Frankly Developed Pneumonia


symptoms of Frank Developed Pneumonia and their corresponding homeopathic medicines have bee discussed by D.M Borland in his book Borland’s pneumonia….


Bryonia.

In the Bryonia pneumonias there is usually a history of a fairly gradual onset. The kind of story you get is that the patient had been out of sorts for a day or two, complaining of indefinite feelings of malaise, and then that one morning he woke feeling thoroughly ill, very often with an attack of sneezing and a feeling of blocking in the head. During the morning he felt shivery, he may have had an actual rigor, and by the afternoon he had a good going temperature. The probability is that these people have been running a slight temperature for the previous twelve to twenty-four hours, though they have not consulted you for it; they have certainly been off colour.

When you see a Bryonia pneumonia the impression you get is of definitely congested heavy-looking, sleepy patient.

The face is somewhat dusky in colour. The patient feels hot, and usually has a hot, damp sweat. It is not a profuse perspiration but the skin is hot and damp. Twelve to twenty-four hours later you very often get a dusky appearance of the extremities. About the same time you find the lips are beginning to turn dusky in colour, and they have very soon tend to become dry and to crack. They have a somewhat swollen appearance.

The patient very often complains of a rather intense frontal headache which settles down over the eyes. Often it is much more a feeling of weight than of actual pain, but it becomes painful on any movement or exertion, such as talking or sitting up. Another thing you can link on to this aggravation of the headache from sitting up is that these Bryonia patients very often feel generally extremely ill on sitting up, they become giddy and somewhat faint.

In these Bryonia pneumonias you always find a heavy, thick, white coating on a dry tongue; the mouth feels dry, and the patient is very thirsty. Very often there is a bitter taste in the mouth, and the main desire is for large quantities of cold water. In this connection there is one point that is worth remembering about the nursing of these patients, and that is that if you let them drink as much cold water as they want it is bad for them and very often makes them feel sick. So when dealing with a Bryonia patient it is wise to regulate the quantity of water they take, especially at any one time, and not to allow them to have all they would like.

The next thing to consider is the mental reaction of Bryonia patients. Bryonia patients, as I said before, look heavy and dull, and they very definitely dislike being disturbed at all. They resent having to do anything, for instance, having to move, or having to turn over to be examined. They dislike having to talk, and talking upsets them and makes them worse. They are very short tempered and they are difficult to satisfy. They often ask for something and refuse it when it is brought to them, they are thoroughly cross-gained. They easily become annoyed, and if they are annoyed it always aggravates their physical condition.

I have often seen a Bryonia pneumonia who was doing quite well until he had visitors in who annoyed him and promptly he had a rise of a degree or a degree and a half of temperature in a couple of hours, with increase of physical distress, increase of cough, and very often marked increase of pain. So, again from the nursing point of view, you are very wise to prohibit visitors to your Bryonia patients. This is sometimes a little difficult to do, because the Bryonia patients rather tend to harp on their business affairs, they think about them, they talk about them, they often worry about them, and very often they ask to be allowed to see somebody from the office. If you do allow it, they are most likely to be annoyed at what the people in the office are doing, and this annoyance is very bad for them. So, from the practical point of view, never allow any possibility of such a thing happening in the case of a Bryonia patient.

AS far as the actual physical condition is concerned, in Bryonia you are much more likely to find the right lung involved than the left. If the disease is more extensive, you find the right lung involved to a greater degree than the left. But do not rule out Bryonia altogether because you have a left-sided pneumonia; I have seen several pneumonias now which were confined to the left side but in which Bryonia was indicated and worked very well indeed. So do not say, ” well, this is a left-sided pneumonia, it cannot be a Bryonia”-it can. Much more commonly you find the right side involved, but the fact that it is left sided does not rule Bryonia out.

In these Bryonia cases you are very liable to get a pleuro- pneumonia, rather than a straight pneumonia, with very sharp, intense, pleuritic pain. And there are one or two points about that pain which are sometimes helpful. First of all, it is very much aggravated by any movement on the patient’s part. Secondly, it is usually mainly on the right side. Thirdly, the patient likes to lie on the side that is affected; if it is a right-sided pneumonia you find him turning over on to the right side as that is the most easy position, and if it is a left sided pneumonia you find him turning over on to the left side.

