The Action of the Minimum Dose in Acute Epidemics

(Reference : Shepherd D. Dr., “The Magic of the Minimum Dose” Health Science Press, England, 1938, pp 14-15)

“We have mild epidemics every year, and every thirty years or so a virulent type of influenza arrives and sweeps over the four quarters of the globe, ravaging and killing people by the thousand. The last epidemic... was of course in 1918, when many people among the war-wearied populations of the world were carried off. I can only testify from personal experience to the invaluable help which homeopathic remedies gave me in treating the many cases of influenza under my care at that time. One treated over 100, nearer 150; both rich and poor, young and old, male and female; and the results were astonishing... some were seriously ill when first seen, with high temperatures and bronchial involvement, some had it more mildly, and yet the temperatures in nearly all cases came down in 24-48 hours: they were kept strictly in bed for a week after the temperature was normal, kept on dilute fruit juices during the whole of the time – orange juice and grape juice, no milk, no tea... And there was not a single death in the whole of this series and no subsequent complications.

The case that gave me most anxiety, and the one which had a relapse within two weeks, and who remained ill altogether for six weeks, was a dispenser who insisted on trying out all the latest mixtures ordered by well-known physicians which were dispensed at her fashionable chemist’s shop! The trouble I had with her, the temperature went up and up, various complications developed and I was afraid she was going to slip through my hands; how grateful I was when I could sign her off and send her to the seaside! After that I refused to allow any patient to order their own treatment, they had to obey my instructions or go elsewhere...

Arsenic in minutest dose was the remedy that proved most helpful in many of these cases; but that does not mean that Arsenic would always answer in every epidemic... (Editor note: poisons such as arsenic are safely used as homeopathic medicines because of the dilution process that is followed in their preparation. For more information refer to FAQs)

In moist warm seasons most cases would be covered by Gelsemium; in dry cold windy weather Aconite and Nux vomica would come in” wrote Dr Shepherd.