Homeopathy LibraryCalcarea Carbonica
Reason for use
LIME is used in allopathic therapeutics: i. As caustic lime in combination with caustic potash as an escharotic ; it lessens the deliquescence of the potash and makes the causticity more con- trollable.
2. In the form of lime-water it is used exter- nally in combination with oil as an application to burns ; as a soothing application to intertrigo and eczema ; also internally to correct acidity of the stomach and primae vise; and in combination with milk to 'prevent vomiting in children who are fed by the bottle. It is given, with their food, to debilitated rachitic persons and to pregnant women who are supposed to suffer from a deficiency of lime.
3. As a dry powder the carbonate is applied to inflamed surfaces, and in the form of chalk mixture is administered, along with other drugs, to control diarrhoea supposed to depend on acidity.
Ringer remarks that small doses, very small ones, e. g., one or two grains, act at least as well as large ones, because the diffusion power of lime
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is very small, and but little of it is or can be absorbed into the blood.
Calcarea carbonica*' or acetica was proved by Hahnemann, and regarded by him as one of the most valuable and most widely applicable of the anti-psoric remedies.
We proceed at once to consider its effects in anatomical order.
Sensorium. Vertigo, especially when walking in the open air, aggravated by stooping, and most noticed in the early morning when rising or shortly after rising; accompanied by nausea and a feeling as though one would fall unconscious. The mem- ory appears to be enfeebled.
As regards disposition, we notice first, indiffer- ence, with reticence and inertness ; then depression and sadness, with anxiety about the future and disposition to weep. Finally, peevishness and much nervous excitement and irritability.
Despairing, hopeless of ever getting well. Anxiety, shuddering and awe as soon as evening comes near; with fear of death, tormenting those around him day and night.
Fear of going crazy, or that people will observe her and suppose her to be crazy.
The mind is confused, so that what is read or heard is not understood or apprehended.
Heavy aching, and pressing headaches in various
* Note. — In Hahnemann's them both from oyster-shells giv- provings of Calcarea carbonica ing an impure Carbonate and .and Calcarea acetica, he prepared Acetate. H. E. K. D.
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parts of the head, always worse by reading and stooping. Stooping produces a bewildered sen- sation.
The pressing pain is from within outward, and occupies only a part of the head at a time.
A feeling of congestion alternately with a sen- sation of icy coldness in the head.
It is peculiar to Calcarea that the head very easily becomes cold and seems affected thereby, so that headache results and the integuments of that particular part become sensitive. A muscular strain produces headache.
The hairs fall out.
Eyes, The pupils are sometimes dilated and sometimes contracted. Hahnemann has remarked that Calcarea is peculiarly applicable to persons whose pupils are habitually dilated.
Perversions of vision are noted.
Veils, feathers, shadows or black spots appear before the eyes, making vision indistinct ; it is also indistinct from straining of the body or mind, from reading, and after dinner. Also presbyopia.
The lids itch and burn and especially the canthi. The lids are red and swollen ; also the conjunctiva, with much discharge of muco-pus. The pains are aching, as if grains of sand were in the eye, worse in the evening and at night; burning and itching in the eyes ; and in the lids a smarting soreness. Experience has shown the efficacy of Calcarea in scrofulous ophthalmia. (Contrast with Conium.)
The full Dunham text, by section
Face
Eruptions of painful papules or an eczema.
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Frequently a general swelling, with tearing pains in the facial bones.
When emaciation occurs the face is pale or sallow.
Many perversions of hearing ; noises ; deafness, with feeling as if something lay in front of the membrana tympani ; and noise or sputtering in the ear when using a handkerchief or swallowing.
Pulsation, stitching and heat in the ear. Ear much swollen, with sudden jerking pain, causing the whole body to start. (Same in the eyelids and face.)
The sense of smell is perverted. There is an odor of bad eggs or of gunpowder (I add, of majiure). Epistaxis frequent and profuse. Ulcers and sores in the nose and on the lips.
Nose sometimes very dry and then again plugged with yellow, offensive pus.
Neck or Throat externally. Swelling of the glands, with aching and, on chewing, stitching pains; sometimes also on swallowing. Also goitre; a most valuable remedy in scrofulous swelling.
Gums. Swollen, bleed easily, sore ; often swell- ing of the cheeks and ulcers on their inner surface.
The toothache is excited by currents of air (characteristic of Calcarea) or by getting wet, working in damp places (characteristic). They are tearing pains, extending up into the head, as if the roots were being torn out. Also throbbing and boring and swelling of the gums and cheeks.
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Renewed by every cold drink, or by both cold and warm drinks.
Speech is difficult and clumsy. Tongue generally white coated. Burning- pain; burning vesicles, which become ulcers. Dryness, alternating with excess of saliva. (Ranula.)
Feeling of a lump in the throat; no tonsillitis.
Taste generally sour. Frequent eructations, generally sour, with burning from epigastrium upward. Frequent hiccough.
Nausea, a. m., with accumulation of water in the mouth and a vertigo; also at other times, with water-brash. Sometimes early vomiting.
Appetite increased abnormally, alternating with loss of appetite. Increased thirst, especially for cold drinks.
Many symptoms occur after eating, — eructations with burning; nausea after drinking milk, though only half satisfied ; headache, palpitation, rush of blood to the head and sleepiness.
Stomach
Aching, both when fasting and after eating, and particularly on coughing.
Right hypochondrium. Aching and swollen and hard; worse at night. This likewise throughout the whole upper abdomen during constipation, with headache and vertigo.
Contractive drawing aching in the epigastrium and across the upper abdomen, compelling to walk bent forward, and aggravated by deep inspiration.
Some sensation in the lower abdomen. Colicky pains about the umbilicus toward the uterus.
