Very often these children give a history of having crops of warts. The THUJA warts are soft and bleed very easily on handling if knocked the surface may break and bleed.
THUJA patients sweat on the uncovered parts. A girl of about twelve years of age was stripped to be examined, and the sweat poured off her when her clothes were removed. She was not sweating at all when covered. Occasionally that odd symptom of sweating when uncovering is found, but usually THUJA children are chilly and shivery when uncovered.
A particular case was of interest because there was rare bony deposits in the muscles in quite a young child, and she did very well on THUJA. The first pointer to the possibility of THUJA was the odd sweating when uncovered.
The other constant THUJA feature in children is their strange susceptibility to onions. They are very liable to gastric upsets, and an attack of diarrhoea from eating onions, cooked or raw. Another common symptom, although not met with in young children, may occur in the adolescent-they are liable to get acute digestive upsets from tea.
A history is also a great help in deciding on THUJA.
Bromium. [Brom]
The next common warm-blooded drug is BROMIUM. It is one of the drugs which is very frequently missed. The common BROMIUM type of patient is usually over-fat, fair skinned, fair-haired, and the majority are friendly, cheerful, fairly happy types.
There there are contradictions. The fairly cheerful happy friendly type, are very easily put out, and if upset they very commonly flush up, and explain that they get a feeling of heat and tension in their heads.
They become nervous, anxious, very often frightened, in the evening, very much about the PULSATILLA time. They do not like to walk home in the dark and have the impression that somebody is following them, and they get scared very much like the symptom of PULSATILLA-they look not unlike PULSATILLA, and occasionally bouts of depression in the BROMIUM patient are not unlike PULSATILLA. But BROMIUM is a much more placid depression, much more a melancholy outlook than the acute tearfulness of the PULSATILLA.
The BROMIUM patient is a rather fat, fair type tending to run to crops of boils, either acne about the face or over the shoulder, and an adolescent needing BROMIUM always has some acne spots about.
There are further symptoms very like PULSATILLA. They are very sensitive to heat, uncomfortable in the sun and definitely uncomfortable in a hot room. They are better for motion and for exercise; and better in the open air.
By contrast the typical BROMIUM patient is very much better after food, whereas the typical PULSATILLA patient is heavy after a meal; and another contrast – in spite of the fact that they are better in the open air, they are sensitive to draughts.
The majority of the BROMIUM cases are of two types, one with chronic catarrh of the upper passages, the other the typical acute hay fever.
Taking the catarrhal type first, the child with chronic hypertrophy of the tonsils, not the type who is liable to recurring quinsies, but one with an enlarged fibrotic tonsils, and often with a general enlargement of the submaxillary glands which tend to be hard, and tend not to break down.
With the chronic tonsils they are liable to acute attacks of catarrhal extension to any of the sinuses, and in BROMIUM cases it is more commonly the frontal sinuses that are involved, rather than the antrums; with the involvement of the frontal sinuses the patients complain of intense pain, fullness, and a feeling of swelling at the root of the nose.
The nose feels choked up, and there is a thick, yellow purulent discharge, and if any violent effort is made to clear the nose the discharge is liable to be bloodstained. Another point about that type is a thickened rather inflamed, reddened upper lip.
Occasionally one of these children will get an attack of very intense croup, with a sensation of tackling in the larynx. The very violent croupy cough, goes on almost to suffocation, and is relieved by cold drinks. They may complain of a feeling of pressure, or constriction, of the throat, and the larynx in these cases is usually very sensitive to touch. There may also be the typical BROMIUM hoarse voice.
BROMIUM is useful for the fat, warm-blooded child, with rather hypertrophied tonsils, who gets an attack of hay fever coming on usually about June; rather later in the BROMIUM child than in many of the others. Some start in the middle of May, but the BROMIUM cases do not usually start until June. The outstanding characteristic of the BROMIUM hay fever is an extreme hyperaesthesia of the mucous membranes and dust of any kind will set up an acute attack during the irritant period.
One small boy had a typical BROMIUM hay fever, and if he went into a room which was being dusted would start a violent attack right away, quite apart from any exposure to irritant out of doors. A few doses of BROMIUM completely stopped it.
These BROMIUM hay fever cases may get asthmatic attacks which are fairly typical. They get very sudden spasmodic attacks with a sensation of extreme constriction of the chest, and extreme difficulty in swallowing. Another point is that although their apparent hay fever does not entirely subside at the seaside their asthma entirely goes.
Another type in which BROMIUM is very useful is similar, the child is fat, tonsillar, sensitive to heat, with a definitely sluggish tendency and in addition there are generalised rheumatic pains, a type of muscular rheumatism. They are also very liable to cardiac affections, more likely a poorly acting cardiac muscle than a definite valvular lesion, but in some cases there is definite cardiac hypertrophy in that of child and they have improved very much indeed on BROMIUM.
The constant in all these cases is the feeling of constriction in the chest, feeling of tightness or constriction over the heart. Another constant is that feeling of constriction has developed when they have been facing any wind; there is also the sensitiveness to draughts which is particularly noticeable in BROMIUM heart cases.
Iodum. [Iod]
The majority of the IODUM children are dark-haired and rather dark-skinned, and intensely restless. They are very thin children, never still, always on the move, wandering about, fidgeting, restless; this an outstanding feature of these cases.
On questioning you will be told that these children are definitely irritable, and their irritability is characteristic. They are perfectly happy playing with other children and then suddenly, apparently for no reason, they break out into violence. very often they are playing perfectly happily with a brother or sister and suddenly they pick up something and hit them.
It is that sudden impulsive irritability that is the typical IODUM mental characteristic. very often after such an attack of irritability, the child is extremely depressed, not weepy but just silent, depressed, rather losing interest in things.
These children usually have very large appetites; they are hungry for their meals, and they are hungry between meals. They become utterly exhausted if they go too long without a meal, and are very liable to get headache for hunger. Although these children eat well they can never be fattened; they remain thin, and may actually be losing weight.
IODUM children are very sensitive to heat of any kind, hot rooms, hot sun, hot fire, hot baths; heat in any form aggravates the typical IODUM child.
These IODUM children often have a rather inactive skin. They get attacks of acute infection of the nose, with a tendency to spread into the frontal sinuses, and with such an attack there is an irritant, watery discharge, and a feeling of obstruction at the root of the nose, and it is tender on pressure.
Frequent with the coryza there is a very hot discharge a tendency to sneeze, and with the discharge always very watery eyes. There may be a history of repeated attacks of that sort, followed by development of typical asthmatic breathing. With these thin children with a good appetite, with that sort of history, and with asthma which is definitely better in the open air, IODUM will usually meet the case.
These IODUM children with that kind of extending catarrhal infection very often get a degree of deafness which is usually associated with a chronic eustachian catarrh.
Another feature of IODUM children of that with catarrhal infections, is in involvement of the larynx. They are very often hoarse, and have a painful larynx, which is tender on pressure. With the laryngitis they are apt to get acute croupy attacks which are extremely painful. One of the distinguishing points about these croupy attacks is that the child gets very hot and has an intensely hot dry skin.
Very often in these croupy attacks the child is terrified. They could be mistaken for croup of ARSENICUM type; there is the same feeling of heat, the same burning in the larynx, the same kind of restlessness and anxiety, the child is very often terrified, and there is the same kind of choking feeling. But the ARSENICUM child is chilly whereas the IODUM child is hot and wants air. THE ARSENICUM child will perspire slightly; the IODUM child will be dry and hot.
He wrote a number of books: Children's Types, Digestive Drugs, Pneumonias
Douglas Borland died November 29, 1960.