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Preparation Of Medicine

Categories: PROPHYLACTICS.
Sources: An Epitome Of Homeopathic Healing Art

As it often becomes necessary for the practitioner to make more or less

of his own dilutions and attenuations, some brief instructions

especially to new beginners, may not come amiss.



Medicine is prepared by mixing it with distilled water, or purified 98

per cent. Alcohol; or if solid and dry, by reducing it to powder and

triturating (rubbing) it in a mortar with pure sugar or Sugar of Milk.

The liquid is
called _dilution_, the powder _trituration_. The

attenuations are mostly made at the decimal (1-10,) or centecimal

(1-100) ratio and numbered 1, 2, 3, &c., by putting ten drops of the

liquid with ninety drops of Alcohol, or ten grains of the powder with

ninety grains of Sugar for the 1st, and ten grains or drops of the 1st

with ninety more of Alcohol or Sugar, as the case may be, for the 2nd,

and so on to any desirable extent.



If the centecimal attenuation is adopted, one grain or drop is used

instead of ten, as in the decimal.



I prefer the decimal to the centecimal ratio. Not that there can

possibly be any difference in the action of the medicines, at the same

attenuation, whether it was brought to that state through a series of

1-10, or 1-100; the 3d at the 1-100 ratio of dilution being _precisely

the same_ as the 6th at 1-10. My preference for the decimal ratio is

based upon the greater convenience and accuracy of measuring larger

quantities.



_Accuracy_ is very desirable, but the practice of _guessing_ at the

amount as pursued by some, is anything but accurate. When one makes his

dilutions by putting the fluid into a vial and "_pouring it all out_,"

_guessing_ that he has a _drop_ left which is to medicate the

ninety-nine drops of Alcohol or water, he may put in by guess, I am

inclined to _guess_ that he knows nothing, _accurately_ as to what

dilution he is making. (See Hull's Laura, introduction, also Jahr &

Possart's Pharmacopoeia and Posology.) For if the vial is small and

quite smooth there may not be a drop left, or if it is rough, there may

be several drops.



Yet some physicians make their dilutions thus, and insist upon the

superiority of the centecimal over the decimal attenuations.



Whatever ratio is adopted, should be _accurately_ followed. Have true

scales for weighing solids, and a graduated measure marked from ten

drops up to one hundred for liquids; then _always_ weigh or measure

_accurately_ the medicine, as well as the substance with which it is to

be attenuated.



The measure and mortar, after using them for one medicine, can be

cleaned preparatory for another, with scalding water, rinsing them with

purified Alcohol, then drying.



Never smoke or chew Tobacco in any place, but if you are such a _slave_

to habit, that you must do it despite your good sense and better

judgment, never do either, or have tobacco or any other odoriferous

substance about your person when you are preparing medicines, or they

are exposed to the air. Keep the medicines excluded from the light and

air as far as practicable.



Triturate the powders thoroughly for an hour or more upon each, and

shake the dilution from fifty to one hundred times, more for the higher

attenuations.



It is better to medicate pellets in large bottles, filling them half or

two-thirds full, put in just liquid enough to wet every one, but not so

as to dissolve any. Shake them until all are equally wet, and let them

stand for four or five days, if practicable, shaking them up two or

three times a day until all are dry.



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