Actual ulcers occurs in the mouth. Psora never develops ulcers of itself, but the syphilitic taint is very prove to this manifestation. In the tubercular type there is a putrid, sweet taste in the mouth; more of metallic taste in the purely syphilitic dyscrasia; in the union of syphilis and psora we find a saliva that is ropy and viscid with a bloody taste.
The tubercular type of patients have ravenous hunger; hunger immediately after a full meal; hunger at all times; there is no time they cannot eat. There is much craving for unaccountable things, like the craving for acids, for sweets; a longing to chew chalk, lime and pencils; a craving for indigestible things. The carving for salt is particularly noticeable in the tubercular diathesis. It will be noted that here also the psoric influence is strong, in that psora has many cravings, and great hunger.
In these unnatural cravings we have the key to assist many people whom we may consider to lack temperature in eating and drinking. They are particularly prone to crave spirituous liquors and it is the tubercular diathesis which produces the people who are apt to become drunkards, for you must remember that these are the people who bear about with them the combined power of psora and syphilis. By looking well to our indications we can give these people a great deal of help to overcome these unnatural cravings, and at the same time gradually eliminate the stigma.
Disease classification the Syphilitic Stigma Continued
***IT has been said that the patient afflicted with the syphilitic taint suffers from structural changes; yet the emotional sphere in the purely syphilitic patient is not seriously affected. For this reason, in the syphilitic patient we find less subjective symptoms; there is little of the supersensitiveness, and less desires, cravings and longings than in the psoric patient. The syphilitic patient actually suffers much less than the psoric; the mental sphere has not been so much invaded, for the syphilitic stigma is not so thoroughly established through untold centuries of time as the psoric, and because it is not so thoroughly a part of the very essence of man’s spirit we have a far better chance to eradicate the dyscrasia.
The very earmarks of the various stigmata show their respective character. The psoric itches, and appears unclean, unwashed. The syphilitic ulcerate and the bony structure is changed. The sycotic infiltrates and is corroded by its discharges.
Psora is the stigma which shows little on the side of objective symptoms, but expresses itself through the mental and emotional reactions. For this reason the patient of a tubercular diathesis reflects many subjective symptoms in comparison with the purely syphilitic for, as has been pointed out before, the tubercular is the combination of the psoric and syphilitic. In this combination we find all the mental and emotional reactions, the subjective symptoms, of the predominant parent, psora, and the pathological and destructive changes of the younger parent, syphilis.
Syphilis alone has few cravings in the way of food; it is averse to meats, but aside from that negative symptom there is little that we note in the way of appetite. Compare that state with the tubercular cravings, which were pointed out in the last chapter.
The frequent, unsatisfied hunger; the craving for meat and potatoes when nothing else will satisfy; the craving for salt; craving for indigestible things; the inability to assimilate much starch; these marked symptoms of appetite show the psoric parentage of the tubercular diathesis.
In the syphilitic-psoric type we find the changes in the chest wall, which are structural changes is the bone contours. The chest wall is narrow and may be more shallow than normal; even the action of the diaphragm is limited. While there may be no structural changes in the lung itself, there is less air capacity and less residual air in the lung. The very structural changes eventually bring about occlusion of the air cells and the formation of foci, for these people are very poor breathers; the pumping power is so cramped that they are incapable of supplying sufficient oxygen for the body needs. This is shown in the anaemic and chlorotic conditions, as well as in the tubercular. The tuberculosis produces its destruction by first cramping the aeration of the red blood cell through the formation of the bony structure. Because breathing is a difficult process they become averse to fresh air, and will survive for a long time in a close, breathed-over atmosphere.
Long before tuberculosis develops, sometimes even years before, you may notice a symptom of the latent diathesis: on the least exposure to cold the patient develops a deep, hoarse cough. This will be repeated many, many times before there is actual development of the tuberculosis. The purely syphilitic patient has a short, barking cough; this is sometimes true of the early tubercular stages.
