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Syphilinum (Syph.)

Syphilinum (Syph.) appears in 451 rubrics in the Repertory. Of these, 23 are single-remedy rubrics in which only this remedy is listed, and 32 are small rubrics with at most two other remedies. The emphasis lies on Fear and Anxiety, the Children rubrics, Memory, Mistakes and Delusions. The picture is that of a person marked by fear of the night and of the state on waking, whose memory and speech disintegrate, who experiences himself as unrelated to himself and the environment, and who tends toward compulsion, hopelessness and nihilism.

Fear, Night and Control

Fear is the largest theme. Specific are the fear of aggravation on waking, the fear of misfortune at night and the fear of not being able to lie in bed at night. Added are the fear that the door might be locked and the fear of multiple sclerosis and of suffering from exhaustion when walking. Only this remedy has the rubric on checking whether the doors are locked. The fear also touches the body, for the anxiety occurs with emaciation and as panic and is accompanied by fright from pains. The compulsion also shows in the morbid impulse to wash and in the delusion of washing.

Memory, Speech and Learning

Memory shows a rare split: the person remembers everything from before his illness, but not the events of the day and not faces. Aphasia occurs with protruding tongue or with paralysis of the tongue, and the wrong words are used. Learning is difficult in grammar and in mathematics, calculating is slow, and points in time seem far away. A delusion of soon being paralyzed and the delusion of losing consciousness after confusion are added. Likewise listed are Insanity in syphilis, and Despair in syphilitic neuralgia.

Unrelatedness and Hopelessness

The mind is determined by withdrawal. Only this remedy stands in Unrelatedness to oneself and to the environment, in Indifference to the future and in terrible, dreadful Sadness. The small rubrics name a feeling of detachment, of hopelessness, Giving up, Nihilism and the feeling of being far away. Hatred is directed at healthy people. On the side of discharge stand Running amok and a mania in which the person wrings his hands and runs about day and night. Alcoholism is listed as congenital and as hereditary.

Children

Of the rubrics on Children, the specific ones are very drastic: the dwarfish, stunted child, in which a seventeen-year-old looks like a child, and the failure to thrive, in which the child looks like an old man, has not grown, has flaccid limbs and wrinkled skin, and whose skull bones overlapped at birth. Newborns cry constantly, infants immediately after birth.

Summary

The picture of Syphilinum combines nocturnal fear and compulsive control with a disintegration of memory and speech, with unrelatedness and hopelessness, and with severe developmental disorders in children. The single-remedy rubrics on memory, on waking and on unrelatedness are the clearest markers. A king-pin symptom is not identified in the available data.

A reference work for professionals; it does not replace diagnosis or treatment.