSSION ON THE TREATMENT OF INTERMITTENT FEVER



Dr.McCLATCHEY: I rise to correct an error on the part of Dr.Farrington. I said that Hahnemann claimed that while taking Bark he produced in himself symptoms very similar to those of an Intermittent Fever. This he surely did say, and if he mis- stated these circumstances, then might he not have mis-stated all other things from which he and we have deduced Homoeopathy? I did not accuse Hahnemann of stating the Bark is the chief remedy for Ague. It was I who stated that on my own behalf. I find the symptoms of Ague well and prominently

marked in the provings China and Quinine, much more so than any other drug in the Materia Medica, and I have abundantly proved, and seen it proved by others, by countless Homoeopaths and Allopaths, that Hahnemann’s provings and those of others are true and correct, and that Cinchona, as QUININE, is the remedy for Ague and that similia similibus curantur is here proven to be true. I am not responsible for the mischief which Allopaths do by giving those large doses of Quinia, and producing the pathogenetic effects to the drug to be added to those of the disease. I only wish to get curative effects.

DR. FARRINGTON: Dr. McClatchey said that if the father is not right in saying that QUININE is the similimum for chills and fever, is he not wrong in everything else? Hahnemann never said it; and, besides, what he said or did in the beginning of his work should not be charged against him; for later he said that China is the remedy when certain definite symptoms present. In one place he states that China is not the remedy for Intermittent Fever, because it is not even an intermittent remedy at all.

DR. McCALATCHEY: I don’t care whether Hahnemann said that Cinchona is an intermittent remedy or not. I know that it is a remedy for Intermittent Fever, and does cure it, in contra- distinction to the suppression or palliation it is charged with. Indeed, it acts as a true cure, and not by the suppression or palliation of symptoms.

DR. DUDLEY: I expected that something would be said about QUININE to-night, and as I have a weakness for QUININE, I prepared my speech in advance. If I could get along without QUININE, as some claim to do, I could get along without Homoeopathy altogether. Dr. McCLATCHEY stated that the symptoms of a majority of our cases of Intermittents can be found under the symptoms of China or Quinine. I believe that this is strictly true, and, consequently, physician who prescribes China or one of its preparations for Ague, is not far from Homoeopathy, whether he gives it in large or small doses. Why, therefore, should men be afraid to use QUININE? Is it simply because Allopaths use it? Dr. Dudley then read a collation of symptoms of China and Quinia, taken from Allen’s Pure Materia Medica, showing the prevalence of Ague symptoms of all kinds in the pathogeneses of these drugs, as follows:

Chill.- In the morning; in the forenoon; before dinner; in the afternoon; the whole afternoon; in the evening; the whole day.

Chilliness.- Slight; violent; transient; persistent; constant; periodic; with cold hands; with cold feet; with external coldness; without external coldness; with internal coldness; without internal coldness; with nausea; without nausea; with vomiting; without vomiting; with thirst; without thirst alternating with thirst; followed by thirst; preceded by heat; with heat; followed by heat; alternating with heat; over the back over the stomach; in the stomach; over the arms; over the legs; over the thighs over the forehead; above the elbows;;above the knees; on the chest; all over; external; internal; when walking; when sitting; when lying; when standing; in open air; in a warm room; in bed; after eating; after every swallow of drink; with heat; without heat; alternating with heat; before the heat; during the heat; after the heat; with red face; with yellowness of the face; with pallor; with goose-flesh; with chattering of the teeth; with weakness; with headache; followed by heat, then thirst; without subsequent heat, and without thirst.

Coldness.- Of hands; of feet; of nose; of left hand or of both hands; of left leg or of both legs; of stomach; internal; external; periodic; preceded by heat; followed by heat; with shivering; followed by heat, then thirst; followed by heat, then sweat.

Heat.- Preceded by coldness; followed by coldness; transient; in flushes; internally; externally with sweat; without sweat; with nausea; without nausea with slight thirst; with intense thirst; without thirst; of face; of abdominal region; of head; of trunk; of thighs; of cheeks; of extremities; of whole body.

Sweat.- At night; in the morning; after 3 A.M. during sleep; after waking; incessant; profuse; cold; with feverish heat; oily; exhausting; after fever; on face; on forehead: on neck; on back; on trunk; all over; with thirst; without thirst; in warm room; in open air.

Thirst.- In the morning; in the evening; before the chill during the chill; after the chill; before the heat; during the heat; after the heat; without heat; for water; for beer; for wine.