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Tension in the abdomen from distention of that part of the body; large and hard abdomen, espe- cially in children, is a characteristic of Calcarea carbonica.
Generally the abdomen pains, etc., are brought on or aggravated by inspiration.
In the groins a drawing or jerking pain and frequent swellings of the glands, which are tender and painful on motion.
Anus and Rectum. Itching, as from thread or pin-worms, and a burning, inflamed eruption around the anus.
Aching and burning, or jerking pain in the rectum.
Constant tenesmus or desire for stool is an important symptom (after dysentery, in the chronic form, very useful). Constant desire for stool ; almost no discharge.
Stool
First : Hard, thick, scanty, and evacuated with difficulty, or complete constipation.
Second: Diarrhoea of various characters, undi- gested, offensive, like spoiled eggs, mixed, soft and lumpy. Undigested, whitish ; a stool which is first hard, then pappy, then soft. Scanty, mixed with blood. The stool does not weaken the patient. The records of diarrhoea by provers are meagre, yet Calcarea carbonica is one of our most valuable remedies in chronic diarrhoea. Hsemorrhoidal tumors appear, which pain both during motion and repose, and especially at stool, and bleed freely.
Urinary Organs
Symptoms worse at night.
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Cutting- and burning in the urethra during mictu- rition. Frequent desire to urinate ; varying quantity.
Urine dark and offensive. Blood from the urethra. Fungoid of trigone vesicale.
Calcarea increases sexual desire and provokes emissions, but unusual weakness follows indulgence and ejaculation is tardy.
Aching of the testicles, with spasmodic retrac- tion of the same, occurs ; also, itching and burning of the genitals of both sexes.
The menses occur too early and are too copious. This is often the case in incipient phthisis. Various phenomena accompany them : Ophthalmia, head- ache, toothache, colic and backache.
During the interval, a milky leucorrhoea, with burning itching, worse before the menses. The least excitement brings on a return of profuse menstruation.
Calcarea, however, is sometimes indicated when the menses are scanty.
Respiratory Organs. Frequent sneezing and dry nasal catarrh, the nose being very sensitive, with headache, sometimes accompanied by hoarse- ness.
In the trachea a tickling irritation, as if from dust or feather- down ; and cough is provoked by this as well as by eating and playing piano.
The cough is dry at night and in the evening, with shocks in the head and sometimes vomiting; in the morning it. is loose, the sputa being yellow and sometimes bloody ; there is often in the morn-
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ing a large mucous rale on expiration in the trachea before coughing.
The chest pains are aching, and general uneasi- ness. If stitching pains are present, they often are not affected by respiration. Palpitation often accompanies the oppression. The oppression of breathing is sometimes distressing, and is relieved by throwing the shoulders back. Soreness of the chest, especially under the clavicles, to deep respi- ration, and especially to the touch. The mammae swell ; the nipples are sore when touched ; the milk of nursing women fails.
Various pains in the trunk.
Painful stiffness in the back, making change of posture very difficult. Stitches very severe in various parts of the back ; sudden stitches, especi- ally between the scapulae.
The same kind of pains in the extremities. I call attention to the cramps in the calves at night, to the sluggishness of circulation in the hands and feet, causing dead appearance, numb tingling, and excessive coldness.
Skin
Itching and various eruptions ; of vesicles, papules, like urticaria (sour stomach), eczema, thin moist scabs upon the head, with swollen cervical glands ; eczema behind the ears. Papules in various parts of the body ; also warts, which inflame and form ulcers.
Children and sucklings become thick and gross, as if fat, but are pale and unhealthy.
Sleep
Considerable day-sleepiness.
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Difficulty in getting asleep at night, and the sleep is restless. Starting in sleep, or just when going to sleep. Nightmare ; cramp in the calves ; much palpitation and tumult of the blood at night.
Fever
Mixed. Cold and heat partial. Great sensibility to cold at all times.
Heat attended by thirst.
Sweat copious by day during the slightest motion, also at night and early in bed, and then chiefly on the limbs. (Not as with Rhus and Silicea.)
General Action. Lassitude in the limbs ; gen- eral sense of weakness after every walk, such as one feels after a fever. It even goes so far as to amount to attacks of faintness with chill ; indis- tinct vision and nausea.
APPLICATIONS.
In every case where the nutrition is impaired with tendency to glandular engorgements.
Hahnemann says Calcarea does much good in epilepsy. Also, he says, it seldom does to repeat Calcarea upon itself.
It is indicated especially in cases of women whose menses come too early and too copiously. It acts best after Sulphur or Nitric acid, but never well if it has been given before them.
It produces a general feeling of illness, and great sensibility to cold air ; it has been observed
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that after washing or working in water the symp- toms re-appear or are much worse.
It is useful for children who are self-willed and inclined to fatten. In itching of the scalp ; children scratch the head when their sleep is disturbed or on waking. In difficult dentition of little children.
(G.)
It is indicated by deafness after the abuse of quinine.
By a sour taste in tne mouth or of food; sour vomiting, especially with children during dentition ; also by sour diarrhoea.
By longing for eggs, particularly with children during sickness or convalescence.
When the pit of the stomach, instead of being concave is convex.
When the feet are constantly cold and damp, as if she had on wet stockings. (Calcarea phos- phorica is better in uterine trouble. G.) She is very sensitive to the least cold air, which goes through her.
In fever, when there are horrid visions on closing the eyes ; or headache, diminished by clos- ing the eyes.
Hughes says Calcarea seems to be indicated not in primary but in secondary disorders of assimilation ; these are scrofula, tuberculosis and rachitis. It is useful for rachitis; difficult dentition; imperfect ossification ; delay of the power of walk- ing ; for scrofula ; adenitis ; mesenteric disease ; chronic diarrhoea ; eruptions, etc.
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