Apis Mellifica; or, The Poison of the Honey-Bee, Considered as a Therapeutic Agent

Owing to this remarkable similarity, Apis will effect striking cures of all these different derangements.

If, after more or less distinctly felt premonitory symptoms—after a sudden cold, excessive exertions, prostrating emotions or enjoyments—a more or less violent fever is developed, accompanied by dulness and painfulness of the head, retching and vomiting, distention and sensitiveness of the pit of the stomach, and soon after of the whole abdomen, with urging diarrhœa, pappy and foul taste in the mouth, loss of appetite and thirst, feeling of dryness in the mouth and throat, tongue sore, as if burnt and swollen, with antagonistic change of symptoms, suspicious and extraordinary prostration, and feeling of fainting; a few spoonfuls of the above-mentioned solution of Apis 3, will afford such speedy relief, that it may seem incredible to those who have not witnessed it. The nausea, the vomiting, the diarrhœa, and the painfulness of the abdomen, disappear; quiet sleep sets in, with general perspiration, which terminates the fever, and affords great relief; after waking, the patient is comforted by the internal sensation of returning health; a natural appetite is again felt, the strength returns, and in a few days the healthy look of the tongue and buccal cavity shows that the mucous membrane of the stomach and bowels has recovered its normal quality. The longer help is deferred, the longer time the morbid process has had in making its inroads upon the system, the more frequently will it be necessary to repeat the medicine, until a cure is achieved.

The same good result is perceived, if the morbid process is accompanied by furuncles, urticaria, erysipelas—the latter principally on the head and in the face, less frequently upon the extremities, and inclining to shift from one place to another. Such a combination of symptoms not only shows a higher degree of intensity of the disease, but also shows that the organism is still capable of battling against the internal disease, by compelling it to leave the interior tissue, and to develop itself externally. It is the first business of the physician to support the organism in this tendency, and to guard the brain and bowels from every destructive relapse. Apis, employed as above, accomplishes this result more speedily than any other drug. Of course, a few days are required for this purpose, although the rules of using the drug and the course of treatment are the same.

The same observation applies to the not unfrequent complication with organic disease of the spleen and consequent dropsy. Apis, used in the same manner, effects, in as short a period as the intensity of the symptoms will permit, a mitigation and gradual disappearance of the painfulness of the spleen, restores the normal action of the spleen more and more, and neutralises the tendency to dropsical effusion at the same time as it expels the accumulated fluid by increasing the secretions from the bladder and bowels, and the cutaneous exhalation.

If the liver is organically diseased, Apis is no longer sufficient. In such a case, the action of the liver has first to be restored to its normal standard. In dropsical diseases, I have effected this result most frequently, for years past, by means of Carduus mariæ, less frequently by Quassia, still less frequently by Nux vomica, and only in a few cases by Chelidonium: according as one or the other of these agents seemed indicated by the epidemic character of the disease. In all non-malignant cases, if the medicine was permitted to act in time, the whole disease was often cut short by the use of these drugs, and the development of typhoid symptoms prevented. Not, however, in all more inveterate cases, where the prevailing character of the disease, by its more penetrating action upon the tissues, induced a slower and more threatening course of development. As soon as the pains in the right hypochondrium had disappeared, the bilious quality of the fæces had been restored, and the urine had become lighter colored, but the fever still continued, tongue, throat, pit of the stomach and abdomen had become more sensitive; the head duller and tighter, and the prostration more overpowering. In such a case, Apis, prepared as above, became indispensable, in order to remove all danger to life. Its curative action soon became manifest in two different ways.

If the reactive force of the organism was still sufficient, the medicine succeeded very speedily in preventing the supervention of the typhoid stage, in changing the fever-type from a remittent or even continuous to an intermittent type, during which the convalescence of the patient, aided by a suitable diet, was more and more firmly established and generally completely secured after the lapse of a week.

