Bacillinum is the soft door-opener to the tubercular ground: a thin, quick, air-hungry constitution, better for wind and change, worse for confinement and heat, with a history of recurrent chest catarrh that never quite clears, adenoids/tonsils, glue ear, and ringworm—and the night’s confession of sweat and cough. The psychology is not the iconoclasm of Tuberculinum but a restless longing for fresh air, high places, motion, and novelty; in children, bright and mercurial, affectionate yet contrary; in adults, good-natured but internally anxious about health and stamina. The axis of illness is respiratory and glandular: apical tenderness, morning expectoration that relieves, evening flush with quick pulse, night sweats soaking the nape, and a winter history of “bronchitis again.” Each chill reopens the door; each fog, each stuffy classroom, each closed window rekindles oppression until they can get to the window and breathe.

Bacillinum often unlocks stalled cases—when well-chosen remedies for bronchitis, adenoids, or ringworm keep helping but never cure; when there is a family history of chest disease; when the organism shows a pattern of suppression → relapse across skin, ear, and chest. Its action is often preparatory: once the glass ceiling lifts, Calc-phos., Phos., Sil., Sulph. can build strength, widen chests, harden enamel, and steady sleep. The modalities are pedagogic: better wind/open air, change, motion; worse heat, fog, closed rooms, after first lying down; the chronology is likewise: evening heat, after-midnight sweat, morning cough with plugs—then relief. Recognising this clock and climate is as important as counting coughs.

Clinically it excels post-pneumonic weakness, post-measles/pertussis chest, and the adenoid–ear–ringworm child with a narrow chest, thin limbs, sweaty head, and dreams of travelling—who stands at the window by choice. Where Phosphorus bleeds and glows, Bacillinum breathes and clears; where Tuberculinum rebels, Bacillinum wanders; where Psorinum shivers in filth, Bacillinum seeks the hill-top wind. Used with tact and sequence, it speaks gently to the terrain that underlies a thousand winter colds. [Burnett], [Clarke], [Tyler], [Kent], [Boericke], [Boger]

The essence of Bacillus No. 10 is the burdened organism whose inner terrain has become a fermenting, congested swamp rather than a flowing, clear river. The patient carries a chronic load of intestinal toxicity and dysbiosis that seeps into every system: mind, skin, joints, immune system and endocrine balance. They are often conscientious, responsible and over-extended, pushing themselves through fatigue, while their gut quietly rebels with bloating, irregular stools and food sensitivities.

At a psychological level, there is a tone of anxiety and over-responsibility. These are not flamboyant, dramatic characters; rather, they worry quietly, carry family burdens, and feel guilty when they cannot meet their own high standards. They are sensitive to criticism, particularly about their performance or reliability, yet they may become irritable and snappish under stress, especially when bowels are upset or sleep is poor. Health anxieties centre on the gut (“I am afraid of cancer, obstruction, something lurking inside”), on hygiene, odours and public embarrassment.

Physically, the picture is dominated by irritable bowel with alternation of constipation and diarrhoea, associated with food triggers, antibiotics, infections and stress. The abdomen is noisy and gassy; there is much rumbling and fermentation, often more in the evening after meals. Stools are variable: some days hard and difficult to expel, others loose, offensive, sometimes urgent. Anal itching, haemorrhoids and a constant sense of incomplete evacuation keep the gut in the patient’s mind.

The skin is the second great outlet: eczema, psoriasis, urticaria, chronic itching and sensitivity to detergents, wool and certain foods. The skin eruptions wax and wane with bowel function and diet; suppressing them drives symptoms inward, perhaps into joints or nervous system. Joints often ache, particularly in small joints and weight-bearing joints; morning stiffness improves somewhat with movement but easily returns after exertion. In some, a psoriatic arthritis picture appears, knitting joints firmly into the gut–skin axis.

Miasmatically, Bac-10 sits at the crossroads of sycosis and syphilis, resting on a psoric base. Overgrowth, congestion, thickening and over-production (mucus, polyps, plaques) reflect sycosis; destruction, fissures, auto-immune attacks and chronic inflammation show syphilitic colouring. The psoric contribution is in functional upset, itch, hypersensitivity and the striving for improvement. The terrain is thus not simply “toxic” but deeply patterned by inherited and acquired miasms; bowel bacteria are both mirrors and amplifiers of this pattern.

