Tuberculinum
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 2000 Sept / Oct VOL II NO 5.
Dr P I. Tarkas
'Tub

Make-Up: Light, attractive complexion, long eye-lashes and fine hair, blue sclera (Carc), flat narrow chest ('pigeon-breasted'), tall, slim, (due to rapid fat combustion), active, nervous and precocious but physically weak (like Phos) Lax fibre, anaemic, low recuperative power. Susceptible to weather-changes; martyrs to respiratory catarrhs; takes cold easily without knowing how or where, every time one takes in a breath of cold air; there is hardly a respite between two attacks; travels from place to place in search of a congenial spot.

Lowered vitality, increasing general exhaustion; always so tired, any movement causes an intense fatigue; averse to any work, an undertaking is a far cry.
Rapid and complete physical break-down without any apparent cause, but generally after acute infections as pneumonia, influenza, no signs of vital reaction, declining, a running down without finding the right relief, or at best but temporary, in spite of well-selected remedies and best attention which fail to impress; they simply do a lip-service, without touching the deep-rooted dyscrasia and chronicity.

Persons with history of: pneumonia, pleurisy, whooping cough, diphtheria, tonsillitis, otitis, measles, influenza or typhoid (cp. Strept, Carc); or those having aches and pains in damp change or rainy weather (like Dulc), or during storms; but also occasionally persons who are better during damp and worse during dry (esp cold) weather. Inherited phthisis -the main causes; a manifestation of tubercular taint or a tuberculinique state.

Children: Dwarfish, puny and sickly; flat - chested; teeth notches or rudimentary; nails concave, spotted; scrofulous adenomas; mentally underdeveloped (but more intelligent than Bac children), irascible and headstrong; desire to break things; destructive; prone to brain troubles (Bac respiratory); grind teeth in sleep, drum-bellied and diarrheic; dentition delayed; cry out or talk in sleep; dark hair along the spine.

Nerves:
Pains: Sore bruised feeling all over body (worse in damp cold stormy weather); with aching and weariness in morning on waking. After suppressed eruptions, warts etc. Worse from discharges: more menstrual flow or sweat, more pain (like Cimi, Puls; unlike Lach, Sep, Zinc) or no pain no flow. Appear and disappear suddenly. Intense neuralgias; neuritis of influenza or diabetes. Tension throughout body, a nervous tension. Troubles after suppressed pains (Sep).

Menacing nervous disturbances (even when looking quite well). Various nervous conditions; psychoneurosis, & troubles there-from: gastric, diabetes, from any severe suffering or even from a bath; always a sensation of fatigue and faintness. Adynamia, exhaustion, collapse after prolonged suffering esp cerebral, in those with a tubercular heredity. Trembling. Formications.

Globus hystericus; conversion hysterias (nausea, vomiting etc). Epilepsy. Stupefying headache before convulsion.
Paralysis. Poliomyelitis is probably tubercular, occurring usually after suppressed measles or whooping cough [both of which are tubercular (cp Dros)]; with burning along spine.

Tissues
Emaciation: Sudden, rapid and pronounced, in spite of good appetite; decidedly losing flesh though feeling and eating well; more marked in legs. Rapid metabolism (Fl-ac).
Dropsies: Hydrocephalus. Renal (after Ant-a). Mucous membranes: Catarrhal. Discharges: Greenish; brownish; peculiar fetid body odour.
Glands: Everywhere (lymphatic) enlarged and indurated; cervical, axillary, mesenteric, inguinal, hilar. Cervical adenitis after antibiotics, suppressed otorrhea or gout; with fistulous openings; tuberculous. BCG adenitis. Tabes mesenterica. Mononucleosis: prostration, tension and tenderness in neck, adenitis marked. Thyroid disorders; myxoedema, TB and cretinism (here Bac complemented by Thyr).

Blood: Scurvy. Septic conditions, abscesses; pus greenish, thick, copious. Leucocytosis. ("Leucocytes aid tubercular bacilli" says Bhumanand). Leukemia. Hodgkin's disease.
Bones: Aching. Skull affected. Joints: arthritis; acute arthritic rheumatism. Worse beforea storm. Suppuration; tubercular sinuses in bones; TB of vertebrae after diphtheria. Osteo-myelitis; spinal caries; spina bifida.
Nails: Spotted white (like Sil); concave; hard, dry and brittle; ribbed; corrugated; glossy ("A sure sign of tubercular taint" - P. Sankaran).
Growths: Nodes or benign tumors, in breast.

Malignancies: Cancer sometimes results from maltreated TB. It perhaps involves absorption, while TB involves nutrition and our Tub covers both. Suspicious malignancy after PAS. Leukemia. Bac has been successfully employed in mammary cancer. Also Tub cases: cancer mammae after headaches had ceased; small, hard tuberculous nodules, a superficial string of them extending up to axilla; after Tub burning pains previously suppressed by sedatives reappeared first before cure. Palliated a case of lung cancer with secondary metastasis in brain in a person who had a tendency to take cold and throughout life employed laxatives for his obstipation. Lupus (Tub-k) (on nose). Epithelioma. Various malignant skin affections. Incipient malignancy, burnings, anemia etc. after Radium treatment for (recurrent) septic tonsillitis; pt warm blooded (like Sul but) neat, active, shrewd and jovial, a capable executive, with tendency to take cold, and history of: typhoid, recurring axillary boils (or glands?), brown spots on body, bleeding after tooth extraction, hepatitis (i e multi-infections like Carc).

