Calcarea carbonica
Alias: Calc., Calcarea ostrearum, Ostrearum
Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica, William Boericke
Carbonate of Lime (CALCAREA CARBONICA - OSTREARUM)
This great Hahnemannian anti-psoric is a constitutional remedy par excellence. Its chief action is centered in the vegetative sphere, impaired nutrition being the keynote of its action, the glands, skin, and bones, being instrumental in the changes wrought. Increased local and general perspiration, swelling of glands, scrofulous and rachitic conditions generally offer numerous opportunities for the exhibition of Calcarea. Incipient phthisis (Ars jod; Tuberculin). It covers the tickling cough, fleeting chest pains, nausea, acidity and dislike of fat. Gets out of breath easily. A jaded state, mental or physical, due to overwork. Abscesses in deep muscles; polypi and exostoses. Pituitary and thyroid disfunction.
Raised blood coagulability (Strontium). Is a definite stimulant to the periosteum. Is a haemostatic and gives this power probably to the gelatine injections.
Easy relapses, interrupted convalescence. Persons of scrofulous type, who take cold easily, with increased mucous secretions, children who grow fat, are large-bellied, with large head, pale skin, chalky look, the so-called leuco-phlegmatic temperament; affections caused by working in water. Great sensitiveness to cold; partial sweats. Children crave eggs and eat dirt and other indigestible things; are prone to diarrhoea. Calcarea patient is fat, fair, flabby and perspiring and cold, damp and sour.
Mind.--Apprehensive; worse towards evening; fears loss of reason, misfortune, contagious diseases. Forgetful, confused, low-spirited. Anxiety with palpitation. Obstinacy; slight mental effort produces hot head. Averse to work or exertion.
Head.--Sense of weight on top of head. Headache, with cold hands and feet. Vertigo on ascending, and when turning head. Headache from overlifting, from mental exertion, with nausea. Head feels hot and heavy, with pale face. Icy coldness in, and on the head, especially right side. Open fontanelles; head enlarged; much perspiration, wets the pillow. Itching of the scalp. Scratches head on waking.
Eyes.--Sensitive to light. Lachrymation in open air and early in morning. Spots and ulcers on cornea. Lachrymal ducts closed from exposure to cold. Easy fatigue of eyes. Far sighted. Itching of lids, swollen, scurfy. Chronic dilatation of pupils. Cataract. Dimness of vision, as if looking through a mist. Lachrymal fistula; scrofulous ophthalmia.
Ears.--Throbbing; cracking in ears; stitches; pulsating pain as if something would press out. Deafness from working in water. Polypi which bleed easily. Scrofulous inflammation with muco-purulent otorrhoea, and enlarged glands. Perversions of hearing; hardness of hearing. Eruption on and behind ear (Petrol). Cracking noises in ear. Sensitive to cold about ears and neck.
Nose.--Dry, nostrils sore, ulcerated. Stoppage of nose, also with fetid, yellow discharge. Offensive odor in nose. Polypi; swelling at root of nose. Epistaxis. Coryza. Takes cold at every change of weather. Catarrhal symptoms with hunger; coryza alternates with colic.
Face.--Swelling of upper lip. Pale, with deep-seated eyes, surrounded by dark rings. Crusta lactea; itching, burning after washing. Submaxillary glands swollen. Goitre. Itching of pimples in whiskers. Pain from right mental foramen along lower jaw to ear.
Mouth.--Persistent sour taste. Mouth fills with sour water. Dryness of tongue at night. Bleeding of gums. Difficult and delayed dentition. Teeth ache; excited by current of air, anything cold or hot. Offensive smell from mouth. Burning pain at tip of tongue; worse, anything warm taken into stomach.
Throat.--Swelling of tonsils and submaxillary glands; stitches on swallowing. Hawking-up of mucus. Difficult swallowing. Goitre. Parotid fistula.
Stomach.--Aversion to meat, boiled things; craving for indigestible things-chalk, coal, pencils; also for eggs, salt and sweets. Milk disagrees. Frequent sour eructations; sour vomiting. Dislike of fat. Loss of appetite when overworked. Heartburn and loud belching. Cramps in stomach; worse, pressure, cold water. Ravenous hunger. Swelling over pit of stomach, like a saucer turned bottom up. Repugnance to hot food. Pain in epigastric region to touch. Thirst; longing for cold drinks. Aggravation while eating. Hyperchlorhydria (Phos).
Abdomen.--Sensitive to slightest pressure. Liver region painful when stooping. Cutting in abdomen; swollen abdomen. Incarcerated flatulence. Inguinal and mesenteric glands swollen and painful. Cannot bear tight clothing around the waist. Distention with hardness. Gall-stone colic. Increase of fat in abdomen. Umbilical hernia. Trembling; weakness, as if sprained. Children are late in learning to walk.
Stool.--Crawling and constriction in rectum. Stool large and hard (Bry); whitish, watery, sour. Prolapse ani, and burning, stinging haemorrhoids. Diarrhoea of undigested, food, fetid, with ravenous appetite. Children's diarrhoea. Constipation; stool at first hard, then pasty, then liquid.
Urine.--Dark, brown, sour, fetid, abundant, with white sediment, bloody. Irritable bladder. Enuresis (Use 30th, also Tuberculin. 1 m.).
Male.--Frequent emissions. Increased desire. Semen emitted too soon. Coition followed by weakness and irritability.
Female.--Before menses, headache, colic, chilliness and leucorrhoea. Cutting pains in uterus during menstruation. Menses too early, too profuse, too long, with vertigo, toothache and cold, damp feet; the least excitement causes their return. Uterus easily displaced. Leucorrhoea, milky (Sepia). Burning and itching of parts before and after menstruation; in little girls. Increased sexual desire; easy conception. Hot swelling breasts. Breasts tender and swollen before menses. Milk too abundant; disagreeable to child. Deficient lactation, with distended breasts in lymphatic women. Much sweat about external genitals. Sterility with copious menses. Uterine polypi.
Respiratory.--Tickling cough troublesome at night, dry and free expectoration in morning; cough when playing piano, or by eating. Persistent, irritating cough from arsenical wall paper (Clarke). Extreme dyspnoea. Painless hoarseness; worse in the morning. Expectoration only during the day; thick, yellow, sour mucus. Bloody expectoration; with sour sensation in chest. Suffocating spells; tightness, burning and soreness in chest; worse going upstairs or slightest ascent, must sit down. Sharp pains in chest from before backwards. Chest very sensitive to touch, percussion, or pressure. Longing for fresh air. Scanty, salty expectoration (Lyc).
Heart.--Palpitation at night and after eating. Palpitation with feeling of coldness, with restless oppression of chest; after suppressed eruption.
Back.--Pain as if sprained; can scarcely rise; from overlifting. Pain between shoulder-blades, impeding breathing. Rheumatism in lumbar region; weakness in small of back. Curvature of dorsal vertebrae. Nape of neck stiff and rigid. Renal colic.
Extremities.--Rheumatoid pains, as after exposure to wet. Sharp sticking, as if parts were wrenched or sprained. Cold, damp feet; feel as if damp stockings were worn. Cold knees cramps in calves. Sour foot-sweat. Weakness of extremities. Swelling of joints, especially knee. Burning of soles of feet. Sweat of hands. Arthritic nodosities. Soles of feet raw. Feet feel cold and dead at night. Old sprains. Tearing in muscles.
Sleep.--Ideas crowding in her mind prevent sleep. Horrid visions when opening eyes. Starts at every noise; fears that she will go crazy. Drowsy in early part of evening. Frequent waking at night. Same disagreeable idea always arouses from light slumber. Night terrors (Kali phos). Dreams of the dead.
Fever.--Chill at 2 pm begins internally in stomach region. Fever with sweat. Pulse full and frequent. Chilliness and heat. Partial sweats. Night sweats, especially on head, neck and chest. Hectic fever. Heat at night during menstruation, with restless sleep. Sweat over head in children, so that pillow becomes wet.
Skin.--Unhealthy; readily ulcerating; flaccid. Small wounds do not heal readily. Glands swollen. Nettle rash; better in cold air. Warts on face and hands. Petechial eruptions. Chilblains. Boils.
Modalities.--Worse, from exertion, mental or physical; ascending; cold in every form; water, washing, moist air, wet weather; during full moon; standing. Better, dry climate and weather; lying on painful side. Sneezing (pain in head and nape).
Relationship.--Antidotes: Camph; Ipec; Nit ac; Nux.
Complementary: Bell; Rhus; Lycop; Silica.
Calcar is useful after Sulphur where the pupils remain dilated. When Pulsatilla failed in school girls.
Incompatible: Bry; Sulphur should not be given after Calc.
Compare: Aqua calcar.--Lime-water--(1/2 teaspoonful in milk); (as injection for oxyuris vermicularis), and Calc caust--slaked lime--(pain in back and heels, jaws and malar bones; also symptoms of influenza). Calc brom (removes inflammatory products from uterus; children of lax fiber, nervous and irritable, with gastric and cerebral irritation. Tendency to brain disease. Insomnia and cerebral congestion. Give 1x trituration). Sulph (differs in being worse by heat, hot feet, etc).
Calcar calcinata-Calcined oyster-shell-a remedy for warts. Use 3d trituration. Calcarea ovorum. Ova tosta-Toasted egg-shells--(backache and leucorrhoea. Feeling as if back were broken in two; tired feeling. Also effective in controlling suffering from cancer).
Calcar lactic (anaemias, haemophilia, urticaria, where the coagulability of the blood is diminished; nervous headache with oedema of eyelids, lips or hands; 15 grains three times a day, but low potencies often equally effective).
Calcar lacto-phosph (5 grains 3 times a day in cyclic vomiting and migraine).
Calc mur.--Calcium chloratum-Rademacher's Liquor--(1 part to 2 of distilled water, of which take 15 drops in half a cup of water, five times daily. Boils. Porrigo capitis. Vomiting of all food and drink, with gastric pain. Impetigo, glandular swellings, angioneurotic oedema. Pleurisy with effusion. Eczema in infants).
Calcar picrata, (peri-follicular inflammation; a remedy of prime importance in recurring or chronic boils, particularly when located on parts thinly covered with muscle tissue, as on shinbones, coccyx, auditory canal, dry, scurfy accumulation and exfoliation of epithelial scales, etc, styes, phlyctenules. Use 3x trit).
Compare also with Calcarea: Lycop; Silica; Pulsat; Chamom.
Dose.--Sixth trit. Thirtieth and higher potencies. Should not be repeated too frequently in elderly people.
Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica, James Tyler Kent
If you were about to produce a Calcarea subject to order you could do so by feeding him lime or lime water until the digestive organs were so debilitated that they could no longer digest lime; and then the tissues would be increasingly deprived of what they need, and give us the lime subject, the "bone salt inanition" case, for that is really what it is. Infants that are fed lime water in the milk will in a little while be lime subjects.
They will soon get in such a state that they cannot take the lime from their natural food, and the result will be a Calcarea subject such as we are about to describe.
But the natural cases are those that have a natural sickness, are born so, born with an inability to digest the lime that is in their natural food, and they grow fat and flabby, and produce deficient bones.
There is a greater proportion of cartilaginous material in the bones than lime, and the bones bend, and take on diseases and destructive troubles. Deficient teeth, or no teeth at all. The bones simply stop growing, and the patient goes into marasmus.
What a foolish notion it is to feed that infant lime water because he cannot digest lime! Is it not just as reasonable as anything else in allopathy? And yet our homeopaths use allopathic medicines. They use the lowest potencies they can get and it would seem strange if those substances cured any better in the hands of the homeopath than in the hands of the allopath.
Nor, it is astonishing that one single dose of the potency suitable to meet the state of disorder will make that infant commence to digest its food, and appropriate from its food the lime substance that it needs in its bones, and wherever else it needs it.
All at once the teeth begin to grow; the bones begin to grow, and the legs get stiff enough for him to begin to walk, and they will hold up. It is astonishing what changes will take place under the various medicines that are suitable for the disturbances of the hair, and the bones and nails.
The remedy must be sufficiently potentized to correspond with the wrong. It certainly must not be crude because the child is already stunted by the crude material. You will see within a month or six weeks after giving a solitary dose of the sufficiently potentized remedy the nails that were corrugated and uneven and spotted and irregular will form a margin and will grow out smooth.
You will see the ugly little crowns upon the teeth, distorted, and black things as they come up out of the gums; but when they have been under the suitable homeopathic remedy you will see them form a margin line, and from there on the teeth look healthy, and from there on the little body of the tooth is smooth and round; just as if that child bad had an impulse to grow better teeth.
That same thing probably takes place where the bones exist. The periosteum takes on healthy work.
This is the Calcarea state when the patient needs lime and he cannot get it because he has been cloyed; or, because he has an indigestion, he is unable to assimilate the lime that is in his food, and it goes through him and does not affect him.
So it is with much of the sickness we have, an inability to extract from the food and assimilate such things as the body needs. Would not anyone be a simpleton to suppose that he had been the cause of the building of a tooth?
You do not build mole hills out of our high potencies; they simply establish a state of order, so that digestion and assimilation go on, order is established and the tissues are improved.
Health comes, beauty, a growth of hair, better skin, better nails.
The Calcarea constitution is what we want to know. We do not need to know that the individual has been poisoned by lime; it is not worth much to know it, because that is not the index to the remedy. If indigestion of lime has been brought about by lime, it may need one of ten other remedies to overcome that indigestion for lime.
It is not always Calcarea that covers the symptoms. The medicine that covers the symptoms is the one that will change the economy from an abnormal to a normal state, and digestion will become orderly, and we will have growth and prosperity in the economy.
Aspect: The Calcarea case is to be known by the symptoms, and not by the fact that the patient has been poisoned by lime; the chances are that those we have to treat have never had any lime. Many of them have never been poisoned by lime but have been unable to assimilate lime from birth.
