The headache that come on Sundays or when they are away form their usual vocations are usually psoric and syphilitic combinations. Syphilitic headaches are usually worse riding, better by motion, worse by exertion, either mental or physical. They are usually accompanied by a great deal of coldness of the body, sadness and prostration. They are worse by warmth or heat and better by cold applications; worse by quiet rest, by lying down at night and by sleep, and better by nosebleed. (Note the indications for the syphilitic headache as being almost exactly opposite those of the psoric type, which are better by rest, by lying down, better by hot application; the psoric headaches come on in the daytime while the syphilitic are manifest at night.)
Oftentimes the syphilitic patient complains of a band about the head, which is probably due to a slight effusion from the meningeal surfaces. A child with these syphilitic headaches will bore his head into the pillow or roll the head from side to side. Without the antisyphilitic remedy these headaches are not easily amenable to treatment. Some people complain that before these headaches they experience a ravenous hunger; these manifestations are a combination or syphilis and psora.
The syphilitic stigma show many types of vertigo, but especially those at the base of the brain. These may be present also in the sycotic stigma, but they especially apt to be present in the tubercular diathesis, the combination of syphilis and psora. Since both syphilis and psora have marked vertigo, the union of the two stresses this symptoms in a marked degree.
The symptom of high blood pressure is caused, from the structural point of view, by a thickening of the arterial coats or an attack of nephritic obstruction, and is an expression of an actual change of structure in the arterial system. Change of structure does not occur in uncomplicated psora, but when the psoric dyscrasia is combined with the syphilitic, structural changes do take place, and in this manifestation we have an expression of the combination of the two stigmata.
The appearance of people suffering from the syphilitic stigma often tells the story at a glance, for we observe that he head is large and bulging, the hair is moist, gluey, greasy, and with an offensive odour; the hair falls out in bunches, beginning first on the vertex and then on the temples. The hair on the eyebrows and eyelashes falls, and the hair in the beard fall. The hairs in the beard are often in growing, and suppurate; elderly people often complain that the hairs in the eyelashes break and turn inward, causing much irritation in the conjunctiva.
Closer examination shows that in these greatly enlarged heads the sutures are soft; the fontanelles remain open after the normal time of closing, and there is a general hydrocephaloid appearance of the head.
The scalp is moist in general. The scalp perspires and the hair becomes wet; the scalp perspires when they are asleep or when they are awake. The eruptions on the scalp are almost always moist, with thick yellow crusts, from under which thick yellow pus oozes. The eczemas about and behind the ears having thick foetid pus, and the cracks about the ear and in the aural canal, are a grafting of the syphilitic stigma on to the psoric. In the tubercular patient the eruptions on the scalp are worse by bathing.
The eyes are astigmatic, and this syphilitic dyscrasia has deformities of the lens and of the cornea, and all refractory changes are related to this stigma. Remember that syphilis deforms everything; psora alone and by itself never causes deformities, but in the combination of the two we find great many deformities.
Ulceration is the mark of the syphilitic. You will find in these patients ulcerations of the cornea; ulcerations of the lids. A peculiar reaction of these patients is that they are intolerant of artificial light. You will hear them say that they cannot read or work by artificial light. This corresponds with the period of aggravation of the syphilitic miasm.
Ptosis of the lids and the a neuralgias of the eyes and the head come under the syphilitic group. These neuralgias are worse at night and worse from heat.
Discharges from the eyes in these conditions are greenish or greenish-yellow in colour. This is present also in sycotic people, or in people with tubercular troubles. Granulations of the lids, as well as styes, are of the tubercular type.
In babies and children and young people under twenty years of age you often find very widely dilated pupils; this is an indication of the tubercular diathesis.
In tubercularly inclined children you find structural changes in the ear. Everything that attacks, them such as colds or sore throats or any of the so-called acute diseases, shows its relationship to the stigmatic combination by suppurations of the ear. This suppuration, no matter how painful it may be, is the safety-valve of child life. In all of these ear manifestations, the tendency to the night aggravation is very marked; they will be all right during the day, but from sun-down to sun-up the characteristic aggravation shows itself. In every eruptive disease there is an accompaniment of middle ear trouble in these children, and they will continue this process until the antipsoric and antisyphilitic remedies have done their beneficial work.
Very often in these stigmatic complications of the ear there is more or less discharge, and so long as the discharge from the ear continues the patient improves in general health. Sometimes this discharge from the ear continues the patient improves in general health. Sometimes this discharge from the ear will continue for years, and the health will remain fairly good. However, if the discharge is suppressed, the patient’s health suffers greatly.
In appearance, these patients develop very large ears. The lobe of the ear is pale, white and transparent.
In the syphilitic dyscrasia the sense of smell is lost, and the nose bleeds very readily, especially when there is the complication with psora, in the pre-tubercular stage. The pre- tubercular child will have haemorrhages from the nose at the slightest provocation. At the same time they are subject to severe headaches, but the haemorrhages relieve the head symptoms.
Acne indurata of the nose depends upon the union of the psoric and the syphilitic conditions. By many this condition is considered impossible of cure, yet with the knowledge of its stigmatic origin it may be removed and the patient brought to a better state of health.
One of the cardinal signs of the syphilitic taint is the destruction of tissue. This is the only stigma in which the bones of the nose are destroyed. Infants and children who have “snuffles” are manifesting either the syphilitic or sycotic taint. The syphilitic expression in the nose is by many scabs and crusts, which are dark greenish to brown or black. These are not always offensive in odour, but in the tubercular diathesis these manifestations have the odour of old cheese, and there is a thick yellow discharge the drops back into the throat.
In the hay fever type of troubles, which is one of the most troubles conditions we have to deal with, we have as a base the psoric, the syphilitic and the sycotic. The sycotic remains latent during the active period, but will come out later, after proper treatment has been instituted. These cases are always difficult to treat, and still more difficult when serum or vaccine treatment has been given.
In the tubercular diathesis, there are circumscribed red spots on the cheeks of adults or children, before any other manifestations show themselves; these are also hot flushes other than at the climacteric period. The characteristic appearance of the syphilitic stigma is a greyish, greasy face. There are deep fissures, especially in the lips; swelling and oedema of the face in the pre-tubercular patients, in the morning after waking and after a nap. Moles may be a manifestation of either the syphilitic or sycotic symptoms.
In the fevers of the tubercular patient the face is pale, with circumscribed redness on the cheekbones; in the morning the face is intensely pale. The children with ashy grey faces and the appearance of marasmus are basically syphilitic. The syphilitic stigma destroys not only the tissues, but it destroys also the power of the body to assimilate the proper materials from food. On the other hand, the tubercular child may be plump, with a white, clear skin and long, beautiful silky eyelashes. In these children the face and and about the back of the neck perspire freely.
In the mouth we find the characteristic tell-tale of the syphilitic taint, even though the child may appear well otherwise. Pathological and structural changes take place in the dental arch and the teeth come through deformed, irregular in shape and irregular in order of eruption. The teeth often decay before they are entirely through the gums.
These little patients get sick every time a tooth comes, and they are constantly having trouble with one thing after another; persistently taking cold; persistently having upset stomach; exceedingly susceptible to any change in the weather. They have very flabby muscles and they develop large cervical glands. The adenoid tissue is always involved and the enlarged tonsils are a prominent manifestation.