Peculiar Features

1. Symptoms constantly recurring or relapsing (like Sul or Psor, of which Tub. may be regarded as species), but (unlike Sul or Psor) everytime appearing with a new set of them (different in character and / or location). Every coming back of the case calls for a fresh assessment and another remedy (without however rendering a satisfactory help); e.g. headaches cease and tuberculous growths or wasting appear, colic then wandering pains in body then cough. Symptoms play between lungs, brain, kidneys, liver, stomach or nervous system.
2. Obscure, masked, paucity, unusual or contradictory symptoms: chest symptoms of Stan but with a hopeful cheer. Throat symptoms of Phos but hoarseness better by using voice. Insomnia with sopor. Malaise after bath. Mania with melancholia. More menstrual flow or sweat, more pain (unlike Lach but like Cimi or Puls); like Puls in generals but is more obstinate and wayward. Good health during pregnancy, rapid decline after parturition (lactation or otherwise?).
3. Slight causes bring on troubles: Takes cold from slightest exposure, from slightest change in weather. Anger from slightest provocation. Headache from a little mental work. Menorrhagia from slightest excitement. Frightened from a medical check-up or presence of strangers. Slightest exertion or strain upsets. Tired and faint even from a partial bath. Against both cold and warm bath, can tolerate only a tepid (sponge) bath. (Grave troubles from slight causes: Psor).
4. Allergic: From excessive strain, mental shock or abuse of Penicillin (which is one of the main causes of present-day allergy spurt). It affects the nerves (neuralgias) and the respiratory tract. Helps overcome milk or egg allergy. Neuro-allergic, metabolic skins; allergic dermatitis; a tubercular diathesis also may mask as a skin allergy (Penic, Thyr). Has cured urticaria from hairdyes (Thyr from lip-stick). Hay fever- easy sneezing.
5. Symptoms appear suddenly and disappear suddenly.
6. Longs for open air, wants doors and windows open, or to ride in strong wind (to fight suffocation), provided it is not too cold.
7. Fatigue and sickness in stomach and abdomen.
8. Wakeful all night after a bath, it is so stimulating; also malaise (see 2 and 3).
9. Not recovering after acute infection: temperature persists, sweats, prostration, cough, losing flesh, declining.
10. Frank inflammatory processes (not mere congestions), in brain, nerves, joints, lungs, pleura, appendix (Rhus-t). Viral infections in patients with tubercular taint (Echi, Eucal, Calc-c); progressing even to septic condition (cp. Pyro). Active proliferations occur to an intense degree in edges of existing ulcers and in neighboring glands esp bronchial and mesenteric.

Conclusion: Tub has a sycotic content, being connected with Bry, Nux-v, Penic, Thuja etc. "TB itself is a sycotic disease." ... Gregg. "Tuberculins are sycosis plus psora." Bernoville." TB is psoro-syphillis." J H Allen. Scabies, ringworm, worms, polypi, measles, whooping cough, or insanity is manifestations of a tubercular diathesis. According to Dr M B Desai, Tub serves only to remove the active hindrance (against cure) of tubercular process, it cannot help establish an eliminative process or finally the tissue repair, both of them being signs of a cure; is more useful as an intercurrent. Yet Tub does have a sphere of its own in acute troubles esp., like all polychrests, where the tubercular taint is tangential or nominal and nothing beyond a tendency to take cold could be elicited.

Mind: General nervous diseases. Various psycho - neuroses.
Sensitiveness: every trifle, annoyed if others are not equal to his expectation; nothing pleases or satisfies him; cannot get along with circumstances; nerves on edge (like Med.or Tarent), sensitive to music; to sufferings, even mental changes of others; nervous tremors, a flurried feeling, thrills, everyone appears to be hurrying (Med).

Another facet: foolhardy; wants, or wants to do, something different, behave differently from others, a routine-hater, a non-conformist. Our hippies and the so called fall-outs are glaring instances, with these features, being products of tubercular diathesis, or abuse of narcotics, alcohol, tranquillizers, immunizers and perhaps other drugs too, like antihistamines.

Discrepancy between expectations and reality creating a lot of problems. Wants to do something special, creative, nice, and idealistic; but the anti-rest disposition acts as a hindrance. Irritable, fretful, rude, quarrelsome, sulky; curt; coarse, even wild; unruly; ferocious. Develops acute personal aversions to certain people. Abusive, desire to use foul language, curse and swear (profanity, like Anac, Med). Fits of rage, esp. on waking. Irascible when sick, though amiable when well (like Bell which also is tubercular). Heightened sexual activity.

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