“What potency do you give for impetigo?”.
I have found very good results from Antimony curd. 12, repeated three times a day for two days, or something of that sort.
“What about Calc. carb. or Graphites?”.
Calc. carb. or Graphites I would give high every time-a 200, or higher.
WELL, for my sins, you asked me to talk about Sulphur to-day, and it is a little difficult to know where to begin and how to tackle it. But you have got to remember that here we are talking about the drugs that apply to children much more than the general picture of the drug, which does make it much more simple.
From the point of view of children, I think there are two definite Sulphur types that you can recognize. I think much the commonest Sulphur child that you see at least that we see here is a fairly well-nourished, well-grown child, always with a definitely big head. They are usually fairly heavy in build and rather awkward and clumsy in their movements. They are apt to have a very coarse, strong hair, and they always have a fairly high colour. Their skin tends to be roughish, it will roughen in a cold wind, and they tend to have rather red extremities, red hands and very often red feet.
Then the next thing about them is that they always have very red lips, very often red ears, and they easily run to redness of the margins of the lids. That is one of the places that you do get the exception to your coarse hair, because that type of Sulphur child very often has poorly developed eyelashes; they have had repeated attacks of blepharitis, they have crusty eruptions about the eyelids which they have picked and scratched, and consequently the eyelashes tend to be undeveloped or poor.
Well, that is much the commonest type in appearance. I will go into a little more detail in a moment, but that is the commonest type we see here.
There is another Sulphur type, which is thin usually, with a fairly big head but rather spindley legs, very often with a biggish abdomen, rather a poorly developed chest, very often not so much colour, tending to be paler, with a definitely rougher skin the other type of Sulphur tends to sweat pretty easily, this is a dryer skin, coarser skin, a very marked tendency for the skin to split, to crack, on exposure, and the child is rather more miserable generally. The child looks more seedy, it has got less vitality, it is more easily tired, and it always stands badly.
Then the next thing that is pretty definite about the Sulphur kids again I think they differ in type, where you are dealing with the heavier Sulphur type I think you get much more bite about them, they tend to be quarrelsome, impatient, rather critical, fault-finding, discontented, very often generally dissatisfied, they are apt to feel they are not getting a fair deal, very often feel they are being underestimated, and they are lazy.
But it is very difficult often to say whether it is real laziness or lack of stamina, because they do get tired out on exertion. Another thing that you will commonly come across in that type of child is they have a great dislike of interference, they think they know how to do a thing, they know what they want to do, and they very definitely resent their parents butting in, they would make a better show of it if they were left alone they think.
Then the thin Sulphur type, I think, are much more inclined to be miserable, low spirited, much less vitality, much less bite about them; but there is the same sort of resentment of outside interference; it shows itself differently, these thin Sulphur kids are liable to weep, and any attempt to comfort them is apt to annoy them, then they will spit I dont mean literally, but figuratively! and these thin Sulphur kids have got even less stamina than the fat ones, they are more easily exhausted and, like all the Sulphur patients, it is exaggerated in that type of child that they cannot stand for any length of time; they stand badly in the ordinary instance, and if they are kept standing they simply go to bits. .
Then there is one outstanding characteristic of all Sulphur patients, whether children or adults, and that is that they have got a pretty hefty appetite it doesnt matter whether they are fat or thin and their appetite is pretty definite in its likes and dislikes. You will find all Sulphur patients with a desire for something with a taste; they like highly seasoned, spiced foods. And the other thing that you will get in all Sulphur patients is they have got a very marked desire for sweets.
You occasionally get a Sulphur patient craving for salt, but it isnt really salt they are craving for, it is much more something with a taste. And another point which I think you will always find in the Sulphur children is that they have an almost perverted desire for out-of-the-ordinary food, the unusual dish that the average child jibs from the Sulphur child mops up with avidity. That is one constant feature.
Another constant feature that you meet in children and adults is that they are always very sluggish after meals, they get heavy and sleepy, they want to lie about, and they are irritable if they are disturbed.
And, in connection with their food, there is one very useful point in children Sulphur children and that is that they are very liable to get digestive upsets from milk. The small Sulphur baby very often gets sickness, it may get diarrhoea and vomiting, from milk, and it is one of the drugs that one tends to forget as having the marked milk aggravation.
Then the next thing that is constant to all Sulphur patients is their skin irritation. You practically never come across a Sulphur patient who has not got irritation of the skin somewhere, and there are one or two characteristics features of the Sulphur skin at least of the Sulphur irritation. The first thing is that it is very much worse in warmth of any kind, warm room, warm bed, warm sun, warm clothing, all set up the Sulphur irritation.
The next thing is that when the irritation is present they do get definite comfort, and they sometimes get a peculiar sensation of pleasure, from scratching, and occasionally the scratching does relieve the irritation. Then the next thing about it is that it always tends to be much more troublesome at night, and that is apart from being hot; very often when they are about, active and occupied, during the day the irritation does not worry them much but when they are at rest in the evening or at night the irritation tends to become much worse, and much more worrying. Then, of course, you link on to the irritation all the Sulphur skin conditions.
Well, Sulphur has every skin eruption that is known to the dermatologist. And the only point that does distinguish it as a Sulphur eruption is its reactions to temperature, and the fact that it always irritates. It is an intense irritation that they cant leave alone; they describe it in all sorts of ways itching, feeling of animals crawling over the skin, sensation of stinging of nettles, any description that describes an intense irritation of the skin.
Another point that you tack on to the general surface irritability is that in Sulphur kids you tend to get very marked irritation of all the orifices, nose, ears, mouth, urethra, anus, any orifice tends to be congested, red, hot and itchy.
Then there is another point which is sometimes helpful in the Sulphur children. You know, of course, that the Sulphur patients are aggravated by heat, but one of the things one is apt to forget is that the Sulphur patients have an unstable heat mechanism; they are very liable certainly in feverish conditions to get waves of heat and waves of chilliness.
You very often get them becoming horribly hot, breaking out into a sweat and getting shivery very much the sort of condition that you associate with Mercury. You cover them up and they get hot and beastly uncomfortable; you uncover them and they get a draught on the surface and they are immediately chilly. So dont always be put off from Sulphur by the fact that the kid does not necessarily want to be uncovered all the time.
Then the next thing about the Sulphur patients which is constant no matter what their condition, whether it is a skin eruption, or a child with rheumatism, the child with a tummy upset, no matter what it is, it is aggravated by bathing. And, as you know, practically all these Sulphur kids look dirty.
Associated with that, there were several kids that we used to see in out-patients who at first sight were not unlike Calcarea kids, that is to say, they were heavy, had big heads, were rather pale with a tendency to flush, rather big bellies, clumsy; and yet they hadnt the Calcarea chilliness, they were hot-blooded, and they had a very marked tendency to the development of blackheads all across the forehead. These kids were practically all Sulphurs. They had rather paler lips than the average Sulphur children, and at first sight one wouldnt have spotted them, but, with these blackheads scattered about over the forehead particularly, always look out for the possibility of the child being a Sulphur child.