The tubercular expectoration is purulent, greenish yellow, often offensive; usually sweetish or salty to his taste. We can usually depend upon the salty or sweetish taste as being a characteristic of this dyscrasia.
There is the everlastingly tired feeling of the tubercular type; (the psoric is always ready to lie down); the tubercular patient is better in the daytime and worse as night comes on, showing the syphilitic influence. The syphilitic patients should be sun- worshippers in type, for they are always better during the daylight hours, and all conditions are worse at night. The tubercular people suffer from neuralgias, prosopalgias, sciaticas, insomnias, hysterias, and all the nervous symptoms peculiar to the diathesis. They may have for years persistent headaches; this may precede the actual tubercular development. Hysterical and other nervous symptoms often precede the tubercular manifestation, and when the lung condition improves the hysteria will return; when the hysteria improves the lung condition takes on renewed activity. Often a severe dysmenorrhoea will stay for a time the disease progress in the lung itself. In other words, the pre-tubercular manifestations are more psoric than syphilitic; but the structure predisposing to develop the lung condition is syphilitic.
When children cry out in their sleep we may take this to be an indication of the tubercular diathesis, which may take on a meningeal form when it develops. Look carefully to all night aggravations, especially in children, to see if they are not pre- tubercular indications.
The tubercular diathesis has many heart symptoms, showing the psoric parentage. There is much palpitation. In the psoric this is due to uterine or gastric irritations and disturbances; in the sycotic patients the heart manifestations are reflexes of rheumatic conditions. In the syphilitic and sycotic stigmata we find little mental disturbance accompanying the heart conditions, even when the conditions are critical; it is the psoric patient who worries about his heart condition and rarely succumbs to it. It is the syphilitic or sycotic patient who may have for years a slight dyspnoea and occasionally slight pains, or perhaps no symptoms at all, but they die suddenly and without warning.
In the tubercular, as in the psoric heart conditions, the patients want to keep still; they are much worse by higher altitudes; cannot climb stairs or ascend hiss; cannot breathe well on ascending; have not the proper amount of room for air. They have difficulty in descending. With this heart condition there is a cyanosis that is often painful. There is a gradual falling away in flesh in these conditions. The syphilitic dropsies and anasarcas are greater than the sycotic.
Lymphatic involvement of the abdomen is of tubercular origin, as are the hernias; the muscles lack tone.
Hereditary syphilitic troubles in children sometimes produce a very watery discharges that almost completely drains the system of its vital fluids and unless promptly corrected death ensues. The cholera infantum types of diarrhoea are syphilitic; we often find tubercular diarrhoeas which simulate the cholera infantum, but they do not as rapidly drain the system. In the tubercular diarrhoeas we find the worse in the night or the early morning, driving the patient out of bed, and worse by cold, showing the syphilitic relationship. The tubercular child often cannot assimilate cows’ milk in any form; the casein has to be modified before it can be digested at all. These are the children who have undigested curds in the loose stool.
There is a close relationship between the ability to take the lime salts from food and these diarrhoea of tubercular children; this is the reason for the difficult and irregular dentition and the craving for the elements which the body needs; they cannot assimilate the necessary elements from their food. The diarrhoeas of the syphilitic child who is strongly tainted with sycosis will probably call for some such remedy as *Croton tig. or *Sarsaparilla.
The tubercular stool is apt to be slimy, bloody, with a musty, mouldy smell; nausea and gagging before stools and prostration with a desire to be left alone after stools. Haemorrhages from the rectum are signposts of tuberculosis, although there are bleeding haemorrhoids in sycosis. Tubercular patients are troubled alternation of symptoms in the tubercular patient may be noted in the alternation of rectal diseases with heart, chest or lung troubles, especially in asthma or respiratory difficulties. Very often, operated or suppressed haemorrhoids will be followed by asthmatic manifestations, often accompanied by heart troubles.
