– VERMEULEN Frans,
Calc-ar.
When we die we leave behind us all that we have
and take with us all that we are.
[McKenzie]
Signs
Calcium arsenate. Tricalcium arsenate.
SUBSTANCE Calcium arsenate is a colourless, odourless solid that is soluble in diluted acids but very slightly soluble in cold water. It consists of 37.64% arsenic, 30.20% calcium, and 32.15% oxygen. It has been used extensively as a pesticide in the beginning of the 20th century.
TOXICOLOGY Suspected to be a human carcinogen – due to its content of arsenic – potential symptoms of overexposure include weakness; gastrointestinal disturbances; peripheral neuropathy; skin hyperpigmentation; palmar plantar hyperkeratoses; dermatitis. Direct contact may cause skin irritation. 1 Organs most severely effected include eyes, respiratory system, liver, skin, lymphatics, and central nervous system. Calcium arsenate is moderately toxic to birds, slightly toxic to fish and moderately toxic to aquatic invertebrate species.
EFFECTS Workers exposed to arsenic in processes manufacturing lead arsenate and calcium arsenate to be used as insecticides, showed dermatological changes such as corn-like punctate keratoses on the palms and soles.
PESTICIDE Although pesticides have existed for centuries, chemical weapons used in World Wars I and II became the basis of modern agri-chemical industry. One of the earliest chemical pesticides was calcium arsenate, under trade names as pencal, security, and cucumber dust. It was used as a crop herbicide, insecticide and molluscicide. As a foliar insecticide, calcium arsenate was dusted on various small fruits and berries and certain vegetable crops. As a molluscicide it was placed as bait – containing 10% calcium arsenate – near plants for protection. Like all arsenicals, calcium arsenate is chiefly a stomach poison, applied onto the leaves and stems of plants eaten by target insects as caterpillars, beetles, and grasshoppers. Its use dropped after the discovery of the insecticidal properties of DDT in 1939. German experiments with nerve gas during World War II led to the development of the organophosphorus insecticide parathion, which is still widely in use today. Today’s pesticides are designed to persist for shorter periods in the environment and are supposedly less lethal than the early days of calcium arsenate and DDT.
PROHIBITION “On January 2, 1987, EPA proposed to cancel most registrations for inorganic arsenicals, including the food uses of calcium arsenate, based on acute toxicity from accidental ingestion and oncogenic risks posed to workers. The final determination to cancel these registrations was issued June 30, 1988. In that Notice, the sale, distribution and use of food use products containing calcium arsenate, among other inorganic arsenical products, was prohibited after August 1, 1988. “2
PROVING •• Prepared and proved by Hering, in 1848, in the 4c, “and by five other well experienced provers, who did not know of each other until 1851. ” [Hering]
[1] The Merckx Index. [2] Calcium arsenate; Environmental Fact Sheet, Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, USA.
Affinity
CIRCULATION [HEART; blood; blood vessels]. NERVES. Liver. Spleen. Mind. Kidneys.
* Left side.
Modalities
Worse: Slightest exertion. During climaxis. While out of doors. Cold weather.
Better: Rest. Open air.
Main symptoms
M Sensation of FLOATING, gliding through the air.
Heavenwards.
• “In sudden attacks he feels as if he was flying or swimming in the air, as if his feet did not touch the ground; feels indescribably well, as if in heaven, the most wonderful visions pass before his eyes, it seems to be a great many different things but lasts only a second, it passes like lightning, but is infinitely much.” [Hering]
M Brilliance.
• “Desire to show off with their brilliant mind. In many of the Calc-ars. patients one can observe that they try to impress others with intellectual subtleties. They seem to have a special need to demonstrate that they have a brilliant mind [compare rubric: Mind, thoughts, profound].”1
Extreme dulness.
• “Mind seems dull and unable to digest any subject.”
• “No craving for food for body or mind.” [Hering]
M Fear of death; fear that existence will end.
May manifest itself in the form of panic attacks, as a fear of graveyards, or as a fear to go to sleep [lest one should never wake again]. Home and family are a defence against this fear. Any problem that threatens the stability of the family – health; financial; relational – will arouse great fear. Calc-ar. needs to be on solid ground, as opposite to the [frightful] “sensation as if feet did not touch the ground.” The fear to lose one’s ground is reflected in the fear of birds and insects. 2
G CHILLY.
< COLD AIR.
G Craving for ALCOHOL; complaints of drunkards after abstaining.
G Desire for SOUP.
People who want soup before every hot meal. [Compulsive tendency.]
G Fleshy women when approaching MENOPAUSE complaining of palpitation; and Desire for company.
G Epilepsy from valvular diseases of heart.
Fit PRECEDED by RUSH of BLOOD to HEAD.
AURA felt in REGION of HEART.
And Flying sensation; palpitation; sweating.
G EPILEPSY and CIRCULATORY DISTURBANCES.
Epileptic attack PRECEDED by: rush of blood to head, anxiety in region of heart, loss of voice, heat in left chest and head, pain in the left hand.
G Combination of Calcarea and Arsenicum elements.
G Vertigo and violent rush of blood to head.
• “Head gets heavier and heavier, and quick movement makes him giddy.” [Hering]
P Headache moving from the side lain on to the side not lain on.
• “Violent headache; from front backward; lying on forehead it is < in occiput over nape of neck; lying on back it is < in forepart of head, same lying on either side, always < opposite side." [Hering]
P Dyspepsia: distension of stomach, belching with salivation, and palpitation.
Taste of garlic in mouth when swallowing.
P PALPITATION of heart from the SLIGHTEST EXERTION.
Preceded by heat of hands and tremulousness.
Accompanied by urging to belch and “unable to get wind up, as if something in heart prevented it.” [Hering]
Palpitation and headache increase and decrease together.
• “Suddenly follows a violent beat, like an explosion, commencing in pit of stomach and extending up into head, after which he feels every beat of pulse.” [Hering]
[1] Springer, Calcarea arsenicosa; HL 2/98. [2] Karl-Josef Müller, Calcium arsenicosum; Neue Aspekte und deren klinische Bestätigungen.
Rubrics
Mind
Anxiety in evening in bed [2], at night [2], about health of family members [1*], about salvation [2]. Censorious [1]. Confusion on waking [1]. Delirium in the dark [2]. Delusions, sees dead persons [1], visions of fire [1], of flying [1], is in heaven [1]. Fear of being alone [1], of annihilation [1*], of birds [1], of death, at night [1], to go to sleep [1*]. Mental exertion < [2], impossible [1].
Vertigo
Before epilepsy [2]. As if floating [2]. On turning or moving head [1].
Head
Sensitive to a draft of air or wind [2]. Congestion before convulsions [1]. Pain, sides, alternating from one to the other side [1]; lying, pain in side not lain on [1]; pressing in vertex, then in occiput [1/1].
Nose
Coryza, with sleeplessness [2].
Mouth
Taste like garlic [1], like garlic on swallowing [1/1].
Throat
Pain, burning in oesophagus from eructations [1].
Stomach
Stitching pain on motion of arms [1/1].
Rectum
Diarrhoea after cold drinks [1], after sweet potatoes [2/1].
Urine
Albuminous, after abuse of alcohol [2], consecutive to heart disease [3], during pregnancy [2].
Male
Pain in spermatic cords after wine [1/1].
Female
Prolapsus of vagina during pregnancy [1].
Larynx
Voice lost before epilepsy [1/1].
Chest
Constriction heart before epilepsy [2], with urging to stool [1/1]. Palpitation before epilepsy [2]. Sensation of weakness about the heart [1].
Limbs
Pain, upper limbs, left, before epilepsy [1/1].
Dreams
Of the dead [1]. Of people not seen for years [1].
Generals
Convulsions, epileptic, aura from heart [3].
* Repertory additions: Müller, Calcium arsenicosum; Neue Aspekte und deren klinische Bestätigungen.
Food
Aversion: [2]: Cold drinks. [1]: Alcohol; fat meat [*].
Desire: [2]: Alcohol; cold drinks; liquid food; soup; soup, warm. [1]: Wine.
Worse: [1]: Cold drinks; cornmeal; potatoes; turnips; water.
* Repertory addition Karl-Josef Müller.

