BORAX is one of the sodium salts and immediately one considers the sodium salts one thinks of the possibility of the others, and by far the most commonly indicated of these is NATRUM MURIATICUM.
Natrum muriaticum. [Nat-m]
In children the majority of NATRUM MUR. cases are rather under- sized and underweight. At first sight they are a little difficult to distinguish from the BARYTA CARB child with its shyness, because the NATRUM MUR. child appears to have a very definite dislike of being handled; it has a very definite dislike of being interfered with and is liable to burst into tears, which is not unlike the shy terrified reaction of BARYTA CARB child.
But on closer investigation the reaction is quite different. It is not shyness in the NATRUM MUR. it is much more a resentment at being interfered with. The NATRUM MUR. child cries, but cries much more from rage than from terror. You can very often stop the NATRUM MUR. child’s crying if you are sufficiently firm but try to soothe it and it gets worse.
A NATRUM MUR. child will be nearly in convulsions with screaming when its mother tries to soothe it, whereas as soon as left alone it will settle down and sit in a corner and watch you. The BARYTA CARB will sit in a corner and play with anything within reach it has an entirely different mentality.
Another thing which distinguishes NATRUM MUR from BARYTA CARB is that though they both tend to be awkward in their movements the BARYTA CARB child is awkward because of inco-ordination it is clumsy but the NATRUM MUR. child knocks things over because it is in too big a hurry.
There will be a history of delayed development in the NATRUM MUR. child particularly that the child was slow in learning to speak. It may also have been slow in starting to walk but that is not nearly so constant. Often the NATRUM MUR. child’s speech is faulty, but it is much more a difficulty in articulation than a lack of mentality as in the BARYTA CARB child
The next characteristic of the NATRUM MUR. child is that it is probably small and underweight. In contrast to BARYTA CARB. where there are a mass of enlarged cervical glands, the typical NATRUM MUR. child may have very small shotty enlarged cervical glands in a thin neck. The BARYTA CARB types have a chain of quite large glands running down the anterior border of the sterno mastoid; the NATRUM MUR children have small shotty glands at the back of the neck and the neck itself is rather skinny
The NATRUM MUR. child does not tend to run to the same degree of crusty skin eruptions as the BARYTA CARB child NATRUM MUR. cases get an eruption restricted to the margin of the hair, rather than spreading over the whole scalp.
There is not the same tendency to salivation in the NATRUM MUR. child and instead of the small patches found in a BORAX mouth in NATRUM MUR. the tongue is sensitive and is red places and white in places, not with the little white vesicles of BORAX types but with the irregular mapping which is associated with NATRUM MUR. either in children or in adults.
As the NATRUM MUR children grow older, they develop school headache; when under pressure, working too hard, attempting to concentrate too much, they get headaches. The headaches are almost identical with the BARYTA CARB. headaches; they are frontal headaches with the same feeling pressure down over the eyes, and they are brought on by intense effort-particularly mental effort.
The temperature reactions in NATRUM MUR. are definitely different from those of BARYTA CARB. In NATRUM MUR. often the child is chilly sensitive to draughts, will shiver from a change of temperature and will start sneezing from a change of temperature; but he is very sensitive to heat-stuffiness particularly and to exposure to the sun, and is very liable to develop a sun headache.
The majority of these NATRUM MUR. children have a definite salt craving. It is most unexpected that children should have the excessive desire for salt recorded in the Materia Medica. But in practice one meets case after case in which there is a very definite salt craving in these children-they will steal salt as other children would steal sugar.
Another thing to look for in children needing NATRUM MUR. is a very marked tendency to develop hang-nails, splits up the side of the nails which are extremely sensitive, very painful and very difficult to heal. It is a small point, but it is quite useful in practice.
A distinguishing points is the appearance of the skin. Typical BARYTA CARB. children usually have very little colour, they are sallow, rather earthy looking. BORAX children often have considerably more colour in the cheeks, the skin is a little more yellow, not quite so earthy looking and a shade more inelastic, thick and greasy.
NATRUM MUR children probably are a little darker still, they flush a little more easily, they perspire a little more easily and there is a slight increase of the greasy appearance.
Sepia. [Sep]
When considering skins the next possibility is SEPIA, which has the same kind of sallow greasy skin; and SEPIA is a drug which is far too much neglected in the treatment of children.
The outstanding feature of SEPIA, children is their negative attitude to everything. They tend to be depressed, moody, indolent, disinclined for work, and not even interested in their play. If pushed they are liable to sulk or weep.
They are usually nervy children, scared of being alone, very often afraid of the dark, and yet they dislike being handled. very often they have a definite dislike of going to parties, and there is a point which is sometimes confused with BARYTA CARB a dislike of playing with other children.
It is the thing that later develops into the typical SEPIA dislike of meeting friends, and is often confused with the BARYTA CARB dislike of people altogether, but mostly it is pure indolence in the SEPIA children, and once they get to a party they are perfectly happy.
The next point is that these SEPIA children, although so lazy and indolent, are definitely greedy, and SEPIA should always be considered for a definitely greedy child. Another thing common to SEPIA children is that although they loathe to go to a party, when they get there and start dancing they wake up at once and are perfectly happy. It is astonishing the effect of dancing on SEPIA children. The heaviest, dullest child when dancing at a party will become an entirely different being, will suddenly come alive. It is a useful tip and the parents may give it when asked.
Another odd symptom which appears occasionally in children and is a definite SEPIA lead is that these slow-developing children very often acquire the habit of head-nodding. when faced with a head-nodding child always think of the possibility of SEPIA, do not dash off at once to one of the typical chorea drugs.
Various other points are fairly common in the SEPIA children. For instance, they are nearly always constipated, and associated with this is usually a tendency to enuresis. And one thing which is very constant in SEPIA children is that the enuresis takes place early in the night.
Usually if these SEPIA children are lifted about 10 p.m. they remain dry the rest of the night; it is in their first sleep that they lose control.
At the later age, in the sallow, dull, greedy, locked-up child, there is a history that she is developing fainting attacks, and these are induced by standing, or by taking up any fixed position in a close atmosphere- standing in school, standing in church, kneeling in church-the SEPIA child is very often liable to faint.
All these children-like all SEPIA patients – are sensitive to cold children are particularly sensitive to weather changes, and the typical SEPIA child will develop a cold from changes in the weather apparently without any contact with infection.
Another useful lead towards SEPIA in children is that they are very often upset by milk. If a SEPIA child gets a digestive upset and is put a milk diet he will certainly become constipated.
Associated with their sallow, greasy skin, SEPIA children tend to sweat profusely, and are liable to develop very itchy skins without much sign of an eruption and without comfort from scratching.
Aurum metallicum. [Aur]
With this sallow, dispirited, sluggish type of child, with that depressed, negative attitude one should always consider the possibility of gold, AURUM METALLICUM, or one of the gold salts. The typical AURUM child is always an undeveloped child. It is not so much a question of undersize and underweight as that it simply does not grow up.
The typical Aurum child of 5 years of age is probably about the level of a 3 – year- old. The majority of cases needing AURUM are boys and in majority of these case there has been some failure of development – an undescended testicle, a very poorly developed scrotum, something which indicated that the child was slow in developing even if developing satisfactorily. It is type of symptom for which one might consider BARYTA CARB.
AURUM children always give the impression of being lifeless. They are always low spirited, rather miserable, lifeless, and they are absolutely lacking in go. They have no initiative at all and give the impression of finding everything a frightful effort.
He wrote a number of books: Children's Types, Digestive Drugs, Pneumonias
Douglas Borland died November 29, 1960.