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, &c. 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.