Bilious Fever

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

This fever may be either intermittent, remitting, or continued, and

typhoid. It is distinguished from common intermittent, by the great

derangement of the stomach, as nausea and vomiting of bilious matter,

yellow coated tongue, bitter taste in the mouth, foul breath, loss of

appetite, high colored urine, and frequently distress and fullness in

the right side, (though this last is not in every case present,) the

skin an white of the eyes soon become yellowish, the chills are often

imperfect, the fever being disproportionably long.





TREATMENT.



_Podophyllin_ and _Merc._ should be given in ease of intermittents of

this character, during the paroxysm, and in rotation with the other

remedies for intermittents, giving a dose every three hours during the

intermission. It is well also to continue these remedies night and

morning, alternately, for a week or so, after the cessation of the

chills and fever, or until all bilious appearances cease.



* * * * *



A REMITTING FEVER is one that goes nearly off, but not so entirely as an

intermittent, returning again by a paroxysm of chill more or less

distinct, sometimes hardly perceptible, and an increase of the fever

following, from day to day, until arrested.



* * * * *



CONTINUED FEVERS are generally of a Bilious character, except in winter,

when they are more or less connected with irritation of the lungs, or

with Rheumatic affections, when they are termed Catarrhal or Rheumatic

Fevers. If the bilious symptoms prevail, give _Aconite_ and _Baptisia_

during the chills and high febrile stage, at intervals of an hour, and

during the declining stage of the fever, give _Podophyllin_ and

_Mercurius_ until a perfect intermission is produced, when the same

treatment should be adopted as in intermittents. But should it take the

form of





Catarrhal Fever,



the head being "stuffed up," pain in the head, the lungs oppressed,

cough and sneezing, the eyes and nose suffused with increased secretion

of tears and mucus, pain in the back or loins, almost constant chilly

sensations, use in rotation _Baptisia_, _Copaiva_ and _Phosphorus_,

giving a dose every hour until the fever begins to abate and

perspiration comes on, then leave off the _Baptisia_, and give in its

stead _Macrotin_, lengthening the interval between the remedies to two

hours or longer.



For the _chronic cough_ that sometimes follows catarrhal fever,

_Copaiva_, _Macrotin_ and _Phosphorus_ should be used morning, noon and

night, in the order here named. Should the fever be a





Rheumatic Fever,



(_Rheumatism_,) the patient complaining of soreness of the muscles, of

the chest, back and limbs, with or without lameness of the joints,

_Aconite_, _Macrotin_ and _Nux Vom._ are the remedies for a male

patient, and the two former, with _Pulsatilla_, for a female, (or for a

_male_, of light hair, delicate skin, feminine voice and mild temper,)

to be used in rotation one hour apart. These remedies are to be taken in

a severe acute case, every half hour until the symptoms begin to abate;

then every hour or two hours as the case progresses. _Baths_ properly

administered, are of great importance in all forms of fever. The surface

of the patient should be washed and thoroughly _rubbed_ in water quite

warm, into which a sufficiency of the ley of wood ashes has been put to

make it feel quite slippery. This should be done twice daily in all

fevers. But in





Rheumatism,



In addition to the medicines directed under the head of _Rheumatic

Fever_, the most decided benefit can be derived from _Alcoholic Vapor

Baths_, which, while they do not in the least interfere with the action

of the medicines, tend greatly to mitigate the pains, and produce an

equal state of the circulation by stimulating the surface; abridging in

many cases, the disease one-half the time it would run under the long

interval treatment alone. This is to be applied by filling a tea cup

with alcohol, placed in a saucer of water to insure against danger from

an overflow while burning. Place both under a solid wood bottom chair,

elevated about the thickness of a brick under each post, strip the

patient naked, and after giving him the alkaline bath, and rubbing his

surface dry, place him upon the chair, enveloping him completely, except

his head, with a woollen sheet or blanket, (as there is no danger of

the wool taking fire,) letting the blanket enclose also the chair and

come down to the floor. Then set fire to the alcohol, and if the heat is

too great, raise the edge of the blanket and let it become reduced.

Continue this until he sweats freely, or becomes too much fatigued to

sit longer. Let the patient often drink freely of cold water, during the

process. Remove him from the chair to his bed and cover him warmly. It

is well to place the feet in hot water during this process. This is a

delightful operation for a rheumatic patient, and no one will object to

a repetition of it. Whatever Physicians may think or say of this

operation, I _know_ it is a most potent agent for the _cure_ of

_inflammatory_ rheumatism, and is a valuable agent in the chronic form

of this disease.