Then there is another contradiction that one sometimes meets with in the Sulphur kids. You except them to be horribly hot, but you will meet Sulphur children who have disturbed areas of heat; they have hot heads and cold hands, or they have hot hands and cold feet, or they have hot feet and cold heads very often cold, damp heads so that you get local disturbances of heat and cold just as you get the general disturbances of heat and cold. So that again if you get a child with cold feet dont automatically rule out Sulphur because it does not put its feet out of bed.
Then there is another typical Sulphur characteristic, and that is that they are sluggish. They are better for exertion, they are better when they are stimulated, and they are better when they are moving about. I know quite a number of Sulphur patients who can be the most lethargic, dull, uninteresting people and yet if they are stimulated in the proper kind of society they wake up; they are clever; and you wouldnt recognize them as the same beings. You get exactly the same with Sulphur children; badly handled they are dull, heavy, cross, irritable; and properly handled they can be bright, interesting, quite friendly, and very often clever. I have seen some of these Sulphur children with the most astonishing command of language not necessarily unprintable!.
You see how you just tack all the things on together.
Then there is another pretty constant characteristic of all the Sulphur children, and that is constipation; the majority of these Sulphur kids suffer from more or less constipation, very often it is quite extreme. And associated with that constipation, you tack on the enlarged abdomen, very often big liver, the abnormal appetite, the sleepiness after meals, and the very definite tendency to get attacks of colic. I think all the above applies more to the heavier type of Sulphur; I think the thinner type of Sulphur are more liable to get attacks of diarrhoea; they very often suffer from a chronic diarrhoea with the ordinary Sulphur modalities, that is to say, a diarrhoea tending to come on early in the morning, any time after four oclock, with any kind of stool provided it is offensive.
And when you are there you tack on the other constant Sulphur characteristic which is that they all smell; their discharges smell, any eruption smells, their perspiration smells, and the Sulphur child is very difficult to get clean and wholesome.
Then there is another feature that one often meets with in these Sulphur children, and that is that they are often heavy and lethargic and sleepy during the day, and very sleepless at night, and they are liable to get most terrifying nightmares. It is always a terrifying nightmare of some kind, but it isnt constant in its character, but the kid is always being frightened, very commonly being terrified of fire or something of that sort.
Then there is one other point which one occasionally comes across in a Sulphur child. It is pretty lively in the evening, slow of going off to sleep, gets off to sleep, gets off to sleep, and wakes up in fits of laughter; it is an odd symptom, and I have come across it several times, and always it has been in Sulphur children.
Well, in a general way I think that is about as much as I can give you, with possibly the exception that they do get a hungry period about eleven oclock in the morning, and that all the Sulphur children are liable to be seedy, headachy, irritable, tired-out, if they have to wait for their meals.
“Are there any special acute conditions in Sulphur children?”.
There are all sorts of acute conditions from which the Sulphur children may suffer. Oh, there is one other condition which might be worth mentioning, and I think you can tack it on to the redness of lips and orifices, and that is that in acute or chronic conditions they tend to have a red coated tongue, with a very red tip, and very often a red margin running along their sides. It isnt unlike a Rhus tongue. And most of these Sulphur patients have a dry mouth, a hot mouth, and are thirsty. Of course you meet that more in the acute conditions than in the chronics.
As regards the actual things from which they suffer acute diseases practically all of them are associated with, as I say, some skin irritation. You will very commonly get Sulphur indicated in acute styes with intense irritation of the lid margins, the lids very hot and burning, aggravated by heat, and particularly aggravated by bathing they smart and sting if you give them an eye bath.
You very commonly get indications for Sulphur in chronic nasal discharges; and in Sulphur children with a nasal discharge you will always get the same old Sulphur offensiveness. The discharge is always excoriating, there is a redness about the nose, again with intense irritation, the kids tending to pick at it until it is raw and bleeding.
You will very often get Sulphur children with a chronic tonsillitis, a deeply injected throat, very much swollen, feeling very hot, with a very offensive breath. And practically all these Sulphur kids with their tonsillitis tend to get masses of glands in their neck far more than the ordinary tonsillar gland enlargement, it tends to spread right along and particularly involves the submaxillary glands. And with their tonsillitis, of course, you will get the irregular heat and cold, shivering attacks, sweaty attacks, and the thirst for cold water.
You very often get indications for Sulphur in chronic conditions, chronic ear discharge. And again you get the Sulphur characteristics, the excoriating, offensive discharge, the redness about the external ear, the intense irritation, the aggravation of any pain from hot applications, particularly hot fomentations.
Then you get all sorts of Sulphur chest conditions in Sulphur kids, anything from a mild bronchitis up to an acute pneumonia; and there again you get certain Sulphur constant features, you get a tendency to waves of heat and sweat, very often occasional shivers, very often with burning extremities, and a very definite heavy smell about the child.
Then there is one constant feature that runs through all the Sulphur chest conditions, and that is a very definite sensitiveness, extreme sensitiveness, to lack of oxygen they cant stand a stuffy atmosphere, they want plenty of air, and yet they are chilly in draughts. I think, on the whole, in chest conditions you more commonly get indications of some disturbance on the left side of the chest rather than the right, but it is so slightly more common on the left than the right that I dont think it matters very much.
Then, of course, Sulphur is one of your most commonly indicated drugs in jaundice of children acute catarrhal jaundice particularly with the marked intolerance that Sulphur has got 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.
And where you have got a Sulphur diarrhoea again you have got an excoriating discharge, you are likely to get redness and rawness all about the buttocks, intense irritation, scratching. You see you have constant characteristics all throughout the Sulphur conditions no matter what they are.
Then you very often get the thin type of Sulphur patients running to acute rheumatic conditions. And again you get the Sulphur characteristics, that is to say you get the irregular sweats, feeling of heat, thirst, red tip to 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 they start to move; and you are very liable to get a red blush of the affected joint; and you are very liable to get a history of the attack having been precipitated by bathing, either seabathing or swimming.
And so on you go; you can go right through the whole dictionary of medicine and you can find Sulphur in all of them, but the Sulphur characteristics have got to be there otherwise it does not fit. .
“What about the desire for fat?”.
That is very variable in children. It is very common in adults; you find practically all adult Sulphurs want fat with hot roast beef for instance, but it is by no means as constant in kids. I have seen a lot who do not like fat; if you get it it is a help, but it is by no means constant so I dont stress it nowadays. A fair number of adults also dont want it.
“What about butter?”.
I dont think butter comes into the fat craving at all, because you get the majority of your Pulsatilla patients with a definite aversion to fat and they like butter and they like cream; the thing that they dislike is meat fat, and particularly hot fat. Quite a number of Pulsatilla patients will eat cold fat, but they will jib from hot fat. But most Pulsatilla patients will take butter, and very often they take it in large quantities.
“Is the tendency to sweating constant in Sulphur?”.
Particularly the fatter type of Sulphur; the thinner ones usually have a dry harsh skin and dont tend to perspire in the same way.