Calcarea is full of congestions, determination of blood to the head cold feet; hot head; congestion of the chest. Calcarea corresponds in a very high degree to the chlorotic and anaemic, pale and waxy, and in spite of this plump. It has both fat, flabby and pale patients and it has emaciated states, too.
Muscles emaciate. Emaciated about the neck; emaciated about the neck and from there downwards. Anemic conditions; pale, waxy, sickly; pale lips; pale ears; pale fingers; pale and yellowish.
Chlorosis is a word especially relating to the anemia of girls. A large number of remedies is indicated in those conditions, but Calcarea produces the kind of anemia known as chlorosis. It produces most pernicious anemia.
Great relaxation in the tissues everywhere; relaxation of muscles; relaxation of veins; relaxation of the walls of blood-vessels to such a great extent, especially in the lower limbs and anus, that there are marked hemorrhoidal manifestations or marked varicose veins in the legs. Distended veins, burning in these varicose veins. Burning and smarting. Bleeding and oozing. Inflammation and painful swelling of joints.
Glands: Another marked feature running through the remedy is its tendency to attack glands, the glands of the neck, all of the glands of the body, especially the lymphatic glands.
The lymphatic glands in the abdomen become hard, inflamed and sore, like great nodules, like hickory nuts; tubercular. Calcarea is useful in tubercular formations.
Calcareous degenerations, calcareous glands, induration of glands. It is useful in indurations in ulcers, and the base of ulcers, and round about ulcers, hence its wonderful use in palliating and restraining the growth of malignant ulcers, as malignant ulcers always have an indurated base.
Old cancerous ulcers are greatly restrained in their growth, that is, the constitutional state is much improved, the patient himself has more endurance and the ulcers will take on healing. In cancerous affections that would kill in sixteen months the patient will live five years with Calcarea, if Calcarea is indicated.
That is something, and in any times that is all that can be expected in a cancerous growth.
In glandular affections where the glands round about are infiltrated and hard, where there is much burning and stinging pain, where the growth has invaded and appropriated the surrounding tissues so that there are adhesions, matters are serious.
There is malignancy in almost all these cases. They differ entirely from glands that are loose from the skin, glands that roll under the skin, and have no fibrous attachment. Cancerous affections burn and sting. Calcarea cures many tumors, fatty, cystic, if the symptoms agree, so strongly is it related to this building tip process in glands. It builds up glands and bone.
Another thing running through the remedy is a pyoemic state, in which there are abscesses in deep muscles. Abscesses deep in the neck, deep in the thigh, in the abdomen.
You will be astonished to learn that Calcarea will take care of the abscess (when the symptoms agree), and it will not break. I have many times seen an abscess disappear when fluctuation was most positive. I have seen those abscesses disappear when pus was shown to he present by the needle; I have not only seen the abscesses go away, but also the pyoemic state which was prior to it. We have but a few medicines that will do that.
There is something singular about this. Why does Calcarea favor the resorption of that fluid and encourage the part to become calcareous?
It is more than I am able to explain, but it does it when the symptoms agree. But Sulph. and Sil., when their symptoms agree hasten suppuration. But Calcarea has that peculiar action of concentrating and contracting.
One may be indicated in one case, the other may be indicated in the other. There are times when Sil. is indicated and the abscess is in such a dangerous place. Then if Sil. is given the result that naturally belongs to the spreading of that abscess is dangerous; in such an instance the surgeon must be called to drain the abscess in a safe manner, even when we know that if that abscess were located in a safe place, it would be far better for that patient to have the remedy he needs.
Sometimes the periosteum is injured by a hammer striking it through muscles, injuring or contusing the periosteum. Inflammation will set in, pus will form rapidly, and if Calcarea is indicated by the constitution of the patient the surgeon's knife is entirely useless, and a most detrimental thing.
But in thinking from the old standpoint, the physician who knows nothing about Homoeopathy, and the wonders of our homeopathic remedies, would hold up his hands in horror.
"Why, if you produce a resorption of that pus into the system you will have blood poisoning and death."
But under Calcarea this resorption does take place in some manner, and the patient improves every moment, he stops his sweating, his rigor has disappeared, he becomes perfectly comfortable, his appetite improves, he is stronger by the time it is over, and remains well.
Judging from the old standpoint, we cannot conclude anything about the problems that will come up under Homoeopathy. We can only judge from our standpoint, and from what we know.
And if you hear that somebody has tried this and tried that without success, remember that somebody has only demonstrated his own failure. Homoeopathy is capable of demonstrating itself in all intelligent hands; wherever the physician has intelligence and makes use of the law and applies the remedy in accordance with the symptoms he will see the case turn out as described.
Polypi: Another grand feature running through this remedy is its ability to grow polypi. Those who need Calcarea will grow polypi in the nose and ears, in the vagina, in the bladder, and here and there. Cystic growths also and strange little papillomata.
Exostoses: Another strange thing that it does is to cause exostoses. This state of disorder comes from the irregularity in the distribution of the lime. You would think that nature would try to distribute it around evenly where it can do the most good.
But when this bone salt inanition has commenced the lime may be piled up in one place, and almost absent in another. One bone will be cartilaginous and another will have bony growths on it. Softening of the bone.
Defective formation of bone. A keynote has grown out of this, viz:
"Late learning to walk," because the legs are so weak.
It is not late learning to walk, but it is late walking.
It knows how to walk, but it can't walk. Natrum mur. has brain trouble, in which the child is late learning to do things.
"Tardy development of bone tissues. Curvatures."
Muscles flabby, joint affections, like hip-joint disease. It is full of rheumatism. Rheumatic and gouty conditions of the joints.
The Calcarea patient is a chilly patient. Sensitive to the cold air. Sensitive to the raw winds. Sensitive to the coming of a storm; sensitive to the coming of cold weather, and when the weather changes from warm to cold it seems impossible for him to keep warm; he wants the body kept warm.
Head: The head is sometimes congested; and it is hot to the touch; but it often feels cold to him. His scalp feels as if it were cold. But the body is nearly always cold to the touch and he feels cold, and he wants plenty of clothing.
The feet are cold. He sweats in various places, sweats in spots. Sweats upon the forehead, or upon the face, or upon the back of the neck, or the front of the chest, or his feet.
Sensitiveness to cold and weakness run through the remedy. Weakness in the legs. Inability to endure. Worse from every kind of exertion. Out of breath. Fat, flabby anemic subjects, sometimes they look plump, often flushed in the face, but they have no endurance, and if such a patient undertakes a little exertion he is down sick with a fever, or a headache.
Calcarea is full of complaints brought on from lifting, from exertion, from walking, from walking enough to get into a sweat; and these come very suddenly, because he cannot stop that perspiration by keeping still without getting sick.
If he gets into a sweat, and stops long enough to be comfortable, the perspiration will stop so suddenly that he will have a chill, or he will have a headache. Weak, tired, anxious.
Difficulties of breathing. Weak heart. Weak all over. No ability of the muscles to sustain prolonged effort, and it is the same way with the mind. No ability of the mind to sustain prolonged mental effort. Calcarea is a tired patient.
He is suffering from want of lime. He has been unable to digest lime, and he goes into a state with enlarged glands, emaciation of the neck and of the limbs, while the fat and the glands of the belly increase. Especially is this noticed in children. A big bellied child, with emaciated limbs and emaciated neck.
Enlarged glands. Pale, and flabby, and sickly. Those that take on flesh without any increase of strength. They take on flesh and grow flabby. Remain feeble. Those that get up from sickness take on flabby flesh, and in a little while they become dropsical.
The Calcarea patient can't go upstairs; he is so tired in his legs, and so tired in the chest; he pants and suffocates from going upstairs. He has every evidence of muscular weakness and flabbiness. Nutrition is impaired everywhere.
This is the kind of patient that used to be called scrofulous; now we call the condition psora; and Calcarea is one of our deepest anti-psorics. It is a medicine that goes deep into the life, and takes a deep hold of every part of the economy.
Mind: Now we will take up the mental symptoms. All the mind symptoms represent Calcarea as in a state of great weakness; in ability to prolong mental operation.
Becomes very tired from mental work. Full of anxiety. He is tired mentally, and tired physically, from mental work and breaks down in a sweat, and becomes excited and irritable and disturbed. Great disturbance of the emotions; complaints lasting for days and weeks from excitement of the emotions; from worrying, from vexation, or a general emotional disturbance is prostrated.
"Inability to apply himself."
Inability to do good thinking for some time after such excitement, disturbance or worry. It is very useful in complaints from prolonged worry, from prolonged application to business, from excitement.
It is full of a peculiar kind of mental feeling, differing quite considerably from most remedies; he feels his exhaustion of mind, and it seems to him that this weakness, and this inability to do and to think connectedly, must be going towards insanity, he broods over it, he is convinced that he is insane, or about to become insane, that he is getting weak-minded, and he looks it, too, because what he has in his mind is this: that he is becoming insane or weak-minded and he thinks people will observe it.
He thinks people look at him suspiciously, and he looks at them suspiciously, and he wonders why they do not say something to him about it.
He thinks he is going insane, and that other people are observing his state of mind, and he keeps that in his mind most of the time. He thinks of it day-times, and he gets greatly roused up over it; he thinks of it nights, and it keeps him awake.
He lies awake late at night thinking. Calcarea leads to little ideas, that is, it compels the mind to littleness, to little ideas, or to dwell on little things, but his mind, as it were, is forced to dwell upon things that he cannot put aside.
When the Calcarea patient begins to relate to his friends how he feels they all naturally say to him,
'Why don't you put that aside; that doesn't amount to anything,"
but to him it is a big thing, and he cannot put it aside; all these little things combine to convince him that he is going crazy. he cannot calculate, he cannot do deep thinking, he cannot dwell upon deep things; he may have been a philosopher, and he has lost his ability to think out things in philosophy.
He has lost his mental depth. he forms conclusions out of his emotions rather than from his intelligence. He forms conclusions about things as he wants them to be. You would almost think he wants to grow crazy, he keeps talking about it so much.
He is unable to accept any sort of argument, and this grows worse and worse. He is unable to accept the assurance of his physician, in whom he has always had confidence. It is no use, it seems, to try to reason with him; yet he is not so far gone but he can reason about other things except his own mental state.
He imagines things; and the things he imagines you will really wonder at his dwelling upon them so, because they are such little things. And so it is when he goes into insanity, or imbecility, or a general breakdown.
It is a passive state, in which he sits and thinks about his little affairs, and his little things that amount to nothing at all, and he sits and sits, the text says,
"Sits and breaks sticks, or bends pins all day long with his fingers."
Does little things, and in this way he keeps himself busy, wears himself out more and more. Any amount of thinking be comes impossible. It is almost impossible for him to come to a conclusion, for he never figures it twice alike.
He cannot add and subtract even in the simplest forms. Now, he thinks about this matter so much and thinks everybody else is watching him, until finally the instant he closes his eyes he has visions, just as soon as he gets down quiet and thinks
"Now I will go to sleep, I will get rid of all this,"
and he closes his eyes to sleep, then he must get them open as quick as possible, he is in a state of excitement, for he sees horrid little spooks; he cannot keep his mind clear.
He cannot go to sleep because his thoughts trouble him, and he sees all sorts of things. There is no congruity in his mind. We know that strong intelligence puts aside such follies, but these are just the things that Calcarea patients dwell upon.
Talking to himself. He lies in bed, or sits, when be is alone, and carries on a general conversation with every conceivable individual he has had to do with, on every conceivable subject; and it multiplies and it grows, and he imagines it is all real.
We see how far that is removed from the healthy mind, and yet he is not fit for the insane asylum, with all of these strange things, for when he is roused he does carry on a conversation, and he does as ordinary people do.
When he is alone, when he has nobody to talk with him, he does these strange things. He is controlled and dominated when he is in company, to a great extent, and hence these things are not brought out.
He carries out that same idea when he becomes delirious or insane. Picks his fingers, and does all sorts of peculiar little things. Sees visions and faces of persons when eyes are closed.
"Imagines someone is walking beside her."
In the proving of Sil. that was observed very strongly. It has been observed in Petroleum, and in Calcarea. In a perfect state of health, with a strong, vigorous intelligence, it is not likely to be felt, but in nervous people, and especially in women, it is common.
"Mental aberration with horrid visions. Sees dogs crowding around him, fights them off."
Here is a sensation, occurring in nervous women,
"Feels as if she would like to run up and down, and scream."
Feels as if she could not help it, she must scream. That occurs in persons overwrought, dreadfully excited from a loss in the household by death. The mother loses her child, or husband; or a young girl loses her intended. She is broken-hearted, and greatly excited. It is a hysterical state. And yet I have seen the same in men.
I remember one. It came upon him from business cares. He had that same feeling; he would walk up and down the house, he said he felt as if he must fly or jump out of a window, or do some thing. That is analogous to the mental state found in hysteria, or a great state of nervous excitement.
"She thinks and talks of nothing but murder, fire, rats, etc."
That is that same idea of talking about little things and foolish things. Things that are not interesting to anybody, And yet I have seen these things in patients and I would ask them why they did it. It is generally said,
"I tried a good while to stop it, and when I could not I just kept right on at it, for it seemed to do me good."
"She thinks and talks of murder, fire, rats, etc."
Your patient may talk about other foolish things, but it is only to il lustrate the idea that she sits and talks about foolish things, and can not control herself; thinking, thinking, or expressing it, talking, talking, talking.
Violent screaming spells. And then the Calcarea patient will refuse to talk, will say nothing. She may talk to herself when alone, but will decline to enter into conversation, and will sit perfectly silent.
A Calcarea patient sometimes takes an aversion to work, and quits work. He will quit a most thriving business, and go home and do nothing, after being fatigued in carrying on the business until it- reaches a most thriving condition. He says business is not good for him.
He is tired of business, and when he goes to his business again it seems as if it would drive him crazy. He does not want to see it, he does not want to know anything about it.
Of course, you can readily see that it is not so much in the Calcarea patient that he is driven to, weakness and fatigue from distress in business, although it has that, but that which I am speaking about is that he has overworked until he has given out, and right in the midst of his success he quits his business and goes home, and leaves all-it looks just as if he were lazy.
If you look at him you come to the conclusion that he is lazy. Yet it is an insanity; not the laziness that belongs to tramp nature, though that also might be cured many times. He has been industrious, and all at once takes a turn. A great change occurs in the mind, and he takes on symptoms. It is not such persons as were born that way, born lazy, never would work; but those that become lazy.
It is like the symptom in a pious upright man, whose walk and conversation has been upright but all at once he turns and commences to swear. Of course we know that individual is insane. On the other hand, we have patients that have been only ordinarily industrious that develop an insanity for work, and it seems they have ability in that insane industry to work almost night and day; they are up early and late.
It is a sick state. So when we see in the Repertory "Industry" it does not mean an ordinarily industrious state but one that is exaggerated into a symptom. He has become so industrious that he has a mania for work.
"Whimpering. Low-spirited and melancholy."
It is a strange thing to see a bright little girl of 8 or 9 years old taking on sadness, melancholy, and commencing to talk about the future world, and the angels, and that she wants to die and go there, and she is sad, and wants to read the Bible all day.
That is a strange thing; and yet Calcarea has cured that. Ars. has cured that state, and also Lach. They are a little inclined to be precocious, and they have attended the Sunday-school, and they have taken too seriously the things they have learned.
Children sad and unhappy, and old people who take on a loathing of life, become weary of life. That is a good deal like Aurum. In going over Aurum I explained that, and dwelt upon it, that the highest love is the love of life; and when an individual ceases to love his own life, and is weary of it, and loathes it, and wants to die, he is on the border line of insanity.
In fact, that is an insanity of the will. You have only to look with an observing eye to see that one may be insane in the affections, or insane in the intelligence. One may remain quite intact, and the other one be destroyed.
We find in Calcarea both equally disturbed. One patient may be insane in his voluntary system, so that all of his loves are perverted; he has no affection that is like what it used to be, like it was when be was well.
Antipathy to his family or some member of his family.
Or, he may have the affection fairly intact, but no intelligence, and does all sorts of strange things.
He is full of fear.
Weary of life; hopelessness, anxiety. The world is black.
"Fear that something sad or terrible will happen. Fears that she will. lose her reason, or that people will observe her confusion of mind."
"Fear of death; of consumption; of misfortune; of being alone."
Fear abounds, especially when the voluntary system is disturbed. She is startled at every noise. He can't sleep sq that the body rests or the mind rests. He is disturbed in his sleep with horrible dreams. His sleep is a restless one.
"Great anxiety and oppression. Restlessness and palpitation. Despairing; hopeless."
These symptoms have to be coupled and connected with that leucophlegmatic, pale, flabby, sickly individual.
"Child cross and fretful. Easily frightened."
Many complaints after exertion of the mind. Many complaint after excitement, chagrin or fright.
He is so weak in his circulation, so much disturbed in the heart, it palpitates from every excitement. He is out of breath from every physical exertion; and these take part so much in the circulation of blood in the body, have so much to do with circulation of blood in the brain, have so much to do with the intellect, with the sensorium, that we see at once vertigo on almost all occasions, intermingled with all sorts of symptoms.
Fear, anxiety, and vertigo. If his. emotions stir him up he becomes dizzy. From going upstairs the blood mounts to the head, and he becomes dizzy. Confusion of mind and vertigo from mental exertion. If he becomes shocked, or has bad news, or has any mental excitement or chagrin, this vertigo will come out.
Confusion of mind, determination of blood to the head, cold extremities, covered with sweat, with vertigo.
"Vertigo, when climbing into high places;"
that is the effort of going up. The blood rushes to the head and he becomes dizzy.
"On going upstairs or up a hill. On suddenly rising, or turning the head, even when at rest."
Head: One of the most striking symptoms of the head of the Calcarea patient is the sweat, the sweat of the head upon the slightest exertion. He will sweat on the face when he sweats nowhere else, and his head is covered with cold sweat when he is comfortable in other places about the body.
The same thing is true about the feet. When his feet become very cold they will sweat. When they are warm they will sweat. You would naturally think that a person going into a cold room would stop his sweating. But sometimes the Calcarea patient will break out in a sweat, upon the head, and upon the feet, in a cold room,
He sweats upon the forehead, so that every draft of air makes him chilly, and this brings on headache. Coldness of the whole scalp, so he has to wrap up the head. Yet during congestions, the head is hot.
So it has at times great heat in the head. The Calcarea headaches are stupefying, they are benumbing; they bring on confusion of mind.
The Calcarea patient has a catarrh in the nose, with more or less discharge; at his best he has considerable discharge. But he goes into a cold place, the discharge is slacked up, and he gets a headache. Headache over the eyes. Congestion of the head; back of the head.
"Tearing headache above the eyes down to nose," is a strong symptom of Calcarea.
It seems sometimes as if a great wedge were lip in there. This is relieved by very hot applications. It is relieved in the dark; it is aggravated in the daylight. He must go into dark room and lie down for relief.
Sometimes this headache is ameliorated by lying down in the dark. This headache continues to grow worse during the day, until in the evening it becomes so severe that it is at tended with nausea and vomiting.
It is one of the forms of constitutional headache, is a headache that sometimes occurs once in two weeks. Headache every seven days, or headache once in two weeks. Periodical headaches. Sick headache, the old-fashioned American sick-headache.
There is commonly a periodicity belonging to it, of seven to fourteen days, but again, it comes on whenever he is exposed, by riding in the wind, for he is a very chilly patient, if he becomes really chilled or very cold, he gets a headache, a sick-headache.
Then, again, it has pain in the left side of the head. One-sided headache. Headache worse from noise, from talking, but ameliorated in the evening, from lying in the dark. It has headache in the temples, and this headache seems to draw through to the root of the nose.
The headaches from the supraorbital region draw through to the nose. Headaches in the temples seem to produce a feeling of tightness, a feeling of great tension in the forehead. Headaches worse from motion, from walking, from talking.
Most of the Calcarea headaches, as soon as they become severe, are attended with pulsation. The pulsation is so strong that the patient is not satisfied by merely saying it is a pulsation, he describes it as hammering. Most of the pains are pressive or tearing.
"Concussive headaches."
Stitching, pulsating pains in the head, as if it would split. Headaches worse from walking, and from a jar. Sometimes he feels a coldness in the head, it seems as if the cold head is numb, cold as if made of wood. He sometimes feels this numbness, and describes it as if he had a cap, sometimes as if there were a helmet, on the head.
Now, all of these sensations are difficult to describe, but sometimes they are one and the same thing. All the headaches of Calcarea, are more or less congestive. It is a peculiar feature of Calcarea, that the more marked the congestion of internal parts, the colder the surface becomes.
With chest troubles, and stomach troubles, and bowel troubles, the feet and hands become like ice, W covered with sweat; and he lies in bed sometimes with a fever in the rest of his body, and the scalp covered with cold sweat.
That is strange. You cannot account for that by any process of reasoning in pathology, and when a thing is so strange that it cannot be accounted, for, it become very valuable as descriptive of the remedy, and is one that cannot generally be left out when prescribing for a patient.
That is almost a general state, it is so marked. It has burning in the vertex, and this is often present coldness of the forehead, or the whole head may feel cold except a burning spot on the vertex. Calcarea will again have cold head and icy cold feet when walking in cold air or in very cold weather; but as soon as the feet get warm, they go to the other extreme, and burn so that he puts them out of bed.
This has often led inexperienced prescribers to prescribe Sulph., because that is a keynote of Sulph. All keynote prescribers give Sulph. whenever the patient puts the feet out of bed, but a number of remedies have burning feet, hot feet, so we are not limited to Sulph. Calcarea has affections of the bones of the skull, the outer part of the head.
Slow formation of bone. The fontanelles remain open a long time. It has hydrocephalic conditions, effusion in the membranes, and the bones do not grow and keep pace with the growth of the head, and hence the sutures commence to separate and the head grows wider, and larger all the time, with hydrocephalus.
In hydrocephalic children this sweating head is a common feature. The child lies at night upon the pillow, and the sweat pours from the head and wets the pillow all around; especially sweating at night.
In persons suffering from softening of the brain, the pillow is wet all around the head. Children going through difficult dentition have dreadful times in their dreams, they screech out in the night, and the pillow is wet all around their head.
Old plethoric patients, broken down constitutions, fat, flabby, lymphatic patients, with enlarged glands, with sweating of the head, cold sweating of the head. The hair falls out, not in the regular way such as occurs in old ago bit in patches here and there.
You see a bald spot on the side of the head, or the back of the head; a tuft of hair has come out, or in two or three places. Then it has eruptions upon the head and face; eczema that we find in children and infants.
"Thick scabs on the head, with yellow pus."
Eyes: Offensive eruptions. The eye comes in for a share of troubles, and Calcarea is one of the best friends the oculist has, if he knows how to use it. It is not especially suitable for every inflammation, but in those fat, flabby constitutions, where every cold settles in the eyes, and produces an inflammation, and this goes on for a few days, and ulceration begins, then study Calcarea.
Vesicles are formed and break and spread into an ulcer. From exposure of the feet in water, from riding in the wind, from cold, damp weather he gets eye troubles. Ulceration of the cornea. In all of the complaints of the eyes and of the head the photophobia is so marked that the Calcarea subject when he is at all disturbed cannot even stand ordinary light, and to be out in the sunlight is extremely painful, and many times inflammations are started from merely going into a bright sunlight, from steady looking, and from straining the eyes.
All kinds of exertions bring on headaches and eye troubles. Tension, because one muscle is weak. There is a disturbance of accommodation. Worse from every exertion of the eyes; you see that is like its generals, that is, aggravated from exertion.
He cannot endure any prolonged exertion; you see that is just as true of his parts as the whole. You know that reading, writing and looking at one thing all are marked exertions. With Calcarea, the part itself is worse from exertion, and the whole body is worse from exertion.
Calcarea has cured cataract. Calcarea has other disturbances of the eyes, in connection with head troubles, in connection with fevers, and when he is out of sorts from great exertion; he so easily gets into a fidgety state, confusion of mind that is almost a delirium, and on closing the eyes he sees the most horrible visions, specters, ghosts.
Long before any disturbance can be observed in the tissues, or in the retina, or any disturbance of the eye by looking into it with the ophthalmoscope he will complain of seeing smoke, or steam in the air before his field of vision, as if looking through a veil, as if looking through a cloud, all meaning the same thing.
"Dim vision." His vision is weak.
The muscles are weak. He suffers from dim vision, which is going on gradually to blindness as he grows increasingly weak. All of his eye symptoms, and his headaches, and his nervous symptoms arc aggravated from reading, from writing, from looking steadily at one thing.
He is very much exhausted after such an exertion and will have tearing pains over the eyes, behind the eyes in the head. That is a peculiar kind of a headache, such as he is in the habit of having. It may be in any part of head.
Called eye-strain. It is a wonderful remedy for eye-strain (Onosmodium). Calcarea has cured many cases of opacity of the cornea (Bar, iod.). In an old case a cure can never be promised. It is one of the results of disease, and we never know when we are going to remove the results of disease, because the intelligent homeopath never prescribes for the results of disease. He prescribes for the patient. An opacity itself, when it is present, is not a symptom, but a result of disease.
Often when a patient is prescribed for on his general symptoms, such a state of opacity of the cornea will, after a while, begin to pass away. The patient grows better, feels better himself. His symptoms commence to subside, and after the symptoms have subsided pathological conditions will commence to subside.
Do not be discouraged in prescribing if the pathological conditions do not go away; but if all the symptoms of the patient have gone away, and the patient is eating well, and is sleeping well, and doing well, do not feel that it is impossible for that opacity of the cornea to go away, for sometimes it will.
I have known patients to come back, years later, even after I had given them up as cured, as their symptoms had all disappeared, and I was foolish enough to say to the patient,
"Well, I do not suppose this condition will ever go away, but you are all well, there is nothing to prescribe on, there is not much use of your taking any more medicine," but in six months from that time the patient would come back to me and say:
"Doctor, do you suppose the treatment you gave me had anything to do with this trouble going away? It has nearly all disappeared."
I only tell you this to give you an idea how long it takes to restore order, for nature herself to replace the bad tissue and put healthy tissue in that same place, to restore an organ. It takes time, and it is best that we should not be surprised. it may be that the medicine has done all it can do.
Here is another thing I have seen: even when there were no symptoms left, and after waiting a considerable time and there were no symptoms, I have seen another dose of the same medicine that was given on the last symptoms give the patient a great lift, and pathological conditions commence to go way.
So Calcarea is a great friend to the oculist, and every physician ought to be just as good a prescriber as the oculist can be, for he prescribes for the patient. So must the oculist. In prescribing I am in doubt whether there can be any such thing as a specialty, because the homoeopathic physician prescribes for the patient. He prescribes for the patient, whether he has eye disease, or car disease, or throat disease, or lung disease, or liver disease, etc.
Ears: In the ear we have a great deal of trouble. It produces thick yellow discharge from the ears. Cold, chilly weather brings on ear trouble; quite likely from becoming cold or chilled, from an exposure, or from a sudden change of cold damp weather he has additional complaints in the ears.
While he is at his best the idea holds good here as in other catarrhal conditions, there is copious discharge. But from exposure and cold this slacks up a little, and when it does there is a little inflammation, and like enough throbbing, and headache. That occurs every time from exposure.
Whether the catarrh is in the nose, the eyes, or the ears, there will be headache. The Calcarea patient is so easily disturbed from cold weather and exposure, he is so sensitive to the cold, that it is next to impossible for him to dress and protect himself. He is flabby and soft, easily disturbed, sensitive to his surroundings.
If it is an ear trouble, he may have difficult hearing, abscess of the middle ear, catarrh of the Eustachian tubes, etc., but all of these bring on headaches; and around about the ear the glands are all affected.
Nose: The catarrh of the nose is extremely troublesome. Old lingering stubborn catarrhs, with thick yellow discharge; great crusts from the nose. In the morning he blows out enormous blackish, bloody chunks.
He breathes part of the night through the nose, and then his nose clogs up so that he breathes, through the mouth. It has cured a great many times polypi of the nose.
The homeopathic physician, trusting so much to his symptoms, knows so well the remedy after studying the case, that be very likely will prescribe for the patient on the symptoms alone. He says:
This patient needs Calcarea, there is no doubt about it. He prescribes for him and sends him away.
After three or four weeks the patient comes back with a gelatinous looking tough thing on a handkerchief, and says:
"Doctor, look there at what came out of my nose.
Do you suppose your medicine had anything to do with that?"
Perhaps you did not know he had polypus, it does not make any difference, your prescription cannot be any different if he has polypi in the nose, and you do not know it is there; you cannot by any process of torsion remove it before you prescribe, so you will have to leave that torsion to those that do not know about Homoeopathy; and hence the examination is not so important as it is to those who prescribe for the polypi, and forget about the patient.
Affections of the bones of the nose. That is, the catarrhs go on so long, and they are so deep-seated, that the bones of the nose and the cartilage of the nose are infiltrated, any they break down.
Then operators cut out bones, remove cartilage, and perform operations too numerous to mention; and every one must have the same operation; but in order for him to be cured, he must even after that go to an homoeopathic physician. He should first be cured and then if there is anything to be removed let him be operated on.
Face: The face is sickly, cold, covered with sweat. Sweats on the slightest exertion, and sometimes it sweats in the night, on the forehead.
"Cold sweat on the face. Face pale and cachectic," such as we see in advanced cases of cancer, and consumption.
Face sallow, pale, sickly, dropsical. Eruptions on the face. Eruptions about the lips; and the lips are chapped and the mouth is raw. The lips are cracked and bleeding. Painful swelling on the parotid glands; painful swelling of the sub-lingual and sub-maxillary glands.
The glands all take part in the Calcarea troubles.
Throat: Calcarea is a medicine for chronic sore throats. The throat appearance itself is not always sufficient to prescribe on, but the complaints in the throat are those that come on in persons taking cold so frequently that the patient has not time to get over one before be goes into another, and this engrafts upon him a chronic sore throat.
It may in the beginning be a Bell. throat, which is quite likely, but before he gets over it he has taken another cold. Remember that this is a part of the Calcarea patient, that he takes cold so easily; he takes cold from every, draft, from very exposure, and from damp weather.
When getting over a Bell. sore throat - about the time he thinks he is over it he takes a new cold. Perhaps it has been relieved two or three times with Bell., and then it settles down into a chronic state, and there are little red patches, perhaps little ulcers in the throat, this extends all over . It extends to the roof of the mouth, a sore tongue, and a constant dry, choking feeling in the pharynx, covering the tonsils and extending, up into the posterior nares, filling with thick, yellow mucus.
Chronic inflammation. The uvula may be puffed; swollen.
"Parts swollen, red, tumid," but it patches.
The throat very painful on swallowing; dry, choking feeling.
Stomach: The stomach in Calcarea is slow in its action.
"Food taken into the stomach remains."
It does not digest, it turns sour.
"Sour vomiting."
Milk sours. Milk disagrees; the digestion is also slow, feeble. He has a feeling of tumefaction and fullness; enlargement after eat ing; and everything sours in the stomach; everything disorders the stomach.
Weak digestion. The Calcarea patient has a very strong longing for eggs. Little children crave eggs; at every meal they will eat eggs, and eggs, will digest better than anything else. It is very seldom that little children naturally long for eggs; children with cold feet, emaciated extremities, large heads, enlarged abdomen; stomach distended like an inverted saucer, rounded out; bloated abdomen, and slender extremities; cold and sensitive to cold; pale skin; pale, waxy surface.
Then, there is complete loss of appetite, no desire for any kind of food. If any desire at all, it is for eggs. Aversion to meat; aversion to warm food.
This with enlarged glands, with goitre. Flatulency. Sour vomiting; sour diarrhoea; that is, it has a pungent, sour odor, especially in children.
In infants living on milk, the milk passes in an undigested form; the stool is so sour that it is pungent. It excoriates the parts, and keeps the nates raw in infants where the diaper comes in contact with the parts.
There are times when the abdomen is emaciated; the gases go out and the abdomen sometimes becomes flabby; but most of the time it is distended with flatulence. When it is flabby it can be observed that there are nodules in the abdomen.
The lymphatic glands are hard, and sometimes can be felt through the emaciated abdomen. There is a tubercular tendency, and tabes mesenterica is one, of the natural endings of the lime constitution, with this we get the glandular affections of the bowels.
Tubercular deposits in the mesenteric glands. Diarrhoea comes on sour; watery diarrhoea; gradual emaciation, especially of the extremities. Every cold brings on more indigestion, and more sour vomiting.
Diarrhoea that can't be stopped, because every time he gets a cold it renews the diarrhoea. When it, is an acute attack Dulc. often relieves it but when it has recurred several times Dulc. can no longer relieve it and Calcarea then becomes one of the remedies.
Again, it is one of the most useful medicines in old, lingering, stubborn cases of constipation. When there is only a moderate diarrhoea the stool is white; and when this constipation is present, the stool is white, or like chalk.
In infants taking milk you can account for the white or pale stool, because of the milk; but when the patient does not live on milk, and lives on ordinary substances, the stool becomes bileless and is very light colored; is yellow or white; and in the constipation, often the stool is very light colored and hard.
Calcarea has a kind of indigestion, a fermentation that favors the formation of worms, so that Calcarea babies are sometimes wormy.
Pass worms in the stool, and vomit worms. Calcarea so corrects this indigestion, when the symptoms agree, that worms no longer hatch out. The symptoms disappear, and we really wonder what becomes of the worms.
The idea with the homoeopathic physician is not to give vermifuges, but to so correct the digestion that worms will not thrive; and it is true that worms will not thrive in the healthy stomach and intestines. Whether they leave by expulsion or whether they are destroyed, or what becomes of them, I do not know.
To remove them by physicking them out, and by vermifuges, only makes a bad matter worse, because it increases the indigestion, it increases the turmoil. So it is with all worms in the stomach and rectum; all those worms will come if they are favored with just exactly the right kind of fluids to hatch out in.
They come, and they grow. I suppose at least twenty-five times in the last twenty years have I known Calcarea to bring away tape worm, and in most instances I did not know it was present; but I simply prescribed for the patient. I was not aware of its existence. It is so with many remedies, but this more than others.
Genitals: The Calcarea patient is weak sexually, with general relaxation and weakness. Sometimes an inordinate carving, sometimes an overwhelming desire keeps him awake at nights. But weak; weak in this way, that any indulgence is followed by weak back, sweating, weakness in general, so that he is compelled to abstain because of the sufferings.
The woman is affected in a similar way. You need not be surprised, when you hear all of the constitutional weakness, that it is a common, thing for Calcarea women to be sterile. So tired, so relaxed; wholly unfit for reproduction.
And the same as in the male, she suffers from lassitude, swelling, wakefulness, and weakness in general after every coition. The parts feel relaxed. The uterus drags down. Sensation as if parts would be forced out. State of general weakness and general relaxation of the sexual organs of both male and female. Calcarea has a tendency to grow warts and polypoid growths, pedunculated growths, that bleed easily, that are soft and spongy.
The woman flows too much at the menstrual period; too long, and, of course, this naturally brings her around too soon. Often every three weeks, lasting a week, with a copious flow. Menstrual period too soon, lasting too long, and profuse. Calcarea is not always indicated; not unless all of the symptoms go together to make up the Calcarea patient.
Sometimes it may occur to your mind to say, that with five or six key-notes, certainly you would give Calcarea; but suppose you did have five or six key-notes of Calcarea, and the patient should be a Puls. patient, would you expect to cure her with Calcarea?
Suppose the patient always avoided warm things and much clothing, and wanted the cold open air, and still had a dozen key-notes, you would find every time that Calcarea would fail. Unless you combine the particulars with the things that are general, and the generals with the particulars, unless the remedy fits the patient from within out, generally and particularly, a cure need not be expected. That is why I say, do not prescribe on key-notes, but upon the symptoms of the patient.
This great state of relaxation which we always have in every Calcarea patient is also manifested in leucorrhea, copious, thick, constant leucorrhea, discharging day and night. Leucorrhea that is acrid, keeping up an itching, and smarting, and burning,
"Leucorrhoea thick and yellow," from one menstrual period to another, and some times it intermingles with the menstrual flow.
"Vaginal polypi. Burning soreness in the genitals" from leucorrhoea.
"Itching and rawness" from leucorrhoea.
Hemorrhage of the uterus from over-lifting; from excitement; from shocks; from anything that greatly disturbs; from fear, from any great emotion, or from straining the muscles. Such are the conditions of relaxation and weakness. Inability to strain the muscles, or to exert himself mentally or physically.
The complaints of pregnancy are generally those of great relaxation and weakness. Threatened abortion. After delivery, weakness and prostration; sweating. Weakness from nursing.
Voice: The Calcarea voice is that of painless hoarseness. The vocal cords are tired, and cannot endure strain; almost a paralytic weakness. Sometimes a copious flow of mucus from the larynx. Much irritation in the larynx, but weakness. Not that burning and rawness that we find in Bell. and Phos., but painless hoarseness. In Phos. it is painful, in Bell. it is very painful. He cannot speak without pain.
But in Calcarea he wonders why he has so much trouble in the larynx, because he has no feeling in it. This goes on from bad to worse, and with the tubercular tendency, look out for tubercular laryngitis. Given early it may keep off such a tubercular tendency. It has cured tubercular laryngitis.
Much rattling of mucus; rattling breathing; coarse rattling; that is, much mucus in the trachea, in the larynx, in the bronchial tubes, in the chest. Great dyspnoea.
The dyspnoea comes on from going up stairs, from walking against the wind. Anything that bas any exertion in it will bring on the dyspnoea. We find this in asthma, weak heart, weak chest and in threatening phthisis.
That state of the lungs you will know very often by the kind of breathing; because all that are going into phthisis are tired and weak. He is too tired and weak to make any effort at breathing, so that he has difficult in going up stairs, climbing a hill, walking against the wind.
Chest: The chest troubles furnishes one of our best fields for Calcarea.
We having spiting of blood prolonged cough; copious expectoration of thick yellow mucus, or even pus; ulceration, or abscess. Tickling cough. We have, in threatening chest trouble, the beginning emaciation, the pallor, the sensitiveness to cold, changes, and to the cold air and to wet weather and to winds.
He takes colds and they all settle into the chest; gradual emaciation in the limbs; always so tired. It corresponds to just such constitutional weakness as precedes, or is present in the first stages of phthisis. It stops the patient taking cold, which is the very beginning of it. The patient will begin to feel better after taking Calcarea, and it improves his general state, and it will even encyst tubercular deposits.
It turns them from a caseous into a calcareous form, and cysts have been found in the chest long afterwards. Patients have lived a long time and improved, and gone into a general state of health, when quite well advanced with tubercular deposits. Of course, when any person is well into a tubercular condition, it may be expected that he will go.
Do not believe or think favorably of cure for consumption. Every little while we have someone. Coming out with something or other that cures consumption, a new cure.
Every one who know much about the real nature of phthisical conditions, cannot have much confidence in such things, and I certainly lose respect for an individual who has a consumption cure. He must either be crazy or something worse.
Generally he is after the money that may be in it. Hardly any one who knows anything about it can conscientiously present a consumption cure to the world.
To prevent those things is what we want to do, and this is the great sphere of Calcarea. The expectoration is sweetish very often, like Phos. and Stannum. White, yellow, thick.
We might go over all the general symptoms here, the soreness, the tenderness, the kind of pains, the lassitude, and a great many symptoms of that sort, they are too numerous to mention, but they are non descriptive, for the reason that after you get these pains and study them carefully, you are no better off. You must study the constitution of Calcarea, the nature of Calcarea, its character.
There are spine symptom s; plenty' of them. Weak; all degrees of weakness. The Calcarea patient is so weak in the back that he slides down in the chair while sitting; cannot sit right in his chair.
Rests on the back of his head. The back of his chair and the back of his head come in contact. A weak spine, a sensitive spine, and the glands of the neck are swollen. Again, a marked condition of the spine is where the lime element is deficient, and we soon get deformity; curvature.
It may be surprising to you to hear that Calcarea is a great help, and has sometimes cured that without any brace or support whatever, when taken early.
You take infants manifesting a weakness of the spine, let them lie flat on their back in bed, put them on the indicated remedy - it is sometimes Calcarea - and in a little while that knuckling will cease, and the little one will sit up straight.
Such wonderful things occur under the use of Calcarea, when the symptoms agree. In the extremities we have all the rheumatic conditions that it is possible to describe.
Gouty affections of the joints, with enlarged joints; gouty conditions, especially of the small joints, of the toe and finger. Rheumatic complaints of the joints from every exposure, from every change of the weather to cold, especially if it is cold and damp.
The feet are always cold, or cold and damp, except at night in bed after piling clothing upon the feet more than any other part of the body, then the feet begin to get warm, and then they often go to the other extreme and burn; and so they burn at night in bed.
But the feet are so cold that the patient has to put more clothing on the feet than the body will endure. Cold, damp feet. Late walking. Clumsiness; awkwardness; stiffness.
Rheumatic conditions. Stiffness belongs to Calcarea all over. Stiff on beginning to move; stiff at night on rising from a seat. Stiffness in all joints on beginning to move; and if it turns cold or there is a cold rain, the Calcarea patient always suffers; suffers from coldness, stiffness, rheumatism has rheumatism in every cold change in the weather.
The sleep is greatly disturbed. Late going to sleep, sometimes not till 2, 3 or 4 o'clock. Full of ideas; when closing the eyes horrible visions. Grinding the teeth. A child in sleep, chews and swallows and grinds the teeth. Sleeplessness a good part of the night. Cold feet at night in bed.
A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica, John Henry Clarke
Impure Calcium Carbonate. Ca CO3. Including symptoms of Calcarea acetica, and Calcarea ostrearum, a trituration of the middle layer of oyster shells, of both of which Hahnemann made provings. Koch's provings were made from carbonate of lime precipitated from a solution of chalk in hydrochloric acid. Trituration.
Clinical.─Abdomen, large. Acidity. Alcohol, effects of. Anaemia. Ankles, weak. Appetite, depraved. Beard, sycosis of. Bone, disease of. Brachial neuralgia. Breasts, painful. Bronchial glands, affections of. Calculus. Caries. Cataract. Chilblains. Chorea. Cold. Consumption. Corpulency. Coryza. Cough. Coxalgia. Croup. Crusta lactea. Debility. Delirium tremens. Dentition. Diabetes. Diarrhoea. Dropsy. Dyspepsia. Ear, affections of. Epilepsy. Epulis. Eyes, affections of. Fever, intermittent. Fistula. Gall-stones. Glandular swellings. Gleet. Goitre. Gonorrhoea. Gouty swellings. Headache. Hernia. Herpes. Hydrocephalus. Hypochondriasis. Hysteria. Impotence. Joints, affections of. Lactation, defective. Leucocythaemia. Leucorrhoea. Lupus. Masturbation. Melancholia. Menstruation, disorders of. Milk-fever. Miller's phthisis. Miscarriage. Molluscum contagiosum. Naevus. Nervous fever. Neuralgia. Night terrors. Paralysis. Parotitis. Peritonitis. Perspiration. Plethora. Polypus. Pregnancy. Prosopalgia. Psoriasis palmaris. Ranula. Renal colic. Rhagades. Rheumatism. Rickets. Ringworm. Sciatica. Scrofula. Skin, affections of. Sleep, disorders of. Sleeplessness. Smell, disorder of. Spinal affections. Stone-cutter's phthisis. Strains. Sycosis. Sycosis menti. Tabes mesenterica. Tapeworm. Taste, disordered. Teeth, carious. Toothache. Trachea, affections of. Tuberculosis. Tumours. Typhoid. Urticaria. Uterus, affections of. Varices. Vertigo. Walking, late. Warts. Whitlow. Worms.
Characteristics.─Calcarea is one of the greatest monuments of Hahnemann's genius. His method of preparing insoluble substances brought to light in this instance a whole world of therapeutic power formerly unknown. Moreover, Calcarea is one of the polychrest remedies, and ranks with Sulphur and Lycopodium at the head of the antipsorics. It is absolutely essential to a correct appreciation of the homoeopathic materia medica that these three medicines should be thoroughly known, as these are in a sense the standards around which the rest are grouped. All three have a very wide range and deep action. They have many symptoms in common, but Calc. is somewhat sharply distinguished from Sulphur in that it is a chilly remedy, the patient seeking warmth, whilst the Sulphur patient is < by heat, and > by cold. Calc. has cold, clammy feet, "as if there were damp stockings on"; Sulphur has characteristically hot, sweaty feet. The "sinking sensation" common to all three is most marked with Sulphur at 11 a.m., with Lycopod. at 4 p.m., with Calcarea at any time. Calcarea is closely allied to Belladonna, Nux, Puls., and Rhus in its action. It follows well Sulph. and Nit. ac., to both of which it is complementary. It is inimical to Bryonia, and should not be given immediately before or after that medicine. Like many of the other carbonates, Calc. carb. corresponds to persons of soft fibre with tendency to be fat. "This remedy is particularly adapted to the real Leucophlegmatic Constitution. Where we find a large head, large features, pale skin, with a chalky look, and (in infants) open fontanelles, we may think strongly of Calc. c." (Guernsey). The scrofulous constitution embraces a large number of Calcarea's characteristic effects: fat children rather bloated than solid, pale but flushing easily. Fair; slow in movement; of irregular growth, large heads, with wide-open fontanelles; large abdomens; irregular and partial sweats: the head sweats profusely, wetting the pillow for a space around the head; enlarged and hard lymphatic glands. Icy coldness in abdomen. In addition there are night terrors; child wakes at 2 or 3 a.m. screaming, cannot be made to understand, remembers nothing of it in the morning.
Children are slow in teething and walk late. Sourness is one of the characteristic notes of Calc. c.; the body is sour; taste sour; sour stool and urine. All the symptoms are made worse by taking cold. In all cases where there is improper nutrition and imperfect digestion, such as described above, and where there is chilliness, aggravation from contact with water and from cold, cold, clammy feet and sinking sensations, Calcarea will most likely prove the remedy. Calc. also corresponds to ailments following losses of fluids, such as from self abuse; and it corresponds to a form of menorrhagia, the flow being excessive and the intervals shortened. Periods return too soon after excitement. There is often pain in the breasts before the flow commences, as with Conium. But if the menses are scanty or absent, and the Calc. characteristics of chilliness and cold, clammy feet are present, Calc. will still be the remedy. Suppression of menses in women of full habit after working in water. Bearing-down pains. Ovarian or uterine pains, right side, extending down thighs; < on reading or writing (left, Lil. t.). In addition to the cold symptoms there are sensations of heat and burning: heat in and on the vertex. In connection with this the sweat of the head must be remembered. It occurs chiefly on occiput and forehead (that of Sil. is all over). There is > uncovering during the heats (as with Lyc. and unlike Sil.). Burning in soles of feet at night; burning in back of hands. The characteristic Calc. hand is soft, warm, and moist; a boneless hand. Also hands inclined to chap. There are copious night sweats, which may be sour or odourless. Foot-sweat, sour or odourless. The sweats of Calc. give no relief. Bloody sweats. Among other heat symptoms is hot breath, with heat in mouth. Rumination is among the Calc. effects. Nausea after drinking water, even ever so little; but not if iced. The "sinking" sensation of Calc. has some modifications. There is ravenous hunger; hunger and feeling of emptiness immediately after a meal, and in the early morning. If he doesn't have his breakfast at the proper time, a headache comes on. Craving for eggs; for indigestible things, chalk, coal, etc. Nausea when fasting. Sour eructations. Sour diarrhoea. Sour body smell. Milk disagrees; sour vomiting of large curds. Inability to swallow solids. Chronic disease of left tonsil; feeling of lump in left side of throat which he wants to swallow down. Pain from left tonsil to ear. Semilateral swelling of tongue. The prosopalgia of Calc. is > warm fomentations, like Pul. Biliary colic: cutting pain under right scapula running to right hypochondrium and epigastrium. Crawling in rectum as from worms. Burning in rectum. Weight in lower rectum. Stools hard and pasty; like chalk or clay offensive; undigested. Ardor urinae; offensive urine. Impotence penis cold and relaxed. Calcarea is related to the pretubercular stage of phthisis; it is more especially suited to affections of the right apex. Stitching in chest and sides of chest when moving and when lying on affected side. The cough is provoked by going into a cold room; by chilliness. Tickling cough, sensation of feather in throat. I have cured with Calc. a "fat cough"─i.e., a cough with easy expectoration of a little mucus─and an arsenical cough (brought on by sleeping in a room having an arsenical wallpaper) which waked the patient in the middle of the night, causing him to sit up and cough till phlegm was raised. Rattling in the chest; miller's and stone-cutter's phthisis; old suppurating cavities. Swelling of cervical and bronchial glands. Scrofulous glands and scrofulous diseases of bones; spinal curvature; rickets. Swellings; false appearance of fat; milk leg > by elevating the limb, < hanging it down. The same conditions mark the sciatica of Calc., which follows on working in water. Rheumatic and gouty conditions from wetting. Joints crack and crepitate as if dry. The skin is rough and scaly and inclined to chap. Rhagades. Chapped hands. Chilblains from wetting. Eruptions. Cooper has cured with it psoriasis palmaris. Eruption behind right ear. Warts and polypi. Calc. is an eminently sycotic medicine, as the early morning aggravation would indicate.
The mental and nervous systems of Calc. are no less remarkable than the bodily. The Calc. patient is slow in movements (Sul. quick and active). The state of mind is one of apprehension. The patient fears she will lose her reason, or that people will notice her mental confusion. Fears she has some fatal disease, especially heart disease. Shuddering and dread as evening, draws near. Sees visions on closing eyes (hence useful in delirium tremens). Cries out, twitches, grasps at flocks; restless and anxious though unconscious (nervous and typhoid fever); beside herself with anguish; on the borders of acute mania. Evil forebodings; talks of Mice, rats, murders. Forgetful. The epilepsy of Calc. has an aura spreading up from the solar plexus, in which case the convulsion comes on immediately; or it may be like a mouse running on the arm; or it may run down from epigastrium into uterus or limbs. The causes are fright, suppressed eruptions and discharges, sexual excesses. Rush of blood to head; a sensation of something rising up from epigastrium to head is very characteristic. Trembling, twitching; internal trembling sensation on awaking. Fainting, coming on in the street with sensation of something rising from stomach to head. Talking = a feeling of weakness which compels him to desist. Exertion or excitement = exhaustion, though he may feel well before. Ascending = great weakness. Exhaustion in the morning. Vertigo: tendency to fall to left; to either side; backward. Caused by turning head; < looking upward; going (especially running) upstairs. Sensation as if in a dream. Calc. is one of the remedies that has been used for the sensation of levitation. Aversion to darkness. Cloud coming over head. In sleep the mental symptoms come out again: the patient is either abnormally sleepy or sleepless. Wakes 3 a.m., and cannot get to sleep again; tosses about. Horrible phantasms. The child wakes in the night screaming and cannot be pacified; in the morning remembers nothing of it. Chews and swallows in sleep. Frightful dreams of sickness, death, and smell of corpses.
Neuralgias and paralyses are among the Calc. effects. A remarkable case (of Dr. Mayntzer's) improved by Silic. and cured by Calc. is quoted in Hom. League Tract, vol. ii. p. 108. A girl of nineteen had had for some months neuralgic pains in both arms, coming on every evening, lasting all night, and being replaced during the day with sensation of lameness and weakness. Pressure and movements aggravated. Hands trembling, numb, fingers often remained opened out stiff and could not be bent. The Silica symptoms are: "Tearing pains in upper arm. Pain as of dislocation at wrist. Cramp pain and lameness of hand on slight exertion. Gone-to-sleep feeling of hands at night. Numbness and formication of hands. Restlessness and trembling in right arm." The symptoms of Calc. are: "Bruised pain of arms on moving or grasping. Pain as if sprained in wrist, with shooting and tearing in it when moved. Tearing in whole arm, shooting, tearing pain in upper arm and elbow. Nocturnal tearing and drawing in arms. Spasmodic tearing pain on outer side of forearm from elbow to wrist. Cramp in whole of one or other arm. Cramp in hands at night until she rises in morning. Cramp-like contraction of fingers. Pain and weakness of hands; trembling of hands in morning. Weakness and a kind of lameness of arm. Fingers feel furry." Both remedies were given, and great improvement occurred under Silic., but as the pain was not gone the patient took Calc. (which was only to be taken in case of need) on the fifth day. On the sixth day the pain was gone "as if blown away," as the patient expressed it─and no wonder! It would be difficult to find a closer simillimum. The general condition of the patient underwent a complete change for the better at the same time. Both remedies were given in globules of 6th. Dr. Van den Neucker (H. Recorder, 1886, p. 139) once cured a baker of paralysis of both arms with Calc.; and also a case of paralysis with many symptoms of locomotor ataxy in a lymphatic blonde girl of nineteen.
According to Guernsey Calc. is in general a right-side remedy. It affects specially right external head; right eye; right face; right abdominal ring; sexual organs right side; right back; right upper extremities. Left side neck and nape of neck; left chest; left lower extremities. Complaints prevailing in inner parts. Among the sensations of Calc. are: Pain as if the parts would burst, were pressed asunder, were pushed asunder; as if cold, damp stockings were on the feet. Creeping on the limbs like a mouse. Pain as if sprained in outer parts. Sensation of dust in inner parts as the eye, bronchial tubes. Pricking, darting, jerking, trembling; itching > by scratching. It is often indicated in epilepsy, disposition to strain a part by lifting heavy things, pricking corns, polypus, cysts, occurring in leucophlegmatic constitutions. Where a cold wind strikes the body and it immediately runs to the teeth, causing them to ache. Ranula. Flatulence or gurgling in right hypochondrium. Cramp in legs at 3 a.m. Hands chap from hard water.
Alexander Villers cured with Calc. c. 200 in rare doses a case combining many of the features of the remedy. The patient, a lady, aet. 20, very despondent through long-continued depressing circumstances, became very nervous. She was companion to an exceedingly deaf lady, whose voice was high-pitched. This, with the strain on her voice to make herself heard, caused headache through temples > by rapid motion of head. Outdoor exercise was accompanied by hard pressure on chest, which only eructations seemed to relieve. Bowels constipated. Menses every fortnight, with backache and great prostration. Under the remedy, repeated at rare intervals, the menses came on monthly, headache and pressure on chest disappeared.
Among the Conditions of Calc., dread of the open air ranks most prominently; the least cold air goes right through. Great sensitiveness to cold, damp air. Also cannot bear sun. The slightest change <. Dread of bathing and water. There is inclination to stretch and put the shoulders back; but straightening < rheumatism. Calc. is hydrogenoid and sycotic─sensitive to cold and damp and early morning aggravation. Warts and polypi also point to the same constitutional state. The Calc. patient generally feels better when constipated. The diarrhoea of Calc. is generally < in afternoon. There is painless hoarseness < in morning. "The Calc. pains are most generally felt while lying in bed, or while sitting; they are felt in the parts upon which the body has been lying for a time" (Teste). There is < after midnight and in early morning; on awaking. Chill at 2 p.m. In the evening, 6 to 7, there is fever without chill, < from working in water or bathing, < at full moon; at new moon and at solstice. < After eating (smoked meats, milk); when fasting. < By mental exertion (writing). < From pressure of clothes. < From lifting; from stooping. < Walking in open air, cold air, wet weather, to which he is very sensitive. < From letting limbs hang down. In spite of the sensitiveness to cold, cannot bear sun. < From light in general; from looking fixedly at any object; from looking upward; from turning the head. Some symptoms are > inspiring fresh air; and during heat, uncovers. > After breakfast; on rising from drawing up limbs; from loosening garments. > In the dark when lying on the back; after lying down; from rubbing, from scratching; in dry weather; wiping or soothing with the hands; from being touched. Great weakness on ascending, on walking, talking (chests feels weak), or excitement.
Relations.─Antidoted by: Camph., Ip., Nit. ac., Nit. sp. dulc., Nux, Sul. Antidote to: Bism., Chi., Chi. sul., Dig., Mez. (headache), Nit. ac., Phos. Follows well: Cham., Chi., Con., Cup., Nit. ac., Nux, Pul., Sul. (especially if the pupils dilate). Followed well by: Lyc., Nux, Pho., Plat., Sil. Hahnemann says that Calc. must not be given before Nit. ac., or Sul. Complementary: Bell. Incompatible: Bry. Compare: Alum. and Am. mur, (tightness of chest); Arn. (strains, etc.); Arsen. (swollen mesenteric glands). Calcarea ovi testae, Calc. ars., Calc. ph., and other Calcareas. In ardor. urinae (Sep., burning and cutting; Canth., cutting); losses of fluids (Chi., Sul.); left tonsil (Bar. c., Sul., Lach.); nausea when fasting (Pul., Lyc., Sil.); leucorrhoea, acrid or bland (Graph., Sul., Alum.); glandular enlargement; alcohol, effects of (Ars., Chi., Nux, Lach.); acid stomach (Chi., Lyc., Sul., Pul., Rob.); menses too copious and too early (Bell.); one side of tongue (Lauro., Sil., Thu.); waking at 3 a.m. (Bellis, Nux, Kali c., Ars., Sep.); swelling and painfulness of breasts before menses (Con.─Con. is an anti-fat, like Calc., precedes and follows it well; suits well Calc. subjects who have scanty menses, Bell. corresponds otherwise); dread of losing senses (Lyc., Nux, Sul.); levitation, as if raised from the ground (Sil., Can. i., Sticta, Gelsem., Asar., Thu.; Phos. ac. has feeling as if legs were raised above the level of head); prosopalgia > by warm fomentations (Pul.); sinking immediately after meals (Ars., Cin., Lyc., Staph., Ur. n.); cough when eating or in open air Rx. c. (after eating, Nux, Ip.; < change of temperature, Lach.; < current of cold air, Sil., Nat. c.); ravenous hunger (Ars., Calc., Cin., Iod., Sil., Stp.); hot breath (Sul., Rhus); aversion to darkness (Am. m., Carb. a., Stro., Val., Stram.); > uncovering (Aco., Camph., Fer., Iod., Lyc., Pul., Sec., Sul., Ver.); vertigo on turning head or looking up (Pul., looking up; Sul., looking down); vomits milk (Aeth., Ant. c.); tightness of chest (Alum., Am. m.); child chews and swallows in sleep (Amyl., Bry., Ign.); convulsions, scarlatina, headache (Bell.); weak from talking (Cocc., Stan., Sul., Ver.); epilepsy (Cupr.); naevus (Fluor. ac.); diarrhoea, cholera infantum (Ip.); constipation, intertrigo, gout, ophthalmia, gonitis, epilepsy, typhus (Lyc.); intertrigo, etc. (Cham.); canker sores, quinsey, heart, stool, sweat, especially on chest with old people (Merc.─compare the Hydrarg. cum creta of the old school); burning on vertex (Phos., Sul.); rheumatism from damp, ophthalmia, inflamed glands from strains (Rhus─Rhus is a very close analogue of Calc.; Bell., Dulc., Nux, Puls., and Rhus may be regarded as the acute satellites of Calc.); desire to be mesmerised (Phos., Sil.), naevus, mesenteric glands (Sil.); epilepsy, aura of mouse running up arm (Sul.─Sul. should be given first, and if it does not cure, then Calc.); polypus (Teuc.); scarlatina (Zn).; sunstroke and sunheadaches (Aco., Glo., Lach., Lyc., Sul., Nat. c., Nat. m.─headache > by heat of sun, Stro.). Teste puts Calc. in the Pulsatilla group of remedies. He says there is a "sort of negative relation between the symptoms of Merc. sol., or rather between those of Nit. ac. and the symptoms of Calc. This contrast has struck me several times, and it is the most remarkable for this reason, that Nit. ac. is one of the best antidotes to Calc."
Causation.─Alcohol. Cold, moist winds. Excessive venery. Self-abuse. Injury to lower spine. Over-lifting. Strains. Mental strain. Losses of fluids. Suppressed sweat. Suppressed eruption. Suppressed menses. Fright.
SYMPTOMS.
1. Mind.─Melancholy, dejection, and sadness.─Disposition to weep, even about trifles.─Vexation and lamentation, on account of old offences.─Anxiety and anguish, excited by fancies, or frightful stories, also with shuddering and dread during the twilight, or at night.─Excessive anguish, with palpitations of the heart, ebullition of the blood, and shocks in the epigastrium.─Anxious agitation, forbidding rest.─Disposition to take alarm.─Sadness, with heaviness in the limbs.─Apprehensions.─Easily frightened or offended.─Children are self-willed.─Despair in consequence of the impaired condition of the health; or hypochondriacal humour, with fear of being ill or unfortunate, of experiencing sad accidents, of losing the reason, of being infected by contagious diseases.─Discouragement and fear of death.─Impatience, excessive excitability, and excessive liability to mental impressions; the least noise fatigues.─Excessive ill-humour and mischievous inclination, with obstinacy and a disposition to take everything in bad part.─Indifference, apathy, and repugnance to conversation.─Aversion to others.─Solitude is insupportable.─Disgust and aversion to all labour whatever.─Absence of will.─Great weakness of memory and of conception, with difficulty in thinking.─Dizziness of mind.─Tendency to make mistakes in speaking, and to take one word for another.─She fears she will lose her understanding, or that people will observe her confusion of mind.─Loss of sense and errors of imagination.─Delirium with visions of fires, murders, rats and mice.
2. Head.─Head compressed, as if by a vice.─Dizziness after scratching behind the ear; or else, before breakfast, with trembling.─Headache, with empty eructations, and nausea, vertigo; < from mental exertions, stooping, or walking in the open air; > by closing the eyes, and by lying down.─Vertigo, sometimes with obscuration of the eyes, on mounting to a great height, or only a flight of stairs, on walking in the open air, on turning the head briskly, or after a fit of anger.─Vertigo at night, in the evening, or in the morning.─Headache from over-lifting, straining the back, or from having wrapped the head in a handkerchief, or in consequence of a chill.─Headache every morning on waking.─Attacks of semi-lateral headache, with risings and nausea.─Pulsations in the occiput.─Pains in the head, producing giddiness, pressive or pulsative, < esp. by reading, writing, or any other intellectual labour, as well by spirituous drinks, or by stooping.─Fulness and heaviness of the head, esp. of the forehead, with shutting of the eyes, < by movement and physical exertion.─Heat in the vertex.─Pressive pains at the vertex, appearing in the open air.─Tensive and cramp-like pains, with pressure outwards, commencing from the temples and extending to the vertex.─Drawing pains in the right side of the forehead; the part is painful when touched.─Shooting pains in the head.─Piercing in the forehead, as if the head were going to burst.─Pains of hammering in the head, which force the patient to lie down, and which appear esp. after a walk in the open air.─Icy coldness in and on the head, esp. at the r. side, with pale, puffed face.─Congestion in the head.─Congestion of blood to the head, with heat and stupefying headache; with redness of the face and bloatedness; < in the morning when awaking, and from spirituous drinks.─Buzzing and pains in the head, with heat of the cheeks and in the head.─Movement of the brain on walking.─Immense size of the head, with the fontanel open in children.─Sweat on the head (profuse, particularly where it stands out in large, bead-like drops, and in such profusion as to soak the pillow thoroughly; it may run down upon the face and neck) in the evening.─Profuse perspiration, mostly on the back part of the head and on the neck (in the evening).─Strong disposition to take cold through the head.─Scabs on the scalp.─Scaling off of the skin at the scalp (dandriff; milk crust).─Painful sensibility in the roots of the hair.─Falling off of the hair (sides of head─temples).─Tumours and boils in the scalp, which tend to suppuration.
3. Eyes.─Aching in the eyes.─Itching and shooting in the eyes.─Pressure, itching, burning and stinging in the eyes.─Smarting, burning, and incisive pains in the eyes and the eyelids, esp. on reading during the day, or by candle-light.─Sensation of cold in the eyes.─Eyes inflamed, with redness of the sclerotica and abundant secretion of mucus.─Inflammation of the eyes from foreign bodies coming into them; in infants or scrofulous subjects.─Ulcers, spots, and opacity of cornea.─Dimness of the cornea.─Flow of blood from the eyes.─Inflammation and swelling of the corners of the eyes.─Lachrymal suppurating fistula.─Lachrymation, esp. in the open air, or early in the morning.─Quivering in the eyelids.─Red and thick swelling of the eyelids, with abundant secretion of humour and nocturnal agglutination.─Closing of the eyelids in the morning.─Pupils greatly dilated.─Confusion of sight, as if there were a mist, a veil, or down, before the eyes, chiefly on reading, and on observing an object attentively.─Obscuration of the sight on reading, or after a meal.─A dark spot is seen before the eyes, on reading, to accompany the letters.─Great photophobia and dazzling from too strong a light.─Presbyopia.
4. Ears.─Shootings in the ears.─Pulsation, beating, and heat in the ears.─Internal and external inflammation and swelling of the ear.─Purulent discharge from the ears.─Humid eruption upon and behind the ears.─Polypus in the ears.─Humming, buzzing, tingling, or rumbling, sometimes alternately with music, in the ears.─Crackling and detonation in the ears, when swallowing and when chewing.─Sensation, at intervals, of stoppage in the ears, and hardness of hearing.─Hardness of hearing, esp. after the suppression of intermittent fever by Quinine.─Inflammatory swelling of the parotids.
5. Nose.─Inflammation of the nose, with redness and swelling, chiefly at the extremity.─Ulcerated and scabby nostrils.─Epistaxis, chiefly morning and night, sometimes producing fainting.─Fetid smell from the nose.─Sense of smell dull, or exceedingly sensitive.─Painful dryness in the nose.─Obstruction of the nose by yellowish and fetid pus.─Polypus of the nose.─Dry coryza, in the morning, with frequent sneezing.─Excessive fluent coryza.─Coryza, alternately with cutting pains in the abdomen.─Fetid odour before the nose, as if from a dunghill, rotten eggs, or gunpowder.
6. Face.─Yellow colour of the face.─Face pale and hollow, with eyes sunk and surrounded by a livid circle.─Red patches on the cheeks.─Heat, redness, and puffing of the face.─Erysipelas in one cheek.─Ephelis on the cheeks.─Itching and eruption on the face, chiefly on the forehead, in the cheeks, and in the region of the whiskers, sometimes humid and scabby, with burning heat (sycosis menti).─Milk crusts.─Acute pains in the face and the bones of the face.─Swelling of the face without heat.─Pale bloatedness of the face.─Eruptions and scabs on the lips and round the mouth.─Lips cracked.─Swelling of the upper lip.─Ulcerated corners of the mouth.─Fissures in the ulcerated lips.─Attacks of torpor and paleness in the lips, which appear as if dead.─Painful swelling of the sub-maxillary glands.
7. Teeth.─Toothache, aggravated or excited by a current of air, or by cold air, or by taking anything too hot or cold, or by noise, or else during and after the catamenia; the pains are, for the most part, shooting, piercing, contractive, pulsative, or gnawing, and digging, with a sensation as of excoriation.─Toothache at night, as if from congestion of blood.─Sensation of lengthening and loosening of the teeth.─Fetid odour of the teeth.─Painful sensibility of the gums, with shootings.─Difficult dentition.─Ready bleeding and swelling of the gums, with throbbings and pulsations.─Fistulous ulcers in the gums of the lower jaw.
8. Mouth.─Accumulation of mucus in the mouth.─Constant spitting of acid saliva.─Vesicles in the mouth and on the tongue.─Cramp-like contraction of the mouth.─Dryness of the tongue and of the mouth, chiefly at night and in the morning on waking.─Swelling of the tongue, sometimes on one side.─Tongue loaded with a white coating.─Burning and pain as of excoriation on the tongue and in the mouth.─Tongue difficult to move, with embarrassed and indistinct speech.─Ranula under the tongue.
9. Throat.─Sore throat, as if from a plug or a swelling in the gullet.─Constriction in the throat, and cramp-like contraction of the gullet.─Excoriation of the gullet, with shooting and pressure on swallowing.─Inflammatory swelling of the gullet and of the uvula, which are of a deep red colour, and covered with vesicles.─Swelling of the amygdalae, with sensation of contraction in the throat on swallowing.─Affection in the throat after straining the back.─Hawking up of mucus.
10. Appetite.─Unpleasant taste in the mouth, mostly bitter, or sour, or metallic, esp. in the morning.─Insipidity, or sickly or sour taste of food.─Burning or constant thirst, esp. for cold drinks, and often with total absence of appetite.─Continued violent thirst for cold drinks (at night).─Hunger, a short time after having eaten.─Bulimy, generally in the morning.─Prolonged distaste for meat and hot food.─Repugnance to tobacco-smoke; desire for salt things, for wine, and for dainties.─Weakness of digestion.─After having taken milk, nausea or acid regurgitations.─After a meal, heat or inflation of the abdomen, with nausea and headache, pain in the abdomen or in the stomach, or else risings and water-brash, or dejection or drowsiness.─Risings, with taste of undigested, or bitter, or sour food.
11. Stomach.─Pyrosis after every meal, and noisy and constant eructations.─Eructations tasting like the ingesta.─Regurgitation of sour substances.─Frequent nausea, esp. in the morning, in the evening, or at night, sometimes with shuddering, obscuration of sight, and fainting.─Sour vomitings.─Sour vomiting, esp. in children, and during dentition.─Vomiting of food, or of bitter mucus, often with incisive and cramp-like pains in the abdomen.─Black or sanguineous vomiting.─Flow of saliva from the stomach, even after a meal.─The vomitings appear chiefly in the morning, at night, or after a meal.─Pressive, or pinching pain in the stomach, or cramp-like and contractive pains, chiefly after a meal, and often with vomiting of food.─Cramps in the stomach at night.─Pressure on the stomach, even when fasting, or in coughing, or with pressure on the hypochondria, or else with squeezing as if from a claw, on walking.─Pinchings, cutting pains, and nocturnal aching in the epigastrium.─Inflation and swelling of the epigastrium and of the region of the stomach, with painful sensibility of those parts to the touch (they look like a saucer turned bottom up).─Pain, as of excoriation, and burning in the stomach.
12. Abdomen.─Pains generally shooting, or tensive, or pressive, with swelling and induration of the hepatic region.─Stinging pain in the liver (during or after stooping).─Painful pulling from the hypochondria and the back, with vertigo and obscuration of sight.─Tension in the two hypochondria.─Inability to wear tight clothes round the hypochondria.─Tension and inflation of the abdomen.─Frequent gripings and shootings in the sides of the abdomen, in children.─Colic, with cramp-like and gnawing contractive pains, esp. in the afternoon, and sometimes with vomiting of food.─Frequent attacks of griping, chiefly in the epigastrium.─Shootings or pinchings, and aching in the abdomen, even without diarrhoea.─The pains in the abdomen appear chiefly in the morning, in the evening, or at night, as well as after a meal.─Sensation of cold in the abdomen.─Pain, as of excoriation and burning, in the abdomen.─Swelling and induration of the mesenteric glands.─Enlargement and hardness of the abdomen.─Incarceration of flatulency.─Pressure of wind towards the inguinal ring, as if hernia were about to protrude, with noise and borborygmi.─Painful pressure, pullings, griping, and shootings, or heaviness or traction in the groins.─Swelling and painful sensibility of the inguinal glands.
13. Stool and Anus.─Constipation.─Evacuations suspended, hard, in small quantity, and often with undigested substances.─Ineffectual efforts to evacuate, sometimes with pain.─Difficult evacuation, and only every two days.─Relaxation of the abdomen, frequent or continual; two evacuations a day.─Evacuations like clay, in small quantity, knotty, or serous, or in the form of pap.─White evacuations, sometimes with streaks of blood and hepatic pains, on touching the region of the liver, and on breathing.─Diarrhoea of sour smell; putrid; during dentition.─Involuntary and frothy evacuations.─Diarrhoea, of a sour smell, or fetid, or yellowish, in infants.─Ejection of ascarides and of tenia.─Prolapsus of the rectum during evacuation.─Before the evacuation, great irascibility.─After the evacuation, dejection, and relaxation of the limbs.─Flow of blood from the anus during the evacuation, also at other times.─Swelling, and frequent protrusion of haemorrhoidal excrescences, esp. during the evacuations, with burning pain.─Cramps, tenesmus, and contraction of the rectum.─Burning in the rectum and in the anus, with itching and tingling.─Burning eruption, in the form of a cluster, in the anus.─Excoriation at the anus, and between the buttocks and the thighs.─Affections of the rectum, as fissures, which are very painful, bleeding after every stool, followed by extreme exhaustion.
14. Urinary Organs.─Tenesmus of the bladder.─Too frequent emission of urine, even in the night.─Wetting the bed.─Deep-coloured urine, without sediment.─Urine red like blood, or a brownish red, of an acrid, pungent, and fetid smell, with white and mealy sediment.─Passing of blood.─Flow of blood from the urethra.─Abundant discharge of mucus with the urine.─Polypus of the bladder.─Burning in the urethra, when making water, and at other times.
15. Male Sexual Organs.─Inflammation of the prepuce, with redness and burning pain.─Pressure, and pain as from a bruise, in the testes.─Weakness of the genital functions, and absence of sexual desire.─Increase of sexual desire, with voluptuous and lascivious ideas.─Absence of pollutions, or great frequency of them.─Erections of too short continuance, and emission of semen too slow and too feeble during coition.─Lancinations and burning in the genital parts, during the emission of semen in coition.─After coition, confusion of the head and weakness.─Flow of prostatic fluid, after evacuation and emission of urine.
16. Female Sexual Organs.─Catamenia premature and too copious.─Sterility, with catamenia too early, and too profuse.─Before the catamenia, mammae swollen and painful, fatigue, headache, disposition to be frightened, colic, and shivering.─During the catamenia, congestion in the head, with internal heat, or cuttings in the abdomen, and cramp-like pain in the lumbar region, or else vertigo, headache, toothache, nausea, colic, and other sufferings.─Suppressed menstruation, with full habit.─Miscarriage.─Voluptuous sensation in the genital parts, with emission.─Flow of blood at a time different from the catamenia.─Metrorrhagia.─Itching or pressing in the vagina.─Shootings in the orifice of the matrix, and pressive pain in the vagina.─Prolapsus uteri, with pressure on the parts.─Itching in the womb.─Inflammation and swelling of the womb, with redness, purulent discharge, and burning pain.─Varices in the labia majora.─Leucorrhoea before the catamenia.─Leucorrhoea, with burning itching, or else like milk, flowing by fits, and during the emission of urine.─Pain, as of excoriation and ulceration, in the nipples.─Inflammatory swelling of the mammae and of the nipples.─Swelling of the glands of the breast.─Breasts painful and tender before menses.─Milk too abundant, or suppressed.
17. Respiratory Organs.─Ulceration of the larynx.─Ulceration of the lungs.─Frequent or long-continued hoarseness.─Hoarseness (painless).─Sensation, as if something were torn loose in the trachea.─Abundant accumulation of mucus in the larynx and in the bronchia.─Cough, without expectoration, excited by a tickling in the throat, and often accompanied by vomiting.─Tickling cough, caused by a sensation of dust in the larynx.─Short cough in the day, as if from a feather in the throat.─Cough excited by playing on the piano, or by eating.─Cough in the evening, in bed, or at night, when asleep, or in the morning, and generally violent and dry (with expectoration during the day, but not at night), sometimes even spasmodic.─Cough, with expectoration of thick mucus; gray; bloody; purulent; tasting sour; or yellowish and fetid, generally at night, or in the morning.─Expectoration of purulent matter, on coughing.─Cough, with expectoration of blood, pain of excoriation in the chest, vertigo, and unsteady walk.─On coughing, pressure in the stomach, shootings or shocks in the head, and pains in the chest.
18. Chest.─Obstructed breathing on stooping, walking against the wind, or on lying down.─Urgent inclination to inspire deeply.─Sensation, as if respiration were obstructed between the shoulder-blades.─Oppression at the chest, as if from congestion of blood, with tension, mitigated by bringing shoulder-blades together.─Wheezing respiration.─Shortness of breath, chiefly on ascending.─Anxious oppression of the chest, as if it were too narrow, and could not be sufficiently dilated.─Great difficulty of respiration.─Sensation of fatigue in the chest after speaking.─Anxious feeling in the chest.─Pressure on the chest.─Shootings in the chest and the sides, esp. during movement, on breathing deeply, and when lying on the side affected.─Shocks in the chest.─Sensibility, and pain, as from excoriation, in the chest. esp. during inspiration and on being touched.─Burning in the chest.
19. Heart.─Palpitation of the heart, also at night, or after a meal, sometimes with anxiety and trembling movements of the heart.─Shootings, pressure, and contraction in the region of the heart.─Pricking shootings in the muscles of the chest.
20. Neck and Back.─Rigidity of the neck.─Hard and strumous swelling of the thyroid gland.─Hard and painful swelling of the glands of the neck.─Tumour between the shoulder-blades.─Suppuration of the axillary glands.─Pains, as of dislocation, in the loins, back, and in the neck, as if caused by a strain in lifting a weight.─Pain in the small of the back (as if sprained); he can scarcely rise from his seat, after being seated.─Shooting pains in the shoulder-blades, loins, and back.─Nocturnal pains in the back.─Pains in the lumbar region, when riding in a carriage.─Drawing between the shoulder-blades, or pressive pain, with sensation of suffocation.─Pressive pain between the shoulder-blades, impeding breathing, when moving.─Swelling, and distortion of the spine.
21. Limbs.─As if the parts would burst; were pressed, or pushed, asunder; as if cold, damp stockings were on the feet; sensation of crepitation; cramp pain in the muscles; creeping on the limbs like a mouse.
22. Upper Limbs.─Drawing pains in the arms, even at night.─Cramp, and cramp-like pains, in the arms, hands, and fingers.─Sudden attacks of paralytic weakness in the arms (l.).─Acute, cramp-like pains in the forearm.─Furunculi on the forearm.─Pains, as of dislocation, in the wrist-joint (r.).─Swelling of the hands.─Arthritic nodosities, swelling of the wrist, and of the joints of the fingers.─Swelling of the veins of the hands.─Sweating of the hands.─Perspiration of the palms of the hands.─Trembling of the hands.─Hands and fingers dead, even in a warm temperature, and esp. on taking hold of an object.─Warts on the arms and on the hands.─Furunculi on the hands and the fingers.─Tingling in the fingers, as when they are asleep.─Frequent paralytic weakness in the fingers.─Heavy movement of the fingers.─Contraction of the fingers.─Panaris.
23. Lower Limbs.─Drawing lancinations, or incisive, acute pains in the hips and in the thighs, chiefly when resting upon them.─Limping, which occurs when resting on the toes in walking.─Weight and stiffness of the legs.─Cramps in the legs.─Pain, as of dislocation, in the joints of the hips, knees, and the feet.─The legs go to sleep when one is seated.─Itching in the thighs and the feet.─Varices in the legs.─Tearing and stinging in the knee.─Drawings, shootings, and acute pains in the knees, esp. when standing or sitting, also when walking.─The child is late learning to walk.─Swelling of the knees.─Tension in the ham, when in a squatting position.─Cramps in the hams, the calves of the legs, the soles of the feet, and the toes, chiefly on extending the legs, pulling on boots, or during the night.─Red spots on the legs.─Phlegmasia alba dolens.─Erysipelatous inflammation and swelling of the legs.─Ulcers on the legs.─Swelling of the malleoli and of the soles of the feet.─Inflammatory swelling of the instep.─Furunculi on the feet and legs.─Burning in the soles of the feet.─Sweating of the feet.─In the evening, coldness and numbness of the feet; esp. at night, in bed.─Painful sensibility of the great, toe.─Corns on the feet, with burning pain, as of excoriation.─Contraction of the toes.
24. Generalities.─Cramps and contractions of the limbs (which draw the limbs crooked), esp. of the fingers and toes.─Wrenching pains.─Pulsative pains.─Shootings and drawing pains in the limbs, chiefly at night, or in summer, and on change of weather.─Stinging and cutting in outer and inner parts.─Arthritic tearing in the muscles.─Arthritic nodosities.─Attacks of torpor and paleness of some parts of the body, which appear as if dead.─Great tendency to strain the back in lifting, often followed by pains in the throat, or stiffness and swelling of the nape of the neck, with headache.─Tendency of the limbs to numbness.─Bleeding from inner parts.─Sensation of dryness of inner parts.─Ebullition of the blood, mostly in plethoric individuals, and often with congestion in the head and chest.─Startings in different limbs.─Epileptic convulsions, also at night with cries; during the full moon; with hallooing and shouting.─The symptoms are aggravated or renewed after labouring in the water, as well as in the evening, at night, in the morning, after a meal, and every second day.─The sufferings are periodical and intermittent.─Great uneasiness, which forces the patient to move constantly and to walk much.─Visible quivering of the skin, from the feet to the head, with which he becomes dizzy.─Trembling of the inner parts.─Frequent trembling of the whole body, increased in the open air.─St. Vitus' dance.─Pain, as from a bruise, in the arms and in the legs, and also in the loins, esp. on moving, and on going upstairs.─General uneasiness in the evening, as preceding an attack of intermittent fever.─Want of strength, and dejection, chiefly in the morning early.─Fatigue and nervous weakness, often with paleness of the face, palpitation of the heart, vertigo, shivering, pain in the loins.─Fainting, esp. in the evening, with obscuration of the eyes, sweat on the face, and cold in the body.─Great fatigue after speaking, or after a moderate walk in the open air, as well as after the least exertion, with ready and abundant perspiration.─Strong desire to be magnetised.─Excessive dejection, sometimes with violent fits of spasmodic laughter.─Tendency in children and young persons to grow very fat.─Bloatedness of the body and of the face, with enlargement of the abdomen, in children.─Emaciation (with swelled abdomen), without failure of appetite.─Great plumpness and excessive obesity.─Sensation of coldness in inner parts.─Great tendency to take cold, and great sensibility to cold and damp air.─On walking in the open air, sadness with tears, headache, inflation of the abdomen, palpitation of the heart, sweat, great fatigue, and many other sufferings.
