Typhoid Fever

Categories: ADMINISTRATION OF REMEDIES.
Sources: An Epitome Of Homeopathic Healing Art

This is a dangerous, and with the ordinary allopathic treatment, a very

fatal disease. It generally comes on insidiously, the patient feeling a

dull head ache, more or less pain in his joints, back and shoulders,

with loss of appetite, restless and disturbed sleep, slight chilly

sensations, with a little fever, dry skin, and a general languid

feeling. These symptoms continue from four or five days in some cases,

to two or three weeks in others, gradually getting worse until the

patient is prostrated, or if he takes no drugs, and keeps still,

avoiding food as far as practicable, he may escape prostration, and

after lingering for eight or ten days, and sometimes longer, just on the

point of prostration, he begins slowly to get better, and recovers about

as slowly and imperceptibly as he grew sick. This is in accordance with

observation of cases under my own eye, and I have no doubt those cases

of spontaneous recovery, had they taken a single dose of active

cathartic medicine or any of the active drugs, they would have been

immediately laid upon a bed of sickness from which a recovery would have

been extremely doubtful. I believe that two-thirds of the deaths from

typhoid fever are the direct results of medication, and that those who

recover, do so in spite of the cathartics and the active drugs when such

are used. Some cases, however, will not thus spontaneously recover, and

require proper treatment; and it is safest to treat all cases, at as

early a day as possible. Some cases come on more rapidly and run into

the prostrating or critical stage, in a very few days. Delirium is a

symptom that comes on early in these cases. When the disease is fully

established, and even sometimes in the early stage, diarrhoea sets in

and runs the patient down rapidly.





TREATMENT.



In the early stage, that which might be called premonitory, while the

patient is yet able to be about his business, but is complaining of the

symptoms above named, he should, as far as possible, abstain from

exercise and food, and take of _Baptisia_ and _Phosphorus_ alternately,

a dose once in three hours. These will almost invariably produce

amendment in a few days, and as soon as he improves _any_, leave off the

medicines. Should there be diarrhoea present, use _Phos. acid_ instead

of Phosphorus. If the patient is delirious or has fullness and redness

of the face, the eyes red, and headache, give _Belladonna_ in rotation

with the other two. For the foul breath that comes on, use _Mercurius

cor._, especially if the diarrhoea assumes a reddish tinge, like beef

brine. Should the fever at any time rise high, the pulse being full and

hard, give _Aconite_, but it rarely happens that Aconite is useful in

the later stage. If the patient complains of pains in the back, and

fullness of the head, give _Macrotin_. This is particularly useful for

persons who have rheumatic pains in the limbs or back, during the fever.

If the evacuations from the bowels are dark, or yellow and consistent,

or there is bilious vomiting, _Podophyllin_ is the remedy. From some

cause or other, to me wholly unaccountable, the writers generally have

laid down _Rhus_ and _Bryonia_ as _the_ remedies in typhoid fever. I

must confess I have no confidence in them for this fever as it prevails,

and has for several years past, in this country. They have proved a

failure, and I discard them altogether, as I am confident, from thorough

trial, we have much more reliable remedies as a substitute for Rhus in

the _Podophyllin_, and for Bryonia in the _Macrotin_. In the early

stage, or at any time to arrest febrile and inflammatory symptoms, the

_Baptisia_ is much more potent than Aconite, its symptoms corresponding

peculiarly with typhoid fever. If the discharges become slimy or bloody,

give _Leptandrin_ and _Nit. acid_. It is important to bathe in this

disease.