If the typhoid stage could not be prevented and set in with the following symptoms: the patient lies on his bed in a state of apathy, with loss of recollection, sopor, muttering delirium, hardness of hearing, inability to protrude the tongue or to articulate; dry, cracked, sore, blistered, ulcerated tongue; difficult deglutition; painful distention of the abdomen, which is sensitive to contact or pressure; retention of stool, or else frequent, painful, foul, bloody, involuntary diarrhœa; fermentous urine, which is sometimes discharged involuntarily; the skin is at times and partially dry, burning, at times and partially clammy, cool; trembling and twitching of the limbs; white miliaria on the chest and abdomen; extreme debility, with settling towards the foot-end of the bed; changing pulse, which is at times slow, at others accelerated, feeble, intermittent: in such a case Apis requires more time to heal the mucous membrane of the alimentary canal; to restore the normal action of the bowels; to regulate the digestive functions; to procure quiet and refreshing sleep, and to gradually effect a complete restoration of health. If the mucous membrane of the respiratory organs was invaded by the morbid process, the cure was nevertheless completed as soon as the mucous lining of the intestinal canal was restored to its natural condition.

So far, the only obstacle to a cure which I have witnessed, has been tuberculosis of the chest or abdominal viscera, or of both at the same time, and still more the vaccine-virus; likewise a tendency to paralysis in persons who were otherwise morbidly affected. Tuberculosis has often been combated by a single dose of a high potence of Sulphur between the doses of Apis, no Apis being given after the Sulphur, as long as the course of the typhoid symptoms would render it safe to postpone this medicine. I have found it much more difficult to conquer the vaccine-poison, which I have become satisfied by years of observation, constitutes the most universal and most powerful generator of the typhus which is prevailing in our age and which seems unwilling to leave us. Tartar emetic proves in this, as in other cases, its antidotal power against the vaccine-virus; but under no circumstances is more caution required in the use of tartar emetic than in typhus, where the vaccine-virus seeks to develop its characteristic pustules with a tendency inherent in each pustule to terminate in the destruction of the mucous membrane. It may seem hazardous to add to this combination of destructive forces another similarly-acting element; but a careful consideration of the circumstances of the case will justify such a proceeding, although death may be the inevitable result of the morbid process. Experience has satisfied me that the alternate use of tartar emetic and Apis, a drop of the third potency of each, every three, six or twelve hours, according as the symptoms are more or less violent, or, in very sensitive organisms, in tablespoonful doses of a watery solution of a drop, will accomplish all that can be expected; for these two drugs, thus administered, seem to compensate or complete each other. I am unable to say how far this proceeding requires to be modified in particular cases; all I desire to do, is to submit this important subject to my colleagues for further inquiry and trial.

If a tendency to paralysis prevails, the danger is less threatening, although equally momentous. In such cases I use Apis and Moschus in alternation, although I am unable to assert, on account of deficient experience, that this treatment will always prove satisfactory. Such cases hardly ever arise under homœopathic treatment; and if they come to us out of the hands of allœopathic practitioners, they generally prove incurable.

If these three obstacles to a cure appear combined, I have never found it possible to effect any thing. All that I have found it possible to do, has been to prevent such a dreadful combination by carefully attending to my patients in previous diseases.

Sometimes in typhus, the affection of the spleen shows itself again, even after recovery has fairly set in; the intermittent type again breaks forth, and recovery finally takes place, as the intermissions become more and more distinct and lengthened. As long as the intermittent type continues, Apis has to be given; the action of the spleen becomes more and more normal, the fever paroxysms become shorter and less marked, and the restoration of health is effected without any more treatment than a single dose of Apis 30, one globule, which is permitted to act until the patient is well.

observations of this kind, which i have made under the most diversified circumstances, have taught me that apis is the most sovereign remedy for all those morbid processes which we designate as intermittent fever.

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.

In more obstinate cases, which had been coming on for a longer period, or had been caused by more noxious influences, had lasted longer, had invaded the organism with more intensity, or where the paroxysms last longer and the intermissions are shorter, or where two paroxysms occur in succession, or the life of the organism is endangered by some cause or other,—the organism has to be saturated with the medicine in the shortest possible period, in order to ensure victory to the curative agent. Under these circumstances, we prepare a solution of from two to four drops of the third potency in twelve tablespoonfuls of water, shake it well in a closed bottle, and give a tablespoonful of this solution every hour. If the case should be urgent, we may give a drop of Apis 3, on sugar, every three or six hours. This treatment is to be continued until the patient is decidedly better; after which the medicine should be discontinued. If the improvement is not quite satisfactory, the last dose is continued several times every twelve or twenty-four hours, after which the proper effect will have been obtained. If the progressive improvement of the patient should be attended with distinct morbid symptoms, it would be injurious to continue the repetition of the drug. Nevertheless, a globule of Apis 30 may sometimes hasten the convalescence of the patient, and otherwise afford relief. Signs of reaction, even if more or less violent, should not deceive one. If left to themselves, they are often and speedily followed by a refreshing calm, and cannot be interfered with, as an aggravation of the symptoms, without damaging the case.

