Homeopathy LibraryKali Sulphuricum
Boericke - The Twelve Tissue Remedies of Schussler · William Boericke · 12,817 chars
General
Synonyms. — Potassium Sulphate. Kali Sulphas. Potassse Sulphas.
Common Name. — Sulphate of Potash.
Chemical Properties. — Formula, K S04. Occurs native in lavas, etc. Crystallizes in short, permanent, colorless four- and six-sided prisms. It is soluble in ten parts of cold and three parts of boiling water. It is insoluble in alcohol. It has a sharp, bitter, saline taste.
Preparation. — Pure sulphate of potash is prepared by tritu- ration, as directed under Class VII, American Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia.
Physiologico chemical Data. — This remedy, according to Schiissler, is the function remedy of the epidermis and of the epithelium. A deficiency of this cell salt causes a yellow, slimy deposit on the tongue, slimy, thin, or decidedly yellow or greenish discharge and secretions of watery matter from any of the mucous surfaces, and epithelial or epidermal des- quamation. The yellowness is probably due to retrograde metamorphosis — fatty degeneration of inflammatory products and of effete epithelium, etc.
The sulphates in nature and the oxide of iron serve as oxy- gen carriers. If sulphate and iron oxide come in contact simul- taneously with an organic substance in a state of decay they give off their oxygen, and sulphate of iron is formed thereby ; this may again be decomposed by the oxygen of the air, forming sulphuric acid and iron oxide, which, under favorable conditions, become again carriers of oxygen. Similar pro- cesses may occur in the human organism. Therefore, of the sulphates, Kali sulph. probably plays an important role, be- cause it is found in the cells and in the intercellular fluids, muscles, nerves, epithelium and in the blood corpuscles.
It is the carrier of oxygen. The oxygen taken up by the iron contained in the blood corpuscles is carrried to every cell of the organism by the reciprocal action of Kali sulph. and iron. Kvery cell requires for its growth and development the vital-
KALI STJXPHURICUM. 87
izing influence of oxygen. But its continued action oxidizes the organic basis of the cells. Hence, they disintegrate into their constituent elements. A deficiency of Kali sulph. may, according to location and extent, occasion the following symptoms : Feeling of heaviness and weariness, vertigo, chilli- ness, palpitation, fear, melancholy, toothache, headache, pains in the limbs, which intermit and change location.
These pains are worse in closed rooms, warmth and towards evening, and better in fresh, open air, that is rich in oxygen.
Epidermis and epithelial cells poorly fed with oxygen loosen and desquamate freely. If oxygen is brought to the suffering parts by means of Kali sulph. the formation of new cells is thereby furthered, and these hasten, by their activity, to promote the desquamation of the old ones.
General Action It is applicable to the third stage of in- flammation or to its stage of retrogression, the sulphates being characteristic products of the oxidation of tissue and the potas- sium having its special sphere in the solids, and the resulting salt becomes a prominent constituent of their ashes, whence we can infer its homceopathicity to the same stage. Ailments accompanied by profuse desquamation of epidermis. Yellow mucous discharges.
Rise in temperature at night producing an evening aggravation. Another characteristic indication is amelioration in the cool, open air. Diseases caused by a retro- cession of eruptions. To produce perspiration if Ferr. phos. fails.
Guiding Symptoms and Characteristic Indications.
Mental Symptoms — Fear of falling.
Head and Scalp. — Vertigo, especially on looking and ris- ing. Headache, which grows worse in a warm room and in the evening, and is better in the cool or open air. Falling out of the hair, bald spots. Rheumatic headaches, beginning in the evening and in a heated atmosphere ; worse moving head from side to side or backward. Copious scaling of scalp, moist and sticky. Dandruff and scaldhead.
Eyes
Cataract, opacity of the crystalline lens, Yellow
88 THE TWELVE TISSUE REMEDIES.
crusts on the eyelids, yellowish or greenish, purulent discharge from the eyes.
Conjunctivitis, ophthalmia neonatorum.
Ab- scess of the cornea.
Hypopyon.
Ears
Deafness from congestion of the tympanic cavity, or with catarrh and swelling of Eustachian lining.
Worse in a heated room, with a yellow, slimy coating on the tongue.
Earache, with discharge of watery or yellow matter.
Secretion of thin, bright-yellow, or greenish fluid after inflammation.
(Thick, pus-like discharge, Calc. stclph.) Pain under the ear, sharp, cutting pain, tension, stitches and piercing below the mastoid process.
Stinking otorrhcea.
Polypoid excrescence closes the meatus.
Nose
Colds with yellow, slimy expectorations, or dis- charge of watery matter.
Patient feels generally worse in the evening or in a heated room.
Decidedly yellow or yellow- ish-green discharges from the nose.
After Ferr. phos. in colds, if the latter does not produce free perspiration and the skin remains dry.
Old catarrh with yellowish, viscous secre- tion.
Nose obstructed, together with yellowish discharge from the nares.
Smell lost.
Ozsena.
Face
Faceache aggravated in a heated room and in the evening, improved in cool or open air.
Pallid face.
Face red, features distorted.
Epithelioma.
Mouth — Dower lip swollen. Dryness and desquamation of the lower lip, peels off in large flakes ; epithelioma, burning heat in the mouth.
Tongue
Coating yellow and slimy, sometimes with whitish edge.
Insipid, pappy taste.
Dips, tongue and gums white.
Taste lost.
Teeth
Toothache worse in warmth and evening, better in cool, open air. Chronic painfulness of the gums.
Throat
No symptoms that are noteworthy.
Gastric Symptoms
Burning heat in stomach ; burning thirst, nausea and vomiting.
Chronic catarrh of the stomach, with yellow, slimy, coated tongue.
Indigestion with sensation of pressure as of a load and fullness at the pit of the stomach, painful, and water gathers in the mouth.
Sensation of faint-
KALI SULPHURICUM. 89
ness in the stomach.
Colicky pains in stomach, when Magnes. phos. fails.
Deep-seated pain in stomach.
Gastric fever with a rise of temperature in the evening and fall in the morning.
Thirstlessness.
Dread of hot drinks.
Jaundice from gastro- duodenal catarrh.
Abdomen and Stool
Yellow, slimy, watery, purulent diar- rhoea, with characteristic tongue.
Pains resembling colic.
Abdomen feels cold to touch.
Pains similar to flatulent colic, caused by great heat, from excitement and sudden coldness of the part following.
Gas escaping from the bowels has a sulphurous odor.
Purging and severe colic.
Habitual con- stipation.
Internal and external hemorrhoids, with charac- teristic tongue and secretions.
Typhoid and enteric fevers, with rise of temperature at night and fall in the morning.
Tympanitic abdomen, cramp and every indication of ap- proaching peritonitis.
Abdomen very tense.
Symptoms of cholera.
Black, thin, offensive stools.
Post-scarlatinal nephritis.
Urinary and Sexual Organs
Gonorrhoea, slimy, yellow or greenish discharge.
Balanitis, gleet.
Orchitis, after suppressed gonorrhoea.
Deucorrhoea, discharge of yellow, greenish, slimy or watery secretions.
Menstruation too late and too scanty, with a feeling of weight and fulness in the abdomen, and headache, yellow-coated tongue.
Syphilis with charac- teristic evening aggravation.
Metrorrhagia.
Pregnancy
Symptoms are wanting.
Respiratory Organs
Bronchial asthma with yellow ex- pectoration, worse in the warm season or in a hot atmosphere.
Bronchitis, expectoration distinctly yellow, or greenish, slimy, or watery and profuse.
Cough worse in the evening with heat.
Pneumonia.
Coarse rales but cannot cough up much mucus, sputa consists of watery matter.
Mucus slips back and is generally swallowed ; hard, hoarse cough like croup.
Weary feeling in the pharynx.
Great rattling in the chest, rattling of mucus with cough.
Third stage of catarrhal cough, with free, yellowish expectoration.
Croupy hoarseness, speak- ing is fatiguing, hoarseness from cold.
Whooping cough ; with yellow, slimy expectoration.
Pneumonia with wheezing ;
9° THE TWELVE TISSUE REMEDIES.
yellow, loose, rattling phlegm is coughed up, or watery matter.
Suffocative feeling in a hot atmosphere.
Desire for cool air.
Circulatory Organs
Pulse quick with throbbing, boring pain over crest of ilium.
Pulse scarcely perceptible.
Back and Extremities
Neuralgic or rheumatic pains in the back, nape of the neck or in the limbs, periodical, worse in the evening or in a warm room, and decidedly better in a cool atmosphere.
Rheumatic pains in the joints or any part of the body, when of a shifting, wandering, flitting nature, settling in one place, then another, with characteristic modalities.
Fungoid inflammation of the joints.
Cramps in upper and lower extremities.
Scaly eruptions mostly on arms, better from hot water.
Nervous Symptoms
Neuralgic pains in different parts of the body, with tendency to shift in locality.
Chorea.
Sleep
Very vivid dreams.
Febrile Symptoms
Temperature rises in the evening until midnight, then falls again.
It assists in promoting perspira- tion, hence it should be given frequently, and warm coverings at the same time should be applied.
Intermittent fever with yellow, slimy, coated tongue.
Fevers from blood poisoning, gastric, enteric and typhoid fevers, scarlet fever, stage of des- quamation, cold sweat.
Skin
Skin inactive (give in hot drinks while in bed, wrapped in blankets).
Epithelial cancer, with discharge of thin, yellow, serous matter.
Eczema, when the discharge is yellow or greenish, watery, or when suddenly suppressed.
Sudden retrocession of the rash, from a chill or other causes, in any eruptive disease — measles, scarlet fever, eczema, etc., when the skin is harsh and dry.
Blistering erysipelas ; to favor falling off of scabs.
Burning, itching, papular eruption.
Diseased condition of the nails, interrupted growth, etc. {Siliced).
Skin scales freely on a sticky base.
Sores on the skin with yellow, watery secretion ; surrounding skin peels off.
Effects of ivy poison, nettlerash.
In smallpox to promote falling off of crusts and formation of healthy skin.
Scaly
KALI SULPHURICUM. 9 1
tetter in the palms.
Chafing of children.
Old tetters.
Tuber- culous ulcers with a continuous oozing of yellow pus and lymph.
Tissues
Inflammations with yellow, watery, serous, puru- lent secretions.
Serous, watery exudations.
Torpidity, de- pressed vitality ; and disease makes rapid headway.
Soft polypi.
Bpithelioma.
Migratory rheumatism of the joints.
Modalities
The grand characteristics are the evening: aggra- vation and the amelioration in the cool, open air. Great aggra- vation in a heated room ; also the characteristic secretion from mucous membranes, yellow, sticky, slimy.
Homoeopathic Data
No regular proving, but a brief collec- tion of symptoms derived from very large doses, old school sources, is found in Alien 's Encyclopedia, vols, v and x, and vol. vi, Guiding Symptoms.
They are included in the above.
Administration
Schiissler recommends the i2x and 6x, these giving the best results.
In febrile conditions it must be given frequently.
It is recommended externally in dandruff and diseases of the scalp.
Often completes a cure commenced by Kali mur.
Relationship
The nearest analogue to Kali sitlph. appears to be Pulsat. It is interesting to compare these two remedies, as they have many symptoms in common. Thus both have :
Aggravation of symptoms in a warm room. Amelioration in the cool and open air. Discharges from mucous membranes are yellow, purulent in character ; sometimes yellowish-green. Coating of tongue yellow and slimy.
Pressure and feeling of fulness in stomach. Gonorrhoea with yellow or yellowish- green, bland discharge. Yellow mucous expectoration from the lungs on coughing. Hoarseness from a simple cold.
Pains in the limbs, worse at night and from warmth ; better in cool, open air. Palpitation of the heart. Migratory or shifting and wandering rheumatic pains. A chemical analysis of Pulsat. shows that one of its constituents is Kali sulph., another is Kali phos. and another is Calc. phos.
Its mucous symptoms probably are due to the presence of Kali sulph., and its mental and nervous symptoms to Kali phos.; but, of course,
92 THE TWELVE TISSUE REMEDIES.
this is pure hypothesis, and only suggested for further study and observation. Kali sulph, often follows with advantage Kali mur. Compatible remedies in itching and redness of skin : Acetic acid, Arsen., Calc. carb., Dolichos, Hepar, Puis., Rhus, Sepia, Silicea, Sulphur, Urtica.
Compare Natr. mur. in deafness, pain in stomach, coarse rales and profuse exudations, but these are more watery in Natr. mur.