Nearly all the actual acute diseases from which they suffer are associated with some skin irritation. SULPHUR is commonly indicated in acute styes with intense irritation of the lid margins, the lids are very hot and burning, aggravated by heat, and particularly aggravated by bathing – they smart and sting if an eye bath is used.
There are commonly indications for SULPHUR in chronic nasal discharges; in these children with a nasal discharge there is always the same SULPHUR offensiveness. The discharge is always excoriating, there is a redness about the nose, with intense irritation, the children tending to pick at it until it is raw and bleeding.
SULPHUR children often get chronic tonsillitis, a deeply injected throat, very swollen, feeling very hot, with very offensive breath. And most SULPHUR children with tonsillitis tend to get masses of glands in the neck- more than ordinary tonsillar gland enlargement and it tends to spread, and involve particularly the submaxillary glands. The tonsillitis is accompanied by irregular heat and cold, shivering attacks, sweaty attacks and thirst for cold water.
There are indications for SULPHUR in chronic conditions, chronic ear discharge, with the SULPHUR characteristics the excoriating, offensive discharge, redness about the external ear, intense irritation; the aggravation of any pain from hot applications, particularly hot fomentations.
Chest conditions is SULPHUR children vary from a mild bronchitis to an acute pneumonia; and again certain features are constant. A tendency to waves of heat and sweat very often occasional shivers, very often burning extremities, and a very definite heavy smell about the child.
There is one constant feature that runs through all SULPHUR chest conditions, it is a very marked sensitiveness to lack oxygen-they cannot stand a stuffy atmosphere, they want plenty of air, and yet they are chilly in draughts. The disturbance is more commonly on the left side of the chest than on the right, but it is too slight a difference to be of much importance.
SULPHUR is one of the most commonly indicated drugs in jaundice of children-acute catarrhal jaundice-particularly with the marked intolerance that SULPHUR has to milk in its acute conditions, intense skin irritation, feeling of burning heat on the surface very often with attacks of colic, frequently with attacks of diarrhoea. A SULPHUR diarrhoea produces an excoriating discharge, redness and rawness about the buttocks, intense irritation, scratching.
The thin type of SULPHUR patient often suffers from acute rheumatic conditions with the usual characteristics-irregular sweats, feeling of heat, thirst, red tip of the tongue. The actual painful condition is worse from heat, it is rather more comfortable from cold, it is very much better from movement, although it is painful when starting to move; and there is liable to be a red blush of the affected joint. There may also be a history of the attack having been precipitated by bathing, either sea-bathing or swimming.
The desire for fat is very variable in children. It is very common in adults, most adults SULPHUR cases want fat with hot roast beef, for instance but it is by no means so constant in children. Some do not like fat. If they do it is a help, but it is by no means constant. A number of adults also do not want it.
Butter does not come into the fat craving at all. The majority of PULSATILLA patients with a definite aversion to fat, like butter and like cream; but they dislike meat fat, and particularly hot fat. Many PULSATILLA patients will eat fat cold but not hot. But most PULSATILLA patients will take butter, very often in large quantities.
The tendency to sweat is constant in the fatter type of SULPHUR the thinner types usually have a dry harsh skin and do not tend to perspire.
Another thing which is sometimes a help about SULPHUR children is that they are extremely pleased with their possessions. The SULPHUR child’s toys are the best that could be, and the SULPHUR child’s family is the best ever. They also have an astonishing money sense; quite a small child has a very definite sense of values.
SULPHUR is not nearly so often indicated as it used in urticaria. But is very commonly indicated in urticaria in children, particularly if associated with digestive upsets. Children respond well to any potency and most SULPHUR children respond very well to a 30 OR 200.
Thuja. [Thuj]
To continue with the PULSATILLA type of drugs, although majority of these are are hot-blooded drugs, there is one other that is always associated with PULSATILLA and that is THUJA, although it is chilly in its reaction.
It is a little difficult to give a mental picture of the typical THUJA child because in the majority of outstanding cases there is an element of mental deficiency. In many THUJA children there has been some mental deficiency, some merely backward, some actually deficient.
In some there is an obvious pituitary dysfunction, and that tends to colour one’s idea of THUJA. But there are THUJA children who are not mentally defective and who have not got a pituitary dysfunction, and that type of child is very like a PULSATILLA child in reaction.
The outstanding characteristic of the THUJA child is the fact that it is sensitive; sensitive to people. It is responsive to any kindness; it is conscientious in what it does, and it is easily upset emotionally. And there the first strong indication comes in: THUJA children have a peculiar sensitiveness to music and this is one of the things commonly associated with mentally defective children.
Eighty per cent of the mentally defective children that I have treated have been abnormally sensitive to music. Much more sensitive than the average child; and even in the normal child with THUJA indications you get this emotional sensitiveness to music. They are affected by it; they may even weep from it. Associated with that emotional disturbance THUJA children have a sadness a depression, very like the PULSATILLA depression.
The THUJA children, even the mentally defectives are astonishingly conscientious. They are very often sensitive to motion, are very often car-sick. Another symptom is a strange contradiction often found in a perfectly lively child- they are apparently keenly interested, and yet have a strange hesitation in speaking. a difficulty in finding the words they want, or a difficulty in saying them.
Very often the difficulty in speaking gives the impression that the child is slow mentally, when it is not really slow, it is really seeking words. That may go on to a definite disinclination to talk; they are rather silent and appear to be rather heavy.
The majority of THUJA children are rather under than above average height, many are definitely small and rather finely built. Thuja applies equally well to either fair-haired or dark- haired types. A definite factor is that they appear to get wakened, the more active they are. If they are made to sit about they become dull, heavy, and depressed, but any activity brightens them up mentally.
Another common feature in many of these THUJA children is very faulty development of the teeth; with irregular dentition, and very early decay. The enamel of the teeth is definitely faulty in places.
THUJA children are sensitive to cold, although they are mostly better in the open air. They are very sensitive to damp and liable to be much worse in the morning.
Most THUJA children perspire on exertion, and even when they are not exerting themselves they mostly have a rather greasy skin which is more commonly noticed in the dark-haired type than in the fair. Some fair-haired THUJA children have a rather fine skin, and very often a downy growth on the skin, particularly on the back.
THUJA children do not stand up well to mental stress. They are liable to get a typical acute neuralgic headache under stress, from getting over-tired or over-excited, and the point about the neuralgic headache is that it very often picks out definite areas which are extremely painful and very often extremely sensitive.
These children tend to get chronic catarrhal headaches. They get thick, purulent, yellowish-green nasal discharge, possibly with crusts in the nose and bleeding. They are liable to chronic otitis media, and may develop a mastoiditis with very severe and localised pain, and tenderness over the mastoid region. If they are old enough they will tell you it feels as if something were being bored into the mastoid bone.
Another common feature of THUJA children is a poor digestion. The typical picture of the pituitary child with an almost pendulous abdomen is an extreme example, and these children are extremely liable to develop a chronically irritated caecum.
Often there is a full, boggy caecum in the right iliac fossa, with a history of recurring attacks of diarrhoea; and the diarrhoea is fairly characteristic. it consists of pale greasy, almost fatty stools and these are always passed with a good deal of flatus; and the attacks are accompanied by a lot of gurgling in the abdomen.
He wrote a number of books: Children's Types, Digestive Drugs, Pneumonias
Douglas Borland died November 29, 1960.