These are all the rules which I have so far been able to infer from my use of Apis. Further experience will have to decide whether they apply to all periods, or only to the prevailing type of fever.

I am unable to say whether Apis will prove effectual against epidemic marsh-intermittents, and if so, how the use of it will have to be modified. May it please those, who can shed light on this subject, to communicate their experience!

Two other exceptions to Apis, as a universal febrifuge, have occurred to me in my practice: The development of fever and ague in poisoned soil, and fever and ague complicated with China-cachexia.

It is peculiar to intermittent fever to excite the morbid germs which are slumbering in the organism. This is more particularly true in reference to psora. In proportion to universality of the psoric miasm, fever and ague will develop and complicate itself with psoric affections; and it is such complications that give rise to the inveterate character of intermittents and their disorganizing tendency.

In such cases, a cure cannot be effected without some suitable anti-psoric. During the prevailing fever, Natrum muriaticum has proved such an anti-psoric, provided it was used as follows: If the signs of psoric complication became visible at the outset, I gave a pellet of Natrum mur. 30, and awaited the result until after the third paroxysm. If symptoms of improvement had become manifest, no other remedy was given, and the improvement was permitted to progress from day to day. If the signs of psoric complication were obscure at the beginning of the attack, Apis was at once given. If no improvement became visible after the third paroxysm, or if other symptoms developed themselves, this was looked upon as a proof of the existence of psora, and Natrum mur. 30 was given, and no other remedy, until after the third paroxysm. Either the disease had ceased, or it required further treatment. In the latter case, Apis 3 was continued in drop-doses, morning and evening, until the patient was decidedly convalescent. No further medicine was given after this, and the Natrum mur. was permitted to act undisturbed, without a single repetition. Every such repetition is hurtful; it disturbs the curative process, excites an excess of reaction in the organism, exhausts it, and develops artificial derangements, which often mislead the judgment, and induce an uncalled-for and improper application of remedial means. Such repetitions are unnecessary; any one who is acquainted with the action of Natrum mur., will at once perceive that the psora-destroying effect of this agent had not been neutralized by Apis. Recovery becomes more and more completely established, and sometimes terminates in the breaking out of a wide-spread, bright-looking eruption, resembling recent dry itch, and attended with the peculiar itching which always exists in this disease. The complete peeling off of the epidermis shows the true cause of the disease. In a few cases, an itch-eruption of this kind proved contagious, and communicated itself to other persons in the family.

A similar course of treatment was pursued, if some other anti-psoric had to be resorted to, according as one or the other of the three miasms seemed to require.

The thoroughness of this treatment of intermittent fevers is proved by the fact, that no relapses ever took place, or that no secondary diseases were ever developed.

If these sequelæ were the consequences of an abuse of Cinchona, and this China-cachexia was the source of subsequent paroxysms of fever, I have, even in such cases, when nothing else would help, seen Apis cure both the fever and the China-cachexia, in most cases which came under my treatment. In the most inveterate cases, which had perhaps been mismanaged in various ways, and where the reactive power of the organism seemed entirely prostrated, I found it necessary to resort to the employment of a most penetrating agent, more particularly the 5000th potency of Natrum muriaticum, which I have so far found the only sufficiently powerful curative influence under the circumstances. The rules of administering this potency are the same as those for the exhibition of the 30th.

Not only does Apis afford help in the affections which habitually and most generally occur among us; it is likewise in curative rapport with the Typhoid-gastric conditions which develope themselves during the course of an erysipelatous or exanthematous cutaneous affection, more particularly scarlatina, rubeola, measles and urticaria.