Nausea.- Without hot risings; in pit of throat; with vomiting; without vomiting; during the chill; during the heat.

Headache.- Confusion of the head; with vertigo; with dizziness; tensive pain in forehead and orbits; heaviness and heat in the head, worse on turning the eyes; jerking pain in the temples; headache now in one part and now in another; dull, stupefying headache, as though the skull would burst; as though the brain were pressed together from both sides; as though the brain were pressed out at forehead; like a congestion in the head ( this symptom ought to be italicized); violent pressive headache deep in the brain, with sense of constriction in forehead and occiput; jerking-tearing headache, worse on motion; headache, as if the brain were sore; headache, which changes its location on moving the head.

Urine.- Dark-colored, scanty, with brick-dust sediment.

Pain.- Across lower portion of chest and the stomach with anxiety and shortness of breath, and oppression; in or between the shoulder-blades; tensive and intolerable in small of back, as if crushed or bruised; jerking-tearing in bones of upper or of the lower extremities, in almost every part of their length., with numbness or paralyzed sensation.

Besides these we have jaundice, prostration, oedema, and host of other symptoms which I have not undertaken to include. Now about the cases which have suffered relapses while taking china. I have had cases come back at the end of week and tell me that they have had a relapse. I have had the same thing happen under Eupatorium, Belladonna, Capsicum, Arsenicum and other remedies. The trouble is that we have not learned how to administer out drugs in all cases. There is a difference of opinion as to when and how to administer QUININE. I learned how to administer it from Professor Dickson. He said that the proper time was shortly before the onset of the rigor in typical cases. I have nearly always found that I obtained the best effect by administering it three, two, and one, hours before the chill. The same is true of all other Homoeopathic remedies. I caution the patient not to take it after the chill comes on. I am satisfied that

QUININE, Eupatorium, or any other Homoeopathic remedy, if administered during the chill, will make the case worse and cause trouble afterwards. China Tincture I have given in from one to five drop doses. When I am sure of QUININE as my remedy I give from one to three grains. All my cases are well with one exception, and that is the case of a lady from Washington, who caught Potomac flat chills and took immense quantities of QUININE before I saw her. I have not cured her and I doubt if I ever will. Hypertrophy of the spleen complicates the case.

DR. MOHR. : Dr. Dudley appears to make out a very good case, and I only wish that I had thought to take my Material Medica and write down the chill and fever symptoms of Arsenicum, Baptisia and Eupatorium. I could have done the same thing, and the symptoms would have appeared as characteristic. Until this fall, I have never given QUININE in substance, although I have used Cinchona. When I have given Cinchona it has usually been for what I esteemed to be characteristic symptoms. I have always given Sulphate of Quinine in potency when I found the chill anticipating. Dr. Dudley asks us why we look to Allopathy in administering QUININE for chill and fever patients. Yet he says that he learned how to administer the drug from Professor Dickson, who was an Allopath. I do not believe in looking to Allopaths. so far as the administration of QUININE is concerned, as I have made up my mind that they do not know how to administer it. While they can prevent chills and fever, they cannot prevent relapses. Dr. DUDLEY refers to the fact that Eupatorium is much like Chinu in regard to the bone-pains. My interpretation of the symptom is somewhat different; while Cinchona has jerking- tearing pains, Eupatorium has more of a broken, aching feeling in the bones. If I had jerking-tearing pains I would give Cinchona; if it was a bruised, sore feeling I would give Eupatorium. My own preference has been for giving the remedy before the chill, and stopping it when the chill begins. I would not hesitate at all to give QUININE when it is indicated. I must confess, that in the case in which I resorted to QUININE, it did not help me out. Dr. McClatchey, in his remarks, refers to the fact that he will find Natrum Mur. and Capsicum-symptoms under Cinchona. It is a mistaken idea to give any remedy on any one symptom. I never prescribe Natrum Mur because a man has a chill at 11 A.M. because I have cured cases having that symptom with Cinchona and Eupatorium. I do not give Capsicum because the chill commences in the back; I must have other symptoms.

E. A. Farrington
E. A. Farrington (1847-1885) was born in Williamsburg, NY, on January 1, 1847. He began his study of medicine under the preceptorship of his brother, Harvey W. Farrington, MD. In 1866 he graduated from the Homoeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania. In 1867 he entered the Hahnemann Medical College, graduating in 1868. He entered practice immediately after his graduation, establishing himself on Mount Vernon Street. Books by Ernest Farrington: Clinical Materia Medica, Comparative Materia Medica, Lesser Writings With Therapeutic Hints.