Another Psorinum case, many years ago, was a wee boy, admitted into our Children’s Ward with a T.B. abdomen and chest. The odour of the unfortunate–or, as it turned out, fortunate– child was so awful, one could hardly go near his bed. He got a dose of Psorinum 30 and he was put out on the balcony for a few months; and went out apparently well.
And yet another case, from early dispensary days, of a miserable, sickly little girl, with insufferably evil odour, and dry harsh skin–it was almost ichthyosis–who improved greatly on Psorinum. One quotes from memory: the cases are very long ago, and to look up the notes, not even knowing the names, would be a considerable task. But they may serve to impress on others also, two of the great characteristic of Psorinum.–its insufferable mal-odour, never to be forgotten–only to be compared to that of rotten eggs (and any one who has broken a rotten egg will realize how, having hurled it as far away as possible, one is impelled to flee in the opposite direction!) and the harsh, dry skin, which is, or may be, a great feature in the Psorinum picture.
Another drug of appalling odour is Kreosotum. A woman supposed to be dying of bronchitis (? bronchiectasis) came into hospital some years ago. It was almost impossible to go inside her screens–she was screened off because of the awful odour of breath and sputum. Kreosotum 200, not only banished the odour by the next day, but restored her to life, to the amazement of the then house physician. One has seen Kreosotum 200 also annihilative of the terrible odours that sometimes accompany cancer of cervix; where, if it did nothing more, it made life more supportable for patient and her entourage.
BLACK LETTER SYMPTOMS
Anxious: full of fear: melancholic.
Very depressed, sad, suicidal thoughts.
Driven to despair by excessive itching.
Moist, suppurating, fetid, also dry eruptions on scalp.
Tinea capitis et faciei.
Discharge of fetid pus from ear.
Otorrhoea; with headache; thin, ichorus and horribly offensive, like rotten meat. Very offensive, purulent, with watery, stinking diarrhoea. Brown, offensive, from left ear, for almost four years.
Chronic cases following scarlet fever.
Humid soreness behind ears: scurfs on ears, and humid scurfs behind ear.
Swelled upper lip.
Tongue very dry.
Sensation of plug or lump in throat impeding hawking.
Great hunger.
Eructations tasting like rotten eggs.
Stool, dark-brown: very fetid, and foul-smelling.
Cough, with expectoration of green mucus, nearly like matter.
He perspires freely when walking:–profuse sweat with consequent debility.
Skin has a dirty, dingy look, as if patient never washed: in some places looks coarse, as if bathed in oil. Sebaceous glands secrete in excess.
Eczema behind ears, on scalp, in bends of elbows and armpits, accompanied by abscesses affecting bones.
Itch; dry on arms and chest, most severe on finger joints; followed by boils: inveterate cases with symptoms of tuberculosis, repeated outbreak of single pustules after main eruption gone. Suppressed eruptions.
IMPORTANT, CHARACTERISTIC ITALIC, OR PECULIAR SYMPTOMS
Very irritable, easily angered; always thinks of dying.
Great fear of death. Sad and joyless.
Great test despondency, making his own life and those about him intolerable.
Religious melancholy. Despair of recovery.
Attacks of fear; fear of fire, of being alone, of apoplexy of becoming insane, etc.
Frontal headache, with sensation of weakness in forehead: not space enough in skull, as if everything were pushed out–on rising.
Better: for nose-bleed; after washing and breakfast.
Fiery sparks before eyes: objects appear as if they were trembling, vibrating.
Discharge: from ears of reddish earwax, or fetid pus.
Herpes from temple, over ears to cheeks.
Right ear a mass of crusts and pus.
Looseness of teeth: so loose, feels they may fall out.
Thirst for beer: desire for acids; loathing of pork.
Vomiting of sweet mucus every morning at ten and in evening.
Horribly offensive, nearly painless, almost involuntary, dark and watery stool: at night, and most towards morning.
Leucorrhoea, large lumps, unbearable in odour: violent pains in sacrum and right loin.
Suffocation and crawling in larynx: tickling; throat seems narrowing, must cough.
Out for a walk, must return home in order to get breath, or to lie down, so that they can breathe more easily : (<) instead of (>) from open air.
Chest expands with difficulty: cannot get breath. Anxious dyspnoea. Worse when sitting up: better lying down. Worse the nearer arms are brought to body.
Asthma as if he would die.
Cough with salty-tasting, green and yellow expectoration.
Expectoration of blood, with hot sensation in chest; yellowish green.
Chronic blenorrhoea of lungs, threatening phthisis.
Suppuration of lungs.
Chest symptoms better lying down.
Pain in heart better lying down: thinks the stitches in heart will kill if they continue.
Gurgling in region of heart, especially noticed when lying down.
Dyspnoea with palpitation.
Weakness in all joints as if they would not hold together.
Joints easily sprained: tends to overlift himself: troubles from tension or stretching of muscles.
Herpetic and itching eruptions, especially in bends of joints, in bends of elbows, in popliteal spaces.
Better bending forward.
Profuse sweat from slightest exercise.
Malaise: tired out.
Constantly increasing debility, with abdominal affections.
Child at night would twist and turn and fret from bedtime till morning, and next day be as lively as ever.
Children: emaciated. Children good all day, restless, troublesome, screaming all night. Or will not sleep, but worry, fret and cry day and night.
Very sensitive to cold air, or change of weather. Wears a fur cap, overcoat, or shawl even in hottest summer weather.
Restlessness before and during thunderstorm.
Averse to having head uncovered.
While in bed, body itches.
Profuse night-sweats of phthisis: or want of perspiration: dry skin.
All excretions, diarrhoea, leucorrhoea, menses and sweat have a carrion-like odour.
Body has a filthy smell, even after a bath.
Abnormal tendency to skin diseases.
Itching when body becomes warm. When rubbed small papules and vesicles arise, between fingers, in bends of knees, terrible, of whole body at night, preventing sleep,
Eruptions bleed easily and tend to suppurate.