The use of Apis in erysipelas is indicated by: "Nos. 168, 169: great anxiety in the head, with swelling of the face; inflammatory swelling and twitching so violent, that an apoplectic attack is dreaded. 175 to 178: sensation as if the head were too large; swelling of the head; sensitiveness to contact on the vertex, forehead; burning, stinging about the head. 292: erysipelatous inflammation of the eyelids. 295: after the most violent pains of the right eye, a bluish, red, whitish swelling of both eyes, which were closed in consequence. 297: swelling under the eyes during erysipelas, as when stung by a bee. 316: red swelling of both ears, with a stinging and burning pain in the swelling, with redness of the face every evening. 356: erysipelas spreading across the face, and proceeding from the eyes. 359: tension in the face, awakening her about one o'clock, the nose was swollen, so were the right eye and cheek, stinging pain when touching the part; under the right eye, and proceeding from the nose, red streaks spread across the cheek, until four o'clock; next day, after midnight, sudden swelling of the upper lip, with heat and burning redness, continuing until morning; on the third night, sudden crawling over the right cheek, with stinging near the nose, after which the cheek and upper lip swelled. 363: face red and hot, with burning and stinging pain, it swells so that he is no longer recognized. 388: pimple in the vermilion border of the lower lip, which he scratches, after which an erysipelatous swelling arises, spreading rapidly over the chin and the lower jaw, and invading the anterior neck and the glands, so that he is unable to move the jaws, as during trismus, or as if the ligaments of the jaws were inflamed; with constant disposition to sleep, the sleep being interrupted by frightful dreams. 706 to 707: swelling of the right half of the labia, with inflammation and violent pain, rapid, hard pulse, diarrhœa consisting of yellow, greenish mucus, in the case of a girl of three years old; deeply-penetrating distress, commencing in the clitoris and spreading to the vagina; the labia minora are swollen, they feel dry and hard, they are covered with a crust; at the commencement urination is painful. 948: burning of the toes, and erysipelatous redness with heat at a circumscribed spot on the foot, the remainder of the foot being cold. 1167, 1168: acute pain and erysipelatous swelling, hard and white in the centre; bright red, elevated, hard swelling of the place where he was stung, and round about a chilly feeling. 1170-1173: red place where he was stung, with swelling and red streaks along the fingers and arm; red streaks along the lymphatic vessels, proceeding from the sting along the middle finger and arm; inflammatory swelling, spreading all around. 1181: throbbing in the swelling. 1182: wide-spread cellular inflammation, terminating in resolution. 1224, 1225: swelling and erysipelatous redness; erysipelatous redness of the toes and feet."

If we add to these remarks, that Apis corresponds to gastric and typhoid conditions, as was shown before, with remarkable similarity of symptoms, we find, without doubt, that all known erysipelatous forms of inflammation are covered by the pathogenetic effects of Apis. Hence we may with propriety give Apis in these affections. Practical experience has abundantly confirmed these conclusions. For the last four years, I have cured readily, safely and easily all forms of erysipelas which have come under my notice—œdematous, smooth, vesicular, light or dark colored, seated or wandering, phlegmonous, recent or habitually recurring, of a light or inveterate character, repelled, among individuals of every disposition and age. I have never seen all kinds of pain yield more readily; I have never seen the accompanying fever abate more speedily; I have never arrested the further spread of erysipelas, nor effected a resolution of the inflammation of the cellular tissue, more certainly; nor, if the termination in suppuration was no longer avoidable, have I ever succeeded in effecting the formation of laudable pus, the spontaneous discharge of the pus, the radical healing of the sore without any scar—how important is all this in erysipelatous inflammation of the mammæ—with more certainty and thoroughness, than by means of Apis! No remedy possesses equal powers in protecting internal organs from the dangerous inroad of this disease.

I effected all this without any other medicinal aid, or without resorting to an operation. Keeping quiet and dry, and in a uniform temperature, is all that is required, in order to secure the full curative action of Apis. In this disease it is used in the same manner as we have indicated before. If the liver should be very much involved in this disease, we effect a cure still more rapidly, by alternating Aconite with Apis, in case inflammation is present; Carduus mariæ, in case of simple inflammatory irritation, and Hepatin, if disorganizations have already set in. In phlegmonous and suppurative habitual erysipelas, a cure is generally facilitated, if a dose of Sulphur 30 is interpolated, in the manner which we have explained before, in order to neutralize the psoric taint which is here generally present.