Title: Conquering Fever with Homoeopathy
Author: Gajanan Dhanipkar
Publisher: Homeopathic Medical Publishers
Hardbound, 164 pages
ISBN: 978-93-80355-66-5
Edition: 1st (2017)
Foreword by: Rajan Sankaran
Reviewed by: Manish Bhatia
I had a chance to hear Dr. Dhanipkar at The Other Song Academy last year and I was intrigued by his quick and beautiful prescribing in several acute cases. He had shown a number of cases of fever, where his sound case taking, classical approach, understanding of the nature of disease and full attention to the finer symptoms resulted in quick and beautiful cures. Since then, I was waiting for this book to come out and I am glad it is finally available to our community.
Fevers (rather all acutes) test homeopathic skills like nothing else. You have to be quick, yet precise. The symptoms can change rapidly and you have very little time for trial and error. If your remedy is right, the relief it brings is also equally rapid. There are cases where you only get the common symptoms, others where you find beautiful mental symptoms, and yet others where the general picture points towards a remedy in totality. Each cases demands a hundred percent attention and as Hahnemann said, ‘sound senses, attention in observation, freedom from prejudice and fidelity in tracing the picture of disease”.
Dr. Dhanipkar’s book is a beautiful demonstration of all these virtues.
The book is divided in four sections. The first section deals with Case Taking in Fevers. Here Dr. Dhanipkar outlines his approach and observations regarding case taking in cases of fevers. It includes the role of observation, causative factors, stages of fever, physical examination, concomittants, modalities, keynotes, past history and general state. Case taking in paediatric cases is also discussed. Each of these aspects are demonstrated with case examples, which make it very easy to understand the importance of each.
The second section is Types of Fever, where he discusses treatment of intermittent, recurrent, infective, pathological and complex fevers, and also pyrexia of unknown origin. Again each type is illustrated with case examples. We also get to learn appropriate rubrics for each kind of fever. There are many cases where remedy choice is interesting and lets you learn and use those remedies like E.coli, Streptococcinum, Ocimum etc.
The third section, Other Considerations when Treating Fever, discusses the difference in acute and chronic simillimums, general management of fever, time for administering a remedy, posology and choice of repertory and materia medica. The section also has materia medica for most of the common drugs used in cases of fever. This is very useful for quick reference as well as for comparative study.
The last section, Clinical Pathophysiology of Fever, discusses the cause and nature of fever in general and the role of laboratory investigations.
While the book is a systematic exposition on this important subject, my personal takeaway from it has been the need for diligence in every case. Each case has to be observed very minutely, each symptom has to be listened to carefully and completed and you need to be patient in making that first prescription. Don’t rush to give a remedy. The patient’s acute and anxious state should not make the homeopath anxious!
I strongly recommend this work to the community. It can be read with the following two useful works:
Francis Treuherz pointed out a spelling error:
“Conquering Fevers with Homeopathy”. Ooops! When buying books online you need to be accurate, anyone copying this title and looking for a copy will not find it. Look at the image of the cover for the answer. “Conquering Fevers with HomOeOpathy” is correct.
Thank you Francis! We’ve made the correction, so the spelling is now correct. Homoeopathy.
Wonderful, Dr. Dhanipkar! 🙂