Calcarea carbonica [Calc]:

– A.W. Cowperthwaite.

Synonym. Calcarea. Ostrearum Hahnemanniani. Preparation.

GENERAL ANALYSIS.
Calcarea acts primarily upon the vegetative system, exciting moderately the functions of secretion and absorption, resulting in a condition of irritation which extends to all the organs and systems of the body, impairing their nutrition, favoring a deposit of the earthy salts, and altering profoundly the composition of the blood. In thus affecting the processes of assimilation Calcarea resembles, in its effects upon the system, the three great disorders of nutrition, scrofula, tuberculosis, and rachitis, and it is in the treatment of these conditions, in their various forms of manifestation, that we find its chief sphere of usefulness. CHARACTERISTICS SYMPTOMS. Mind. Great anxiety, with palpitation of the heart (Acon., Cact., Spig.). Despondent and melancholy (Ign., Puls., Natr. mur.). Disinclination for every kind of work. Frightened apprehensive mood, as of some future misfortune or impending evil (Acon., Alum., Anac.). Feared she would lose her reason, or that people would observe her confusion of mind (Cimic.). Shuddering and dread as evening draws near (Acon., Ars., Merc., Rhus tox.). Head. Vertigo when walking in the open air (Agar., Glon., Led., Sep., Sulph., especially on suddenly turning the head (Sang.); when ascending a height, or looking upward (Cupr., Sang.), as if everything were turning around. Rush of blood to the head, with heat in it, and with redness and puffiness of the face (Bell., Op.). Constant feeling of fullness in the head; confusion. Heat in head, with orgasm of blood. 13 Icy coldness in and on the head (Laur.), also one-sided (Phos. Verat. alb.). Headache, as if a board lay upon the head. Heaviness in forehead; worse when reading or wiring. Painful pressure in forehead, extending down into nose (Acon., Kali bi.). Stitches in head; evenings; left side. Frequent one-sided aching, always with empty eructations. Large, open fontanelles; head large (Calc. phos., Sil.). Itching of the scalp; children scratch their hands on being disturbed or awakened out of sleep. Falling off of the hair (Graph., Natr. mur., Nitr. ac., Phos., Sep.), