Constitutional make up part 1

Ft Viral No knowledge is perfect unless it includes an understanding of the origin that is, the beginning, and all man's diseases originate in his constitution, it is necessary that his condition should be known if we wish to know his diseases.
       Dr. Paracelsus.

In our day to day life, we come across children who are different in many ways, that is,  some children are restless, quick and intelligent, some are dull or even idiotic, while some others are suspicious and delight in inflicting pain on others. Again some children are highly susceptible to disease while others are fairly resistant to it. Why does one child suddenly develop dry barking cough on slightest exposure to cold wind or on taking cold water while the other is not the least affected by any weather change or dietetic irregularity ?  We must answer this question before we understand what is to be treated in a child.
Obviously, the child who develops cough,  is susceptible to cold wind and the susceptibility in him is not an overnight phenomenon but it came much before the child gathered the mass of flesh and blood, it lay in the invisible labyrinths of the zygote. The susceptibility became a part of his constitution which he acquired from his parents, grand parents and great grandparents or still in the deeper past. The innocent child must bear the brunt of the evil thought and actions of his ancestors and be a living testimony to the reactions of the actions of his ancestors. He only reveals the hidden and latent imprints of their personality.
Dr Samuel Hahnemann spent precious twenty years of his life to understand the Constitutions and the underlying factors,  which were excited by trifling irregularities in diet and living,  to be aroused to dangerous implications. He called these basic underlying conditions as Miasms. Dr. H. A. Roberts prefers to call them stigma. These are Psora,  Syphilis and Sycosis,  Psora being the oldest and the all pervasive miasm as it started in the form of evil thinking and is the most vicious scourer of the mankind. Syphilis and Sycosis could only come as they had a base of Psora to be grafted on,  and are manifest form of evil actions of man. While these will be discussed in detail later,  it is necessary to understand that the most simple and the most complex disease manifestations are as a result of the individual or combination of these miasms. Therefore,  the most treacherous diseases like cancer,  insanity, leprosy and diabetes attacks only when all the three miasms combine in a man.
Dr. Von Grouvogl,  with a sound knowledge of the human chemistry and chemical interactions, has preferred to group the basic constructions as Carbo nitrogenoid,  oxygenoid,  and hydrogenoid depending upon the excess of the essential elements of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen.
Dr. Venier studied the subtle changes wrought by the miasms in the human body and postulated carbonic, Phosphorica and flourica constitutions. Yet some others have named them as a scrofula, Syphilis and gout. Whatever be the names, the three monsters play on the human mind and the body with the same force and wickedness to cause innumerable maladies regardless of age, sex and creed. Besides, their manifestations are so varied that these seem to be apparently unlinked but these are woven with the same thread. Thus, itch and asthma appear to be two different maladies but are in fact two heads of the same multi headed monster Psora.. But the mother nature is kind as, it reveals the nature of these monsters in the form of signs and symptoms,  exciting factors,  affections of the will and understanding, etc,  which guide as intelligent and perceiving physician to cure these rationally. Besides,  the nature has created the positive counterparts in medicines against the negative forces of disease so that the matching therapeutic tools can vitiate the forces of disease.
The role of a homoeopathician is that of a match maker,  that is,  to match the force of disease with that of the medicine (which should be similar in nature, power and depth) so that these neutralize each other on the dynamic plane.
In order to cure various diseases rationally, it is necessary to understand these devastating forces and to meet them with such dynamic medicinal forces that these can be annihilated rapidly, gently and permanently. In order to understand the nature of the Miasms, the totality of the symptoms provides a strong and unshakable base. As these miasms affect the mind and the physical body in their peculiar manner and in varying degrees, the mental and general symptoms are of great value in arriving at the most appropriate medicine. In children, the disease forces are more pronounced and clear than those in adults. As such it is a lot easier to treat in childhood, which is also the most appropriate period in man's life for constitutional treatment.
Strangely enough, as we find in our day to day practice, a child who needs say L as a constitutional remedy,  will often show all the symptoms of this remedy in various ailments as if the child is proving it in his life. He will suffer from only those maladies which fall into the broad gamut of the remedy which may be a part of the overall disease picture of the miasm.
Until the child receives this remedy, he will continue to be subject to the acute exacerbations and chronic manifestations which flow out from a particular miasm. The subject of the Constitutions,  therefore assumes a great importance. Till the roots of a tree are treated, the removal of the diseased branches appears to be a temporary solution, till the queen white ant is destroyed, the removal of the white Ant hillock is an impossiblity.
Origin of Miasms
While the non venereal miasm psora has its roots in the deep past, the two venereal Miasms namely, syphilis and sycosis are recent origin. The psora represents evil thinking which precedes evil action of impure coition. The latter miasms are,  therefore, of relatively recent origin, though their virulence is increasing with each generation. For instance, during Dr. Hahnemann's time, the sycosis was rare, but it has assumed inestimable proportions in our times and shows predominance of worst criminals which would otherwise be an impossibility if sycosis were not grafted on psora. The psora started as an itch,  which when suppressed assumed various forms from asthma to insanity. The other two miasms show constitutional effects of the suppressed chancer and the gonorrhoeal discharge.
