The following symptoms indicate the homœopathicity of Apis to intermittent fever:
"1081: every afternoon about three or four o'clock she feels chilly, shivering, worse in warmth; a chilly creeping along the back, the hands seem dead; in about an hour she feels feverish and hot, with rough cough, hot hands and cheeks, without thirst; these symptoms pass off gradually, after which she feels heavy and prostrate. 1088: chilliness all over, recurring periodically, with an undulating sensation. 1089: chill after a heat of thirty-six hours. 1090: sudden chilliness, followed by heat and sweat. 499: loathing, with chilliness and coldness of the limbs. 534: pains on the left side, below the last ribs. 535: violent burning pain below the short ribs, on both sides, worst and most permanent on the left side, where it continues for weeks, preventing sleep. 577: enlargement of the abdomen, with swelling of the feet, scanty urine."
The provings of Apis show that this drug affects every portion of the nervous system—the cerebral, spinal and ganglionic nerves—and the process of sanguification, in the same general and characteristic manner as is the case in fever and ague.
In comparing the symptoms of Apis with those of any other known drug, there is no medicine that bears as close an affinity to fever and ague as Apis. Howsoever useful other remedies may have proved, in the treatment of fever and ague, they are only homœopathic to isolated conditions, in comparison with Apis. In practice, it was often found very difficult, even for the most experienced physician, to decide in which of these exceptional cases the specifically homœopathic agent should have been employed. Sometimes no properly homœopathic remedy could be found, in which case the treatment had to be conducted in a round-about way.
All these difficulties have been effectually removed by Apis, and the treatment of intermittent fever may henceforth be said to constitute one of the most certain and positive achievements of the homœopathic domain. For the last three years, during which period I have experimented with Apis, I have not come across a single case of intermittent fever that did not yield satisfactorily to Apis. I have treated a pretty fair share of obstinate and complicated cases of this disease, and have, therefore, had an opportunity of testing the curative virtues of Apis in a satisfactory manner. Here are the results of my observations:
Apis is the natural remedy for the pathological process which is characterized by periodical paroxysms of chill, heat and sweat; the other morbid symptoms being common to this process, as they are to all other diseases.
All the symptoms which have hitherto been observed in intermittent fever, will be found, with striking similarity, among the provings of Apis. For a confirmation of this statement, we refer to Hering's American Provings, and to Bœnninghausen's Essay on Intermittent Fevers.
In making use of Apis in every form of intermittent fever, we not only act in strict accordance with the homœopathic law generally, but we fulfil all the requirements of the individualizing method. Apis is the universal remedy in intermittent fevers, for which every homœopathic physician has been longing, and which pure experiments, conducted according to the rules of homœopathy, have revealed to us;—another shining light on the sublime path of the healing artist!
The beneficent action of Apis, in intermittent fever, is still increased by the fact that it prevents the supervention of typhus, disorganizations of the spleen, dropsy, china-cachexia. In using Apis from the commencement, all such consequences are avoided, and if they should have been induced by different treatment, Apis removes them as speedily as possible.
In all lighter cases, it is sufficient to give a drop of Apis 3, morning and evening, during the apyrexia, and to continue this treatment until the attacks cease; very often no other paroxysm sets in after the first dose; there are scarcely ever more than two or three paroxysms. In a few days the cure is accomplished, provided the action of the medicine is not disturbed.