Malaria - Cinchona The Relationship
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1994 Sep / Oct Vol III No 5.
Choudhry P G.
Quinine is very well known in the history of medicine. In the year 1790, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann worked as a translator to help support his family. In one of the chapters of his book - "A Treatise of Materia Medica", Dr. Cullen mentions about Cinchona Bark (Cortex peruvianus) and defends the old opinion of the efficacy of the remedy through its "tonic effect on the stomach". This was the turning point in Dr. Hahnemanns life which was akin to what the falling apple was to Newton or the Swinging lamp to Galileo.
What happens after taking Cinchona? That was the moot question in Hahnemanns mind. So he took four drams twice daily of Cinchona and in his own words - "My feet, finger ends etc. became cold. I grew languid and drowsy. Then my heart started to palpate and my pulse grew hard and small. There was intolerable anxiety, trembling (but without cold rigor); prostration throughout all my limbs. Later I had pulsations in my head, redness of cheeks and thirst came one after another - which were also the symptoms of intermittent fever. However there was no chill or shivering rigor. Briefly, even those symptoms which are of regular occurrence and especially characteristic, e.g. the stupidity of the mind, the kind of rigidity in all the limbs, but above all the numb, disagreeable sensation which seems to have its seat in the periosteum of every bone in the body - all these make their appearance. This paroxysm lasted two or three hours each time and recurred if I repeated this dose, not otherwise. I discontinued it and was in good health."
This was not his only experiment. He studied and experimented over 60 more different types of substances and found that the curative powers of a drug consist in its power to produce in a healthy human being the symptoms similar to those of a naturally diseased person. This was thus scientifically established principle - Similia Similibus Curantur. Presently we have more than 2000 drugs some fully and others partially proved to achieve the goal - Healthy for all by 21st century with Homoeopathy.
Dr. PRAN GOBINDA CHOUDHRY
Nadia,
W Bengal 741 302.
"Those who depend on China or its alkaloid as a general cure all for intermittents, will meet with disappointments all along the way, for while it may have the power to suppress the paroxysms in many cases, it has the power to cure in comparatively few. I have seen a case suppressed time and again with it, return as often for over a year and a half, that I eventually cured with a single prescription of Eupatorium-perforatum. And so with Natrum-muriatum and Arsenicum-alb. With all its much acclaimed power over malarial affections, especially intermittent fevers, the indications for its use are not so clear as for many other remedies.