The psoric itches and appears unclean and washed. The syphilitic Ulcerates, and the body structure is changed. The sycotic infiltrates and corroded by its discharges. Again, when suppressed, psora spends its force upon the nervous system largely or upon nerve centers, often producing nervous and mental phenomena of a serious character, all ameliorated when an eruption is thrown upon the skin. The syphilis flies to the meninges of the brain, to the larynx,  throat in general, eyes, bones and periosteum. Sycosis attacks the internal organs,  especially the pelvic and sexual organs in the worst specific forms of inflammation producing hypertrophies, abscesses, cystic degeneration, mucous cysts and when thrown upon the brain it produces headache,  severe acute mania,  central insanity, moral degenerancy,  dishonesty etc. Psora itself is not capable of any structural change in any organ but when combined with any of the venereal miasms manifests dangerous effects. Thus, when it combines with Sycosis, moral degeneration and moral insanity raise their head,  while when all the miasma are combined, the form of malignancy takes hold of the organism.
We therefore have the following four constitutions to understand and treat.
Psoric or carbo nitrogenoid constitution.
Syphilitic or oxygenoid constitution.
Tubercular constitution
Sycotic or hydrogenoid constitution.
The symptoms and signs of the individual unmixed miasms are very clear and can hardly be mistaken by an observant homoeopathician. However, when more than one miasms are present, the preponderance of the symptoms of any one miasm will be found depending upon the nature of the exciting causes, say, Sycosis is aroused before or during a strom or rain.
Psoric or Carbo Nitrogenoid constitution.
Some of the salient features of this constitution are given below. The overall picture of psora should be kept in mind to differentiate it from other miasms or stigma. As psora forms the base, other miasms may be grafted over it and may then classify the symptoms into these Miasmatic divisions. This will not indicate the predominance of any miasm but would also help in assessing the nature of the more troublesome miasm which would be tackled first or a broad based medicine suited for the Miasmatic combination present in a patient should be employed.
The child is chilly and likes warmth, gets easily tired and wants to lie down. Mental and physical exertion prostrates him,
Anxiety,  restlessness, fits,  of anger, intelligence, impatience, fearfulness,  mental activeness, fluen expression owing to rapidly and coherence of thought are important mental symptoms of a psoric child.
Psora by itself cannot produce any structural changes in the organism, it should be combined with syphilis to produce Tubercular diathesis or with Sycosis to cause infiltration and over growths of tissues.
The child has aggravation of all dy from sun rise to sun set, and all pains are better by rest and lying down,
Vertigoes of almost all types and modalities are found in psora. There is aggravation from lying down, motion,  walking, rising from sitting or lying emotional disturbances,  etc, and the child lies down quietly which affords relief.
Headache mostly frontal or temporal coming on in the morning and grows worse as the sun rises and improves with sun set. The headache is better by lying down,  hot applications and rest.
The psoric child is over sensitive to the smell and noise. His senses are acute and he can detect even the faintest smell or whisper. Eyeballs are itching and burning. Intolerance to day light or sunlight. The eyelids are heavy in the morning..
The psoric face is pale and like an inverted pyramid and lips are red and dry. The child looks unclean and unwashed.
The child often complaints of bitter or sweet or sour or the characteristic burnt taste in the mouth.
The psoric child craves sour, sweet and acidic things. In fever, the child craves indigestible things. Often, there is canine hunger or complete anorexia. The child also craves hot food.
There are worm complaints in a psoric child, leading to itching in anus and mind symptoms of fretfulness and irritability,
Stuffy nose and Epistaxis is also found in a psoric child,
The cough is dry and teasing with scanty expectoration without any taste. Short and shallow respiration,
The diarrhoea of a psoric child comes as a result of over eating feels terribly hungry all the time and eats much beyond his capacity. The diarrhoea is usually accompanied by colic and comes in the morning,
In some children,  there is obstinate constipation with small hard stools or there may be alternation of constipation and diarrhoea.,
The child sweats usually on forehead and wets the pillow at night during sleep,  the complaints of grinding the teeth, crying, snoring, constant tossing about from one corner of the bed to the other,  laughing, profuse salivation, etc, are also met with in his constitution. The child may be excessively sleepy,,
Whenever a child gets chill, it results in retention of urine, or sometimes there may be Involuntary urination on coughing or sneezing,,
The skin of a psoric child is dry, rough and dirty, the child hates bathing or washing. There is a tendency to fine dry scales. The scalp is dry and itching with dandruff. A child cannot be comb hair until it is wet or moistened.,,
As a psora produces a number of functional changes in the body it results in numerous deficiency diseases which are reflected in anaemia, poor oxygen circulation, calcium malabsorption, etc,. Hence a psoric child is thin, emaciated and rickety.,,
The child has weak ankle joints and cracking sounds in bones during walking sitting etc,,
For a psoric child, standing is worst position, the child when forced to stand a while would prefer to lean against something.,,
The psoric exacerbation may be aroused by grief, sorrow or fits of anger in a child.,,
The psoric manifestation are ameliorated by the eliminative functions such as diarrhoea, perspiration or a free urination, but not unusual eliminations like nasal discharge,,,
The child is aggravated by excesses of sodium salts like sea salts and is better by ozone and ozonated water and,,
There is unusual suddenness of the acute exacerbations, the child is well one moment and unwell the other moment. The child gets exhausted with the acute attacks and looks terribly ill.