When the patient coughs-which he does a great deal-he has intense pain in the chest, and it is then that you see the Bryonia picture of the patient sitting up in bed trying to hold the chest with his hands to keep it quiet while he is coughing. And, again from the clinical point of view, you do give your Bryonia patients great help by strapping up the affected side of the chest; either adhesive plaster or a tight binder gives great relief. You know the modern custom is to put antiphlogistine on the pneumonia patient; well, it does help the Bryonia case, but it is the splinting of the chest that helps, more than the antiphlogistine itself.

The breathing of the Bryonia patient is always very short. He takes short, panting breaths, keeping the breathing as shallow as possible because any movement of the chest wall hurts. So you see the patient sitting firmly propped up, breathing short, panting breaths.

Usually in these Bryonia pneumonias there is a certain amount of irritation in the throat, and the patients mostly have a rather hoarse voice.

There are one or two other points if the pneumonias has gone on a little further and run into fourth, fifth, or sixth day. These patients then become more toxic, more drugged looking, rather heavier, and they are liable to develop a low type of muttering, wandering delirium; it is never a very violent one. IN their delirium they are very often uncertain as to where they are, for instance, if they are at home they do not recognize it and they say want to go home. They are also very apt to develop that old Bryonia symptom of worrying about their business; they think they are still at work, they have a deuce a lot to do, and they keep on talking about it and imagining they are still back at the office.

Then occasionally-but not so commonly-you find one of these Bryonia patients becoming acutely anxious, and when this anxiety state develops you will quite often get him becoming restless. That is a little apt to confuse you because you have it firmly imprinted in your mind that Bryonia is very much aggravated by any movement. But if you go into the question he will tell you that, although any movement increases his discomfort and his pain, he just cannot lie still even though moving hurts him. It is never the extreme restlessness that you get in some of the other drugs, and if it is associated with that nervous anxiety do not rule out Bryonia on the fact that the patient is restless.

Another Bryonia distinguishing point is that the patients are hot blooded. They feel hot, and they are uncomfortable in a hot atmosphere., If the room is to warm it will aggravate their cough, and they very much prefer a cold room and a current of air.

Well, that it is the commonest type of pneumonia, at least in this country. Possibly, as I say, it is rather commoner in the spring than in the real cold, wintry weather, and you will find that Bryonia will cover the majority of the cases you see of that type.

Phosphorus.

The next commonest drug in pneumonia is Phosphorus.

As a rule the phosphorus pneumonia develops rather move quickly than the Bryonia one. The kind of story I have come to associate with a Phosphorus pneumonia is that the patient had been feeling very tired for possibly twelve or twenty-four hours, and then he probably went out into a cold atmosphere and on going out felt an acute sense of oppression or tightness in the chest. Usually the same night he felt hot and developed a dry cough. Possibly there was also a little hoarseness, or even actual loss of voice, and the feeling of tightness and oppression in the chest very much increased. Next he developed a sort of catchy respiration, a slight embarrassment on inspirations. and the breathing became rather difficult.

In appearance you will find the Phosphorus pneumonias have a brighter red flush than the Bryonias-they are not quite so dusky. Although they have a flush, when they are peaceful it tends to die down a bit, and you do not get the same degree of cyanosis of the lips. The skin surface is hot, and it is moist, but not so moist as in Bryonia. Though the patients are obviously tired they do not give you the same impression of sleepiness as the Bryonias do; they are more awake, they are more worried, and they are more anxious.

Douglas Borland
Douglas Borland M.D. was a leading British homeopath in the early 1900s. In 1908, he studied with Kent in Chicago, and was known to be one of those from England who brought Kentian homeopathy back to his motherland.
He wrote a number of books: Children's Types, Digestive Drugs, Pneumonias
Douglas Borland died November 29, 1960.