Arsenicum Album. [Ars]
The last group of drugs includes all the outstandingly nervy children, and the key to the whole group is ARSENICUM ALBUM. ARSENICUM children are possibly the most attractive of the children. They are very highly strung, usually finely made, finely built, often with a very fine skin and fine hair; they are delicate-looking children.
They are always very nervy, very easily scared, very easily frightened, anything unusual will frighten them, they are afraid of being left alone in the house, afraid of going out alone, terrified of the dark, and they always have a very vivid imagination. They suffer from night terrors and wake up in the middle of the night terrified, jump out of bed and wander through the house to find somebody to talk to.
It is always the feeling of some horrible occurrence hanging over her, very often she does not know what it is and is just terrified. When comforted and consoled, she will quieten down and go to sleep again, particularly if taken into the parents bed and has somebody near.
They are usually of a variable colour and tend to be rather pale but flush on excitement. They are not sallow. It is a rather fine skin, and when flushed they often get hot heads, and cold hands and feet on excitement or over-exertion.
In spite of their delicate appearance these ARSENICUM children are always restless, always doing something, and not just sitting about looking at their fingers. They may take up a thing do it for a while, then go on to something else, but they never spend their time doing nothing.
When they are nervy they go from their mother to their father, from their father to the nurse, then back to their mother. Each one gives them a certain amount of comfort but not for long, and they turn to someone else.
In spite of their restlessness and their activity, they get completely exhausted. They will be all right for a couple of hours, busy, happy, occupied, rather restless, and too mentally active, then suddenly become completely exhausted, grow pale, tired and lie down. Often they become depressed, and in a nervy, frightened state, feel they are going to be ill and want to have somebody near.
These children are inordinately tidy. A small girl will keep her dolls in a most astonishingly tidy condition. Even small boys, who normally break their toys and leave them lying about on the floor, if of ARSENICUM type, will put them away and be distressed, not because the toy is broken but because it is in a mess. They are upset if they spill jam over themselves and get into a mess, and their distress is out of all proportion to the cause.
Another very definite thing about them is that they are liable to catch cold, particularly from exposure to cold, and these colds are fairly typical. They usually start as an acute coryza, with watery, excoriating discharge, very violent attacks of sneezing and a tendency for the cold very rapidly to spread on to the chest.
In 24 hours the history of an acute coryza develops rapidly to bronchitis. With that extension the ARSENICUM child becomes hoarse between the development of the coryza and the onset of the definite bronchitis.
The other ARSENICUM types get a very similar mild coryza without any hoarseness at all, without any sign of bronchitis but they suddenly develop an acute asthmatic attack.
The asthmatic attack in ARSENICUM children is a very typical, very tight, dry, spasmodic asthma and it is always accompanied by acute terror. It is always terrifying for a child to get asthma, but ARSENICUM children are almost beside themselves with terror.
They are liable to get asthmatic attacks either early in the afternoon abut 1 p.m to 3 p.m. some time after lunch, or early in the morning any time after midnight.
Another typical asthmatic characteristic is that the attack subsides the dryness seems to disappear and the chest gets flooded with mucus with quantities of white, frothy sputum. When the attack is subsiding the dry whistle disappears and the chest gets moister. ARSENICUM will clear up the whole trouble.
ARSENICUM children are very sensitive to cold, and exposure to cold is certain to upset them. It either provokes an acute respiratory attack, or an acute digestive attack. These children get digestive upsets very easily; from exposure to cold, and also from over-indulgence in any watery fruits. Melons, strawberries, any of the juicy fruits may give the ARSENICUM child acute gastritis, usually with diarrhoea.
ARSENICUM children are extremely chilly, and in most of their chest and general conditions, they are thirsty with a desire for cold drinks, but when suffering from gastritis or gastroenteritis, the condition is aggravated by cold drinks.
He wrote a number of books: Children's Types, Digestive Drugs, Pneumonias
Douglas Borland died November 29, 1960.
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