Symptoms
1. Scrofulous, plethoric persons with very red lips; subject to skin eruptions esp. acne; hasty in temper and motion; often untidy and dirty- “ragged philosopher”-spare, stoop-shoulder-ed, slack, shiftless, sensitive, sedentary. Emaciated children with big bellies, intolerant of bathing and covering; often dirty habits.
2. Mental and physical inertia; selfish, self-important, obstinate; chronic grumbler; melancholy yet often full of daydreams (even illusions) producing a foolish kind of happiness; lack of concentration; weak memory esp. for names and recent events; oversensitiveness to bad odour.
3. Burnings everywhere, esp. vertex, palms and soles at night; puts feet out of bed; (>) cold.
4. All discharges burnings, excoriating and generally offensive.
5. Local congestion esp. at climaxis; flashes of heat, faintness followed by sweating (Sepia, Lachesis); often assoc. with sinking, all-gone sensation in the forenoon (Phosphorus, Sepia.).
6. Gastro-intestinal disorders; marked hunger and thirst yet says thin; or drinks much, eats little; much flatulence with borborygmus and emissions of gas; (<) milk; liking for sweet things; usually constipation with piles; stools large and painful (makes child afraid to go to stool); acute attacks of diarrhoea esp. in the morning; urgent, driving out of bed (Aloe.).
7. Skin dirty, diseased; every injury suppurates; eruptions of every kind esp. pustular; (<) warmth, esp. of bed at night, washing; must scratch but leaves burning; boils in crops; chronic ailments with history of suppressed eruptions.
8. Catnap sleep; slightest noise awakens then difficulty in getting to sleep again; sleepy yet always wakes of unrefreshed.
9. Complaints constantly relapsing; also arouses defective reaction esp. in acute diseases; facilitates absorption of serous and inflammatory exudations; when paucity of symptoms often serves to bring out the true drug picture.
10. Modalities; (<) heat (except h/a) must have air yet may be sensitive to cold; (<) warmth of bed; slightest change of temperature esp. skin symptoms; midday and midnight; standing still bathing.
Notes. Chronic of Aconite. Most used remedy in dark-skinned races. Prescribe with caution in phthisical patients. Sulphur and Lycopodium do not follow one another well; remember Sulphur, Calcarea Carb., Lycopodium order.