In practical prescribing, Bacillus No. 10 is rarely chosen solely on mental symptoms. It is indicated when a recognisable bowel nosode pattern is present: long-standing digestive disturbance, history of infections and antibiotics, poor response to polychrests, associated skin and joint pathology, and mental–emotional features of burden, anxiety and mild depressive weariness. The remedy is often used intercurrently rather than continuously, given in medium or high potencies (e.g. 30C, 200C, occasionally 1M) at intervals, with careful observation.

When it is correct, signs appear on multiple planes: bowels become more regular, diet is tolerated with fewer crises, skin begins to clear or flares briefly then settles, joints loosen, energy lifts and the mind becomes clearer and more hopeful. Old symptoms or modalities may reappear briefly, guiding further constitutional prescribing. Bac-10 does not replace constitutional remedies; rather, it opens the case and clears the terrain, making those remedies far more effective.

The essential image of Bacillus No. 7 is the over-worked, over-burdened organism whose reserves have been quietly depleted by infections, drugs and unrelenting demands, leaving a legacy of systemic fatigue, inflammatory arthritis, neuromuscular weakness, low blood pressure and respiratory vulnerability. This is not the explosive, dramatic collapse of an acute poisoning; it is the slow grinding down of vitality, in which the gut flora and immune system are subtly but persistently out of tune.

At the psychological level, the Ba-sv. person is conscientious, dutiful and often self-sacrificing. They take on responsibilities at work, in family and community, rarely saying no until their body forces them. Their anxiety is practical rather than fanciful: fear of not coping, of failing others, of losing their ability to work. They may appear stoical, even cheerful, yet privately feel deeply discouraged by their inability to regain former strength.

Physically, fatigue is the keynote. Walking up stairs, standing in queues or doing household tasks may leave them disproportionally tired. Muscles ache, joints crack and stiffen, particularly in the morning; knees and hips complain, neck and shoulders knot into tense cords. Each infection – especially chest or urinary – takes longer to recover from, leaving them just a little weaker. Low blood pressure contributes to dizziness, faint spells and intolerance of heat and prolonged standing, reinforcing avoidance of activity and further deconditioning.

The gut contributes a rhythm of fullness and constipation rather than violent diarrhoea. Food seems to linger; heavy meals induce a near-sedative effect, with drowsiness and foggy thinking. Constipation, feelings of incomplete evacuation and abdominal distension are common yet rarely dramatic, adding a constant background drag. The intestinal flora behind Ba-sv. – Citrobacter/Enterobacter type – reflects a diffuse, systemic disturbance in the host, with toxins and inflammatory mediators spreading their influence to joints, muscles, endocrine and immune system.

Respiratory involvement appears in asthma and reactive bronchial states, especially after infections and drug treatments. The chest tightens easily, particularly in damp weather, and each cold risks “going to the chest”. The thyroid–adrenal axis is strained: chilliness, weight shifts, hair thinning and poor stress tolerance suggest early hypothyroid or adrenal fatigue states, though laboratory results may be borderline.

Miasmatically, Ba-sv. lies at the sycotic–syphilitic interface on a psoric foundation. Sycotic elements show in chronic inflammatory arthritis, asthma and recurrent infections; syphilitic elements reveal themselves in slowly progressive joint damage, endocrine decline and systemic exhaustion. The psoric drive manifests in the patient’s effort to keep functioning despite these limitations, their itch to improve, their dissatisfaction with hanging on at half capacity.

In differentiation, Ba-sv. must be distinguished from Carbo-veg (acute, life-threatening collapse with air hunger), from Gelsemium (post-acute drooping heaviness), from Sulphur and Calcarea (more explicit constitutional polychrests), and from the other bowel nosodes such as Morgan-pure and Bac-10 (more gut–skin focused) or Proteus (more explosive and neurological). It is chosen when chronic fatigue, inflammatory arthritis, neuromuscular weakness, constipation, low blood pressure and asthma cluster in a history that includes infections, antibiotics and overwork.