Tuberculinum

Tuberculosis

Tuberculinum koch / T. bovum

In 1882, Robert Koch discovered that a preparation of dead tuberculinum bacillus could be used to prevent and treat tuberculosis (TB). Between 1885 and 1890, Burnett conducted a series of experiments using lung tissue from TB patients and proved the homeopathic remedy, which is used to treat ailments that affect the respiratory tract.

Parts Used

Bacterium.

Uses

People with a marked susceptibility to colds, and in whose family history there is evidence of tuberculosis, allergies, or a chronic respiratory disorder, are helped by this remedy. They may have an inherited weakness in the immune system. Tuberculinum is given mainly for coughs, and fever with night sweats, emaciation, and sharp pains that may be felt through the left upper lung. The lymph glands in the neck are enlarged. Symptoms change and move from one part of the body to another, or start and end abruptly.

Source

Human or animal tuberculous tissue rendered sterile.

Personality profile

Some homeopaths treat Tuberculinum simply as a nosode, to be given when there is a family history of tuberculosis. The mentals of Tuberculinum constitute a personality profile as distinct and specific as any other type, but unfortunately it is poorly understood by the majority of homeopaths, and this is one reason the remedy is used more as a nosode than as a constitutional remedy.

The remedy is made from tuberculous lymph nodes, and as usual there is some correspondence between the origin of the remedy and the characteristics of the patient who needs it, including their personality. The image of the consumptive writer racing against time to complete his work of intellectual romanticism, living off bread, wine and tobacco, poignantly embodies the spirit of Tuberculinum. Tuberculinum individuals have a kind of hunger to experience a great many things in a short period, as if time were really running out for them. They cannot bear a steady routine, unless it is packed with excitement. More than any other type they are subject to that awful feeling that they are missing out, whenever the hectic pace of their life slows down, and they are left without stimulation.

In previous times the tubercular patient lived with his disease for many years, gradually losing strength and drawing closer to a premature death. This long lingering pattern of disease seems to have produced a 'miasm'. In other words, it affected every aspect of the health of the infected person, changing them at a cellular level, producing new characteristics which were then passed on to their children. It is the slow nature of the disease which allows it to create a characteristic and inheritable mental picture. The Tuberculinum individual has inherited from his consumptive ancestors a restless hunger to experience more of life before he expires.

Many Tuberculinums find an outlet for their restlessness through an aggressive pursuit of sports. Tuberculinum's restlessness is not aimless. It is accompanied by a drive for stimulation, which prompts Tuberculinum individuals to aggressively enter into new experiences. Their sporting activities satisfy several needs; the need to remain fit so that they can maintain the hectic pace of their lives, the need for a challenge to stimulate them, and the ever present need of Tuberculinum to play.

Probably the most widely known aspect of Tuberculinum 's restlessness is his desire to travel. Many Tuberculinums do spend years traveling around the world, working as they go. The constant variety of such a shifting lifestyle helps to satisfy their restlessness, and enables them to avoid the boredom that they are otherwise prone to experience when life is too predictable.

Tuberculinum individuals are well suited to a nomadic way of life, since they do not form strong attachments to either places or to people. Their detachment reminds one of Sulphur and Lycopodium, but it is generally greater than that seen in either of these types. Lycopodium is very often highly dependent upon his spouse, both emotionally and practically, and the same can be said for many Sulphur individuals. Tuberculinum is more independent, and very often gives the impression that he needs nobody, at least not emotionally or practically. What he does need is stimulation, and hence he likes to surround himself with interesting people. On his travels he meets many interesting people, and he does not miss them when he moves on, since he does not look back, and there are always more people to get to know. Tuberculinum is not closed like Natrum. He is more like Nux, in that he is open about what he feels, but he tends not to feel much personal attachment. He lives for today, and loves for today, and the devil take the morrow.

The lucky few Tuberculinums find work which allows then to travel and still earn a living doing something interesting. They have the light airy appearance of somebody who floats effortlessly through life, playing instead of working. Unlike Natrum guides and instructors (the other commonly encountered type), the Tuberculinums don't try all that hard to please their clients. They simply play and demonstrate their knowledge and their skills, and they don't concern themselves overmuch with what the client thinks. The only time they may lose their cool is when their clients are late, or don't turn up, or are too slow. Tuberculinum is not a particularly tolerant type, and is more impatient than most.

Most Tuberculinums are not so lucky that they can earn a good living seeing the globe, and many will eventually cease their wanderings when they tire of living close to the bread line, and performing unstimulating casual labour. They will then settle for a while and find a steady well paid job, and a regular partner, but all too often it isn't long before they are restless again, and dreaming of new distractions. Their restlessness can turn to irritability, and a sense of dissatisfaction with everything, until they can bear the stability of their life no longer, and they are on the move again. This restless, nomadic way of life is also seen in most Staphysagrias. There is an important difference between the wandering of Tuberculinum and that of the Staphysagrias. Tuberculinum wanders in search of stimulation, and becomes bored when he is in one place doing the same thing for too long. (Many Tuberculinums can settle, providing their work and their partners are interesting enough.) In contrast, the personality of Tuberculinum is far clearer and less complicated. If he is running away, it is from boredom rather than fear. He is a relatively unemotional type, and is usually very clear-headed, and also confident. Like Nux vomica he goes after what he wants, but unlike Nux he is liable to tire of it quickly when he achieves it.