Dose And Selecting Potency

Homoeopathic medicines are available in four forms:

Mother Tinctures

Pillules

Globules

Triturations Powder

Mother Tinctures are extracts of original remedies prepared mostly in alcohol. Pillules are made of cane sugar which is then absorbed with a few drops of liquid medicine. These are kept in small bottles and are quite easy to handle. Globules are smaller than pillules, and Triturations are in the form of powder or tablets made from powder which contains the medicine triturated with sugar of milk.

Pillules and globules may be taken dry on tongue or sucked but should not be swallowed. These could also be dissolved in pure water and taken. Trituration should be taken dry on tongue. One should clean his month before taking a medicine.

Ordinarily the dose of a liquid medicine is one drop in an ounce of pure water for an adult, for children ½ drop and for babies ¼ drops. If the medicine is in triturations, i.e. powder form, 3-4 grains for adults, 2 for children and 1 grain for babies is quite sufficient.

Pills or globules can be prepared of all the liquid medicines. Take small phial, fill two thirds of it with globules or pills and saturate these pills with a few drops of the liquid medicine. Shake well. These globules may be given 1 or 2 to babies. 2 to 3 to children and 4 to 5 to adults.

REPETITION OF DOSE: The dose is repeated according to the severity of the disease. For example, in cholera we can repeat the medicine hourly, half-hourly and even quarter-hourly. In ordinary diseases, doses may be repeated 4 to 6 hours. In chronic ailments, medicines are given once a week or even once a month or so.

SELECTION OF POTENCY: This is a very ticklish question. There are no prescribed rules for selection of potencies, but ordinarily low potencies such as 3x, 3, 6,6x or 30 are used in acute diseases, but in chronic diseases high potencies such as 200, 500, 1000 are used at long intervals. The highest potencies such as 10M, 50M, and CM are given in very chronic diseases at intervals of several weeks or even months.

IS AN ANTIDOTE NEEDED? When a patient begins Homoeopathic treatment, it is not always necessary to give him some medicine to antidote the effects of the previous medicines. Generally Nux Vom 30 to 200 one dose is said to antidote all other medicinal effects. But only time neutralizes the effects of drugs. If the case is not acute and urgent a dose of Nux may be given to start with.