0 0 votes
Please comment and Rate the Article
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

-SANKARAN R.,
Calcarea arsenicosa is a mineral remedy of the cancer miasm. In Arsenicum there is a feeling: “I need people but I cannot trust them – they may rob me”. The patient cannot trust anyone. In Calcium there is a need for security and support. So we see in Calcarea arsenicosa a person who feels insecure as well as mistrustful. In Calcarea arsenicosa the need for people is almost a dependence, and this along with the mistrust, makes him highly anxious and insecure. He feels: “I may be cheated, let down (mistrustful -Arsenicum) by the people on whom I depend for protection (Calcium)”.
Calcarea arsenicosa is full of anxiety, extremely insecure. I had a case of a menopausal woman who came with the complaint of severe palpitation, which came on from the least anxiety, fright or bad news. She had a son and a daughter. The son went abroad and she got the feeling that he might never come back. All her complaints were worse when he left, especially after her husband fell ill. She felt that her future source of support (in case her husband died) had become untrustworthy. This created extreme anxiety in her, and she would call her son over the phone every week. I gave her Calcarea arsenicosa on these features of mistrust and insecurity. Also Phatak’s Materia Medica gives: “Complaints of fat women around the climacteric, when the least emotion causes palpitation”. Later, they may become extremely sad (Kent’s Lesser Writings).
In the compensated state, Calcarea arsenicosa may be very careful and cautious. He is very independent.
Physical symptoms
– Chilly patient.
– Palpitation from least emotion.
– Breathlessness on ascending.
– Desires soup.
Rubrics
– Ailments from excitement, emotional.
– Anxiety, future, about.
– Anxiety, health, about.
Phatak
– Heart, palpitations, emotions, slight, aggravates.

0 0 votes
Please comment and Rate the Article
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments