Calcarea carbonica

CATARRH.

CHRONIC NASAL CATARRH.

Sulphur and Calcarea ostrearum will never be forgotten in chronic diseases of any kind. Both have the chronic form of catarrh, with thick, fetid, purulent discharge of offensive smell, etc., Sulphur suiting the psoric constitution and temperament, and Calcarea the leucophlegmatic. Indeed the choice of such remedies will often rest on general indications rather than the local. In fact, these must also enter into all prescriptions of any remedy, no matter how strong the local indications. The whole patient must be considered.

LARYNGITIS.

Calcarea ost. is useful in the chronic form. The patient is very hoarse, sometimes can only speak in a whisper; also roughness or sense of rawness in the larynx, all < in the morning. Expectoration also in the morning and during the day, little or none at night, though the cough may be worse. The general symptoms of the remedy are present in abundance, and it is especially useful in the well known Calcarea ost. temperament.

PNEUMONIA.

Calcarea carb. stands for a different class of subjects, viz., the leucophlegmatic. “Fair, fat and flabby.” There is characteristically coldness instead of burnings. I cannot do better here for want of space than again to refer you to my “Leaders in Hom. Therap.,” 3d Ed., page 60, to get the picture. The case continues to cough and expectorate, < in the morning; the external chest becomes sensitive to touch and sore. Sensation in feet and legs as if she had on cold, damp stockings; night sweats, general, and especially local sweats, to which the patient may have been subject all her life. She was sweaty headed as a child. Now Calcarea may save this case from running on to consumption if it is given properly.

In the use of these remedies (Sulph., Calc. and Lyc.) I never use at this stage anything below the 30th potency, and often use much higher. Sulph. 55m., Fincke, and Lycopod. 6m., Jenichen, are favorites with me.

PLEURITIS.

I will only give a passing mention to Calcarea carb. or phos., which has caused a rapid subsidence of pleuritic exudation, and Lycopod., which is exceedingly valuable in the lithic acid diathesis suffering from pleuritis or in any other disease.

PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS.

Calcarea ostrearum. The symptoms and indications leading to the choice of this remedy in incipient consumption, or first stage of the established disease, will be found as much, or in many cases even more, in the constitution and early history of the patient than in the local manifestations. Indeed no true homœopath will ever lose sight of this in any remedy. Homœopathy cannot be limited to the symptoms and pathological changes of a locality, but must take in the whole patient. If the history of the case is that of a sweaty headed child, with tardy closing of the fontanelles, too much fat and too tardy or irregular bone developements, and delayed dentition; sweaty head which soaks the pillow, and the leucophlegmatic constitution is still found in youth and adult age..If the boys are subject to epistaxis, the girls menstruate too early, and then too profusely until the climacteric; they are as cold and susceptible to cold, with feet and legs as cold as Sulphur is hot and burning, we will have an entirely different case from that of Sulphur to begin on. We might go on and give the whole list of characteristic symptoms of this remedy of wide range and deep action, but that would be Materia Medica, where it can all be found. But we will notice here the local symptoms that lead to indicate this drug. Painless hoarseness, < mornings, sensation of dust or feather down in larynx, trachea, lungs, causing tickling irritation to cough. The BREATH BECOMES SHORT, ESPECIALLY ON GOING UP STAIRS OR AN EMINENCE (Arsen.). Later on mucus rattles in the chest. The cough is at first dry, especially at night; and finally becomes loose, especially in the morning, when there may be profuse salty sputum. During the cough there may be pain and rawness (Caust.) in the chest. There is SORE PAIN IN THE CHEST AS IF BEATEN (Arn.), the entire chest is painfully sensitive to touch (even extremely) and on inspiration. Calcarea acts strongly on the middle right lung, but is not by any means confined there.

The expectoration differs in the different stages of the disease, in the first stage, white, gray, yellow, frothy or gluey; later becomes thicker and heavier, yellow, fetid; or gray-yellow of putrid odor. It becomes heavy and falls to the bottom, when spat into water with a “trail of tough mucus behind like a falling star.”—Fellger.

“In young consumptives of a Calcarea diathesis where abscesses form, the pus having a fetid or putrid odor, after the pus is discharged, Calcarea in a high potency may effect a complete cure.”—(Guernsey).

COUGH.

Character—Dry at night; loose A. M. and day with yellowish expectoration, sometimes salty, sweetish, putrid; excited by sense of plug or dust in larynx. Expectoration sinks in water with a trail of tough mucus behind, like a falling star (Felger).

Aggravation—< damp, cold air, raw, damp winds, wet weather, washing or working in cold water; ascending, talking, morning; and evening after midnight; mental excitement.

Amelioration—> dry warm air, after breakfast, lying on painful side.

Concomitants—Hoarseness < mornings; SHORTNESS OF BREATH; < ON SLIGHTEST ASCENT; SORE PAIN IN CHEST AS IF BEATEN, painfully sensitive to touch and inspiration; acts more on middle and upper right lobe. Infra-clavicular depression; LEUCOPHLEGMATIC CONSTITUTION.

This is one of our greatest remedies for tuberculosis. For a comparison of this and Sulphur, ranking equally with it, especially in the incipient stage, I must refer you to my Leaders in Hom. Therapeutics. It would require too much space here. It is perhaps well here to emphasize the peculiar temperament (Leucophlegmatic) in which it is most useful. Of course it may become very useful in other than purely this temperament, but it will be the exception and not the rule. This difference between Calcarea and Sulphur may be noted that the former may often be indicated in any stage of the disease, Sulph. not so frequently, but the “symptoms” and “personnel” must decide even in the exceptional cases. The potencies will do very much better than the low or crude drug. Not often indicated in acute respiratory troubles.