25. Skin.─Flaccidity of the skin.─Visible quivering of the skin from head to foot, followed by giddiness.─Burning, smarting, itching.─Ephelis.─Nettlerash, mostly disappearing in the fresh air.─Eruption of lenticular red and raised spots, with great heat, much thirst, and want of appetite.─Skin hot and dry during motion.─Skin of the body rough, dry, and as if covered with a kind of miliary eruption.─Furfuraceous coating of the skin; burning; chapped.─Humid, scabby eruptions and tetters, or in form of clusters, with burning pains.─Itching pemphigus over the whole body.─Skin excoriated in several places.─Skin unhealthy; every injury tends to ulceration; even small wounds suppurate and do not heal.─Ulcers deep; fistulous; carious.─Ulcers with too little pus.─Erysipelatous inflammations.─Furunculi.─Warts.─Corns, with pain as of excoriation, and burning.─Polypus (nose, ear, uterus).─Encysted tumours, which are renewed and suppurate every month.─Bloatedness.─Swelling and induration of the glands, with or without pain. Varices.─Arthritic nodosities.─Swelling; softening; curvature of; stinging in; caries and distortion of the bones.─Ulceration of the bones.─Panaris.─Flaws in the fingers.
26. Sleep.─Drowsiness in the day and early in the evening.─Retarded sleep and sleeplessness from activity of mind, or in consequence of voluptuous or frightful images, which appear as soon as the eyes are shut.─During sleep, talking, groans, cries, and starts, anxiety which continues after waking, or movements of the mouth, as if one were chewing or swallowing.─Snoring during sleep.─Dreams frequent, vivid, anxious, fantastic, confused, frightful, and horrible; or dreams of sick and dead persons.─Sleep disturbed, with tossing about and frequent waking.─Sleep of too short duration, from eleven in the evening till two or three in the morning only.─Waking too early, sometimes even at midnight.─At night, agitation, asthmatic suffering, anxiety, heat, pains in the stomach and in the precordial region, thirst, beatings of the head, toothache, vertigo, headache, ebullition of the blood, fear of losing the reason, pains in the limbs, and many other sufferings.─On waking, lassitude, exhaustion, and desire to sleep, as if the patient had not slept at all.─Fearful of fantastic dreams during sleep.
27. Fever.─Pulse full, accelerated or tremulous.─Excessive cold, internally.─Shivering and shuddering, principally in the evening, or in the morning after rising.─Heat with thirst, followed by chilliness.─Frequent attacks of transient heat, with anguish and beating of the heart.─Heat in the evening, or in bed at night.─Quotidian fever towards two o'clock in the afternoon, with yawning and cough, followed by general heat, with desire to lie down, at least for three hours, after which the hands become cold; all with absence of thirst.─Tertian fever in the evening, at first heat of face, followed by shivering.─Profuse sweat by day, after moderate corporeal exercise.─Sweat with anxiety.─Nocturnal sweat, chiefly on the chest.─Sweat in the morning.
Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons of Some of the Leading Remedies of the Materia Medica (Allen's Keynotes), Henry Clay Allen
Middle layer of Oyster Shell (Calcium Carbonate)
Leucophlegmatic, blond hair, light complexion, blue eyes, fair skin; tendency to obesity in youth. Psoric constitutions; pale, weak, timid, easily tired when walking. Disposed to grow fat, corpulent, unwieldly. Children with red face, flabby muscles, who sweat easily and take cold readily in consequence. Large heads and abdomens; fontanelles and sutures open; bones soft, develop very slowly. Curvature of bones, especially spine and long bones; extremities crooked, deformed; bone irregularly developed. Head sweats profusely while sleeping, wetting pillow far around (Sil., Sanic.). Profuse perspiration, mostly on back of head and neck, or chest and upper part of body (Sil.). Difficult and delayed dentition with characteristic head sweats, and open fontanelles. During either sickness or convalescence, great longing for eggs; craves indigestible things (Alum.); aversion to meat. Acidity of digestive tract; sour eructations, sour vomiting, sour stool; sour odor of the whole body (Hep., Rheum.). Girls who are fleshy, plethoric, and grow too rapidly. Menstruation too early, too profuse, too long lasting; with subsequent amenorrhoea and chlorosis with menses scanty or suppressed. Women: menses too early, too profuse; feet habitually cold and damp, as if they had on cold damp stockings; continually cold in bed. The least mental excitement causes profuse return of menstrual flow (Sulph., Tub.). Fears she will lose her reason or that people will observe her mental confusion (Act.). Lung diseases of tall, slender, rapidly growing youth; upper third of right lung (Ars. - upper left, Myr., Sulph.); oftener the guide to the constitutional remedy than Phosphorus (compare, Tub.). Diseases: arising from defective assimilation; imperfect ossification; difficulty in learning to walk or stand; children have no disposition to walk and will not try; suppressed sweat. Rawness of soles of feet from perspiration (Graph., Sanic.); blisters and offensive foot sweat. Longing for fresh air (when in a room) which inspires, benefits, strengthens (Puls., Sulph.). Coldness: general; of single parts (Kali bi.); head, stomach, abdomen, feet and legs; aversion to cold open air, "goes right through her:" sensitive to cold, damp air; great liability to take cold (opposite of Sulph.). Sweat: of single parts; head, scalp wet, cold; nape of neck; chest; axillae, sexual organs; hands, knees; feet (Sep.). Pit of stomach swollen like an inverted saucer, and painful to pressure. Uraemic or other diseases brought on by standing on cold, damp pavements, or working while standing in cold water; modelers or workers in cold clay. Feels better in every way when constipated. Stool has to be removed mechanically (Aloe., Sanic., Sel., Sep., Sil.). Painless hoarseness < in the morning. Desire to be magnetised (Phos.).
Relations. - Complementary: to Bell., which is the acute of Calc. Calcarea acts best: before Lyc., Nux., Phos., Sil. It follows: Nit. ac., Puls., Sulph. (especially if pupils are dilated); is followed by, Kali bi. in nasal catarrh. According to Hahnemann, Calc. must not be used before Nit. ac. and Sulph.; may produce unnecessary complications. In children it may be often repeated. In aged people should not be repeated; especially if the first dose benefited, it will usually do harm.
Aggravation. - Cold air; wet weather; cold water; from washing (Ant. c.); morning; during full moon.
Amelioration. - Dry weather; lying on painful side (Bry., Puls.).
Leaders In Homoeopathic Therapeutics, Eugene Beauharnais Nash
Deficient or irregular bone development. (Fontanelles open, crooked spine, deformed extremities.)
Leucophlegmatic temperament.
Fairs fat, flabby, obesic.
Coldness, general and local, subjective and objective, especially as if had on cold, damp stockings. Affections from working in cold water.
Sweats general (night sweats and on exertion). Local; head (children), axillae, hands, feet, etc.
Digestive tract sour (sour taste, eructations, vomiting, sour curds, diarrhoea).
Great debility: cannot walk far or go upstairs for short breath; easily strained.
Modalities: < cold air, ascending, or exertion; straining from lifting.
* * * * *
This is another of Hahnemann's constitutional remedies which, as Farrington says, "may come into use, in almost any form of disease." We may say come into use because it may be on account of certain idiosyncrasies. which come under the remedial power of Calcarea that the disease, whatever it is, is made less amenable to ordinary treatment.
The temperament of Calcarea is altogether different from that of Sulphur. You remember the lean stoop-shouldered Sulphur subject. Calcarea is on the contrary what cannot be better expressed than in the term used by Henry N. Guernsey viz.; Leocophlegmatic temperament.
The Calcarea patient is constitutionally fat, over-fat or strongly inclined to obesity. The color of the skin is white, watery or chalky pale. Of torpid disposition (especially children), sluggish or slow in its movements. The Sulphur is almost the exact opposite, quick, wiry, nervous, active. There is none of the bilious, swarthy, yellowish appearance in Calcarea that we find in Lycopodium. These three remedies Calcarea, Sulphur, Lycopodium are a trio that find each their counterpart in many persons the world over. Of course we find the tendency to obesity under other remedies, as for instance, under Graphites, but with this obesity we almost always find accompanying it the peculiar skin troubles of Graphites. Sometimes we seem to find a condition that seems to simulate each remedy in some one feature; for instance, the obesic temperament of Calcarea and the eruptive tendency of Sulphur. This may combine so as to make a case that will be covered by Hepar sulph. Such cases are more difficult to cover with a perfect simillimum. But when we do find a purely Calcarea, Sulphur or Lycopodium subject the fact is inestimable as a help to a brilliant result in many cases.
Malnutrition is one of the disorders calling for the exhibition of this remedy.
"Tardy development of the bony tissues with lymphatic enlargements."
"Curvature of the bones, especially spine and long bones."
"Extremities deformed, crooked."
"Softening of the bones; fontanelles remain open too long and skull very large."
These symptoms are quoted from "Hering's Guiding Symptoms", and show the lack of, or imperfect, nutrition of bones. They are nourished irregularly, or unevenly. One part of a bone, the vertebraes for instance, is nourished while the other is starved. While all this irregular bone development is going on the soft parts are suffering from over-nutrition. Thus we have recorded in the pathogenesis: "Tendency to obesity especially in children and young people."
"Nutrition impaired with tendency to glandular enlargements."
"Granular vegetations: polypus (in nose, ear, bladder, uterus, etc.)."
This is a fair picture of the general or constitutional use of Calcarea ost., and it remains to give some of the characteristic or peculiar symptoms guiding to its selection.
When writing of Sulphur we called particular attention to the sensation of burning under that remedy. Calcarea has characteristically the opposite, viz., Coldness (Cistus.).
"Cold, damp feet."
"Sensation in feet and legs as if she had on cold, damp stockings."
"Coldness of legs with night-sweats."
"Internal and external sensation of coldness of various parts of head as if a piece of ice were lying, against it; with pale puffed face."
"She feels a sort of inward coldness."
"Aversion to open air, the least cold air goes right through her."
All this is so directly opposite to Sulphur that any confusion between them seems impossible.
Sensations of coldness in single parts should always call to mind Calcarea, as well as general coldness. (Cistus and Heloderma.)
If Calcarea has one symptom that not only leads all the rest, but also all other remedies, it is found in the profuse sweats on head of large-headed, open fontanelled children. The sweat is so profuse that during sleep it rolls down the head and face wetting the pillow far around. Many a little child has been saved from dying of hydrocephalus, dentition, rachitis, marasmus, eclampsia, cholera infantum, etc., where this sweating symptom was the guiding symptom to the use of Calcarea. It is also especially indicated, other symptoms agreeing, in sweats of male organs, nape of neck, chest, axilla, hands, knees, feet, etc. Partial sweats. It is also a remedy for night sweats generally when they occur in connection with consumption or other debilitating diseases.
In all these sweatings of Calcarea the surface is characteristically cold at the same time, and especially would we find the lower extremities cold.
Calcarea has characteristic symptoms in the digestive tract. One is that everything in the whole length of the tract seems soor. Eructations sour; sour vomiting of large curds (Aethusa); sour diarrhoea. And then there is a sour smell of the whole body. This is not like the offensive odor of the body that Sulphur has.
Then there is a peculiar symptom of the appetite that has often been verified – "Longing for eggs, particularly in children in sickness or during convalescence, even before they are able to swallow. The stomach externally is swollen or seems distended, standing right out like an inverted saucer. Abdomen is also much distended from hard and swollen mesentery, even when the rest of the body is emaciated."
The diarrhoea, which may vary as to color and consistence, instead of being aggravated in the morning, like Sulphur, is worse in the afternoon. The patient is generally better when constipated.
Calcarea has not so positive and unvarying action upon the skin as Sulphur, but is indispensable in skin affections which seem to depend upon some constitutional dyscrasia that it covers in its general action, for instance, in eczema capitis or milk crusts in children of the Calcarea type. Here, of course, no remedy can take its place. Indeed all skin troubles in Calcarea subjects disappear when through its action the system is set right, showing that the skin troubles after all were only secondary. The skin of the Calcarea subject is generally cold, soft and flabby.
We must not omit to notice the action of Calcarea ost. on the respiratory organs, for the reason that it is of great importance in its use in that dread disease, pulmonary consumption. Whether, as Professor Bennet believes, this disease be essentially one of faulty nutrition or as Virchow believes, one of inflammation, or if Professor Rindflesch's theory relegating it to the class of diseases known as infections, be true, or whatever its primary cause may be, we know that Calcarea ost. is one of the most effective agents, if indicated by the temperament and symptoms, in the cure of this malady, and if applied at a stage when a cure is at all possible.
Very many cases in the incipient stage come within range of Sulphur or Calcarea. As we have already given the leading indications of Sulphur, we will now give some of them for Calcarea:
"Leucophlegmatic temperament."
"Middle and upper portion of right lung." (Sulph., upper left.)
"Chest painfully sensitive to touch and on inspiration."
"Shortness of breath on walking, especially on ascending."
"Painless hoarseness, < in the morning."
"Especially in women who have always been too early and profuse in menstruation, and who have habitually cold feet to the knees."
"Tendency to looseness of the bowels, < afternoons."
"Appetite failing and emaciation progressing."
Here are a few of the prominent indications, and on them many a case has been cured. Of course this is generally cough, and it may be tight or loose, yet the case rests mainly on the symptoms outside the cough. This remedy in this disease and the success attending its use is one of the illustrations of the soundness of Hering's advice when he says "treat the patient, not the disease".