“Do you use it for T.B. glands of abdomen .?”.
I have never seen it. Iodine does, but Baryta carb. is the commonest for the cold ones; the hot blooded ones are usually Iodine. Abrotanum is recommended for hydrocele in small children, but I must say I have tried it without any success. I merely give you the things I know; you can dig the rest of the things out of the text-books for yourselves.
No. 5 .
The, the last of the hot-blooded drugs I was to take up was FLUORIC ACID. I think the majority of the Fluoric acid people, both children and adults, that I have seen have been fair haired and fair skinned. And at first sight they are not unlike the Silica children to look at. They are rather thin, under-weight, usually fairly fine, boned, fine skeleton. And they have not unlike the Silica yielding disposition.
But they have none of the Silica irritability, they are very often astonishingly patient, and unlike most of the drugs in the Materia Medica they very often have a strange enjoyment of life, they find, it very pleasant indeed, and quite simple things seem to give them an excessive amount of pleasure. That is their normal peaceful state.
Mentally they are not unlike the Silica kids in that they are very easily tired with mental concentration, they are liable to get headaches of brain fag at school, they are not exceptionally bright as far book work is concerned.
Then the other thing that crops up, and which is very surprising very often in the type of child, and that is that they are liable to get quite unreasoning hatreds of one or other individual in school. It seems to be quite pointless and without reason; a kid who has never offended them, they simply take an absolute loathing to them, and they cant bear them at any price. It is such a weird difference from the ordinary kids make-up that it strikes you whenever you get it. I have met it in adults too.
Then the next thing about them is that, unlike the Silica kids, they are better from physical exertion. Playing games does them good, it wakes them up, they are better for it. The Silica kid will be tried out by it. Then, quite like the Silica kids, they are awfully bad standers, if they are kept standing at school for any length of time they get faint, they get headachy, they get tired out.
Then again unlike the Silica kids, they usually have quite a good appetite, they very often get hungry between meals, and they are very liable to get hunger headaches, with quite a number of these Fluoric acid kids I have told their parents to give them extra food at school inn the middle of the morning because they would finish up the morning with a headache otherwise. They are very liable to wake up hungry in the middle of the night unable to sleep unless they have something to eat, and in spite of the amount of food they put away they are still fairly thin.
But I would not stress the thinness of the Fluoric acid, because I have seen quite a number who were not markedly thin, they werent under-weight, they were small and fine but not definitely under-weight, I mean for the type of child.
Then the next thing about them is that with their big appetites; they have got a desire for highly seasoned food, it doesnt matter very much what it is a long as it has got a strong taste.
They, all the Fluoric acid patients are sensitive to heat; they are worse from hot rooms, they are worse from hot sun, they are worse from too many clothes, they are worse from too many blankets at night. And if you get a Fluoric acid kid coming home from school with a bit of a head, rather a flushed face, feeling horribly hot, it can very often get rid of its headache by sticking its head into a basin of cold water, or even bathing its face with cold water.
Another thing you are constantly told about these Fluoric acid kids is that they are always liable to get a headache if they get at all constipated-unless their bowels are action freely they will get headachy and, of course, in these children you get the typical Fluoric acid headache from being unable to get out of school to pass urine; the kid kept too long in school and not getting out to pass urine will finish up with a headache-and again it is the same type of congestive headache.
Then I have seen one or two of these Fluoric acid who had the fine hair that one associated with the Silica child, but with a tendency to patchy bald areas, without any definite skin disease that I could make out. I think more commonly it was patchy areas of thinning of the hair rather than actual baldness.
Then another thing that one always associates with the Fluoric acid child is a very faulty dentition, very poor enamel of the teeth, liability for the teeth to decay early, and very often they get abscesses at the roots of the teeth; but I have never seen a Fluoric acid child with a really sound dentition.
And associated with that I always couple up the other Fluoric acid characteristic that they always tend to have unhealthy finger nails; brittle, cracked, splintered finger nails.
Then another thing that I always tack on there is that they are very liable to get red, sweaty palms to their hands, and they are very liable to get a very offensive foot sweet, which tends to make the feet hot and sore.
Then there is one other thing that I always look for in the possible Fluoric acid patient, and that is they very often have a dry, red fissured tongue.
I think the majority of these Fluoric acid kids that I have seen have been for either a digestive upset, or a definite tendency to a breakdown at school, or for definite rheumatic conditions. And there is one outstanding point about their digestive upsets; they are liable to get attacks of diarrhoea, they are liable to get upsets they are very may get jaundice; but in all their digestive upsets they are very much aggravated by any hot drinks.
The typical Fluoric acid child with a diarrhea will get a violent attack of diarrhoea after any hot drink, which is very often quite a useful tip to put you on to the Fluoric acid case. And in their acute attacks they are liable to run a fairly high temperature, with a feeling of intense heat, a complete intolerance of any bed clothes at all.
Then in their breakdown at school, I think apart from their headache from concentration, the type of congestive headache which is better from cold bathing, the other one gets pretty constantly is that they are awfully liable to make mistakes in writing, they transpose words, they transpose letters, and they seem the most senseless mistakes; very often the teachers complain that it is pure inattention, the child couldnt ,make that mistake if were paying any attention, and the poor kid cant help it.
Then as regards their rheumatic complaints. You have got the ordinary Fluoric acid temperature aggravation, and the fact that the pains are very much worse if they are keeping still and better by moving about.
Then there is one other symptom that I have quite frequently met with in the Fluoric acid child who is tried out at school, and that is a feeling of numbness in the limbs, either arms or legs, and the old thing about the Fluoric acid numbness is that it isnt a thing that comes on from pressure at all, if the child is still the arms or legs liable to become numb.
Then with their diarrhoeic attacks in Fluoric acid you have always got an irritant diarrhoea, and you are liable to get a good deal of peri-anal irritation, and you may get quite a number of painful peri-anal fissures.
So you see you have really got a hot-blooded Silica, with the amelioration from motion, and with the cheerful outlook instead of the flat, tired outlook of the Silica.
Well, I think that covers the hot-blooded drugs, and we have got two more weeks in which I will try and over the remainder of the drugs we have got, starting with Arsenic as the outstanding nervy drug among children, and then go on to the other of that group.
“The Repertory only gives Fluoric acid for diarrhoea worse from hot drink; are there any other ?”.
Yet, there are quite a number of them. Lycopodium, Argentum nit., Secale, all have pretty violent diarrhoea, and they are all worse from hot drinks.
“If a patient is worse at the seaside for the first week and then better, do you look on that as an aggravation ?” .
Yes, the fact that they have to adjust themselves is a sign of a definite aggravation.
To-day we start on our last lap.
“May I ask a question before you start ? Fluoric acid, I have the impression it is a hot Silica, and would like to ask what differentiates it from Pulsatilla ?”.
Practically always your Pulsatillas are very much heavier in build, they very much less tension about them, they are softer both mentally and physically. You never get the activity in a Pulsatilla that you will get in the Fluoric acid, they have a slower brain, they are much more yielding, much less active. The Pulsatilla patient does get tired out with exertion, and the Fluoric acid patient is rather stimulated by it. The Pulsatilla is aggravated by exposure to cold water, they get chilled; the Fluoric acid will bathe in cold water and it will bring them awake.
