The Sulphur individual is not often a suicidal creature, but, if he should contemplate such,it would be the type of idea of a sort of sacrificial death with a philosophical or mystical angle to it that would be considered; a kind of idea of “let me die so that others may be happy”.
The countries east of the Mediterranean, with their mysticism, their philosophy, their customs, fanaticism, their strong, spicy diets, their ability to endure suffering, their religious cults, their dress, etc., all seem to be strongly suggestive of this medicine. As a matter of fact, in some of the mystical cults the intake of Sulphur is recommended, on somewhat similar lines as the eating of arsenical preparations in Styria, for aiding the neophytes in their mystical aspirations.
Probably because Sulphur is such a mental creature with so little regard for the physical, and probably because he is often such a poor digestor of his food, often constipated or diarrhoeic, and often so sensitive to filthy secretions, many belonging to this group are staunch advocates and practitioners of diet reform, vegetarian and fruitarian diets, colonic irrigations, sweat baths, etc. They follow these with fanatic zeal. Often vegetarianism becomes a holy gospel with them, because many Sulphur types have a strong aversion to killing for food or otherwise. During wars many of them will be found amongst the “conscientious objectors” or many of the, will get out of what others consider their duty on grounds none too flattering. Yet when it comes to holding out to the “bitter end” it is most likely the Sulphur type that will be the last man on duty.
Probably also because the poor fellow has an easy sensation of oppression of the chest, suffers perhaps with catarrh and chronic sinusitis, bronchitis or asthma, and has an almost universal “air hunger,” deep breathing exercise may form part of his daily regimen and austerities.
Quite often the Sulphur type degenerates into a lazy loafer, perfectly satisfied to wander from place to place in his dirty rags, unwashed person, long hair and beard, begging for food or one’s money to buy cheap liquor with which to drown his last vestiges of human decency. He is usually the one that spits in disgust when one ignores his plea for alms. This same wanderer sometimes takes on a more virtuous aspect in the person of the itinerant preacher, often not even representing any organized religion, and often equally grotesquely garbed, but perhaps more presentable otherwise. His begging is perhaps also more aesthetic and in line with his calling, so he is satisfied with silver collections. Many times they are also the founders of new religious sects or cults.
Sometimes Sulphur is quiet and aloof, but more often he is a great talker, often possesses great linguistic abilities, is a master of rhetoric and hyperbole. He is the born teacher and seldom without quite a streak of crude or refined conceit and bombast!.
So much for the mental symptoms of this great remedy.
The next most striking thing about Sulphur is its characteristic affinity for the skin and its typical reactions here, which mostly, combined with its mental symptoms, form the basis for its therapeutic choice.
There are a large number of the entities described under the heading of skin diseases that may at one or other time require Sulphur when indicated by its own unmistakable symptoms. The most important of these are burning, itching and excoriation. These skin conditions may be dry, scaly, cracked, pustular, excoriated, pimples or comedones, worse from warmth, warmth of the bed, in the evening, and worse from washing. Excoriations where the skin makes folds, around the genitalia, the anus, under the arms, etc. Some of the so-called skin allergies are admirably covered by Sulphur.
The typical burning of Sulphur as a general condition runs right through most of its symptomatology. We find burning on the vertex; flushes of heat with burning of the face, ears, neck, in the chest; there may be burning of eyes, burning and excoriation of the lips, tongue, mouth, throat; burning in the stomach, worse about 11 a.m., afternoon or evening. There is burning in the anus, with excoriation and redness, often haemorrhoids; burning of the vagina, or the urethra. Burning of the back, the hands, ad especially the feet, often so bad that they have to be pushed from under the blankets at night to cool off. Another very interesting observation here is that the Sulphur patient will start feeling generally oppressed and suffocated as soon as the feet start to get too hot and burning.
The secretions of Sulphur are usually burning and excoriating. So we have burning urine, burning during passing and burning of the urethra after passage; burning or putrid eructations, sour, very acid; chronic or non-yielding nasal secretions, with burning, or so putrid, that the patient smells it himself. Often one comes across this is old catarrhs or sinus infections. The Sulphur diarrhoea or dysentery is very excoriating and the sensitive anus burns much with the stools, often bloody, mucoid and so malodorous that they disgust the patient himself.
The Sulphur woman frequently suffers much with her menstruation and with leucorrhoea. The discharges may be almost of any description, but the characteristics are acridity, putridity, and often burning and excoriation, with terrible itching of the parts.
It has much perspiration. The hands, the feet, between the toes, under the arms, in the folds, around the genitals, or general sweats, and only too often a very bad odor. Some of these poor people would come into one’s office, and one would still be aware of their odor some time after they had left. Most of them are often aware themselves of their odor. Some will just not care, but some of them are hypersensitive about it and will make a fetish of washing themselves.
This writer once cured a poor school teacher of this condition with Sulphur in high potency, who used to wash herself very frequently, and yet the people with whom she lived could sometimes not stand her body odor.
The urine, often burning and excoriating, is usually increased. It may be useful both in diabetes mellitus and insipidus: “passes large quantities of colourless urine.” This writer has often required Sulphur when there was much mucus in the urine, or pus, a dirty urine, with much urging, and often quite offensive. The desire for urination is very urgent at times. Once in a while it is required for the enuresis of dirty little urchins, who do not like to wash or be washed.
In the lungs we have excessive secretions of mucus with much rattling oppression of the chest with difficult breathing, heaviness of a weight on the chest. Often in advanced chest conditions there is effusion into the pleurae.
These inflammatory exudates are not only encountered in the chest, but also the brain, the joint spaces, the bursae, or even general anasarca.
From the ears there is a stinking discharge, usually worse from the right ear, which may be thin or purulent, with deafness and tinnitus, a whizzing or singing in the ears, which, in my own experience, is worse in the right ear. Here it often aids the action of Silica.
Under the tissue reactions we often find pre-cancerous states, usually from terminal indurations or congestions, where the vital functions have been too sluggish to bring about complete resorption. Fibroids and other malignant or benign neoplasms often start from just such foci.
Sulphur is very often required to stimulate reactivity. The tissue is in such a poor state of irritability that apparently well-indicated remedies fail to react. After Sulphur there is reaction and these same remedies will act better or longer or complete the case.
There are sometimes warts, perhaps small, itchy little warts, on the hands, or elsewhere on the body in the typical Sulphur case cured by this remedy.
In the back there is pain, pain usually worse from standing, a sort of tired aching, that makes the patient want to slouch down in an easy chair. This is often expressed as a heaviness with aching, worse from standing. Pain in the left shoulder, extending towards the cardiac region.
It is a weary ache, never, in my own experience, very sharp, but quite troublesome. This symptom, as well as the backache, and also stiffness and aching of the knees, arms and hands, with itching around the ankles, the hands, palms, wrists, fingers, were rather prominently developed in this writer under a personal proving. Of these, however, I found that the backache and pain in the left shoulder were rather constant symptoms of this remedy. Something else here of interest is that Sulphur is generally depicted as being stoop-shouldered, but perhaps this symptom is easily explainable if all Sulphur patients have the same relief for the spinal aches from stooping as I experienced personally.
It often cures neuralgic pains mostly occurring in the face, which may recur daily, as after malaria; or prosopalgia with tearing, drawing or pressive pains about the eyes, temples, over the eyes, worse left and often with very constant twitching of the upper lid of the same eye. This causes the eye to be rubbed frequently and may give it a red, bleary appearance. There are also stitches in the right eye, worse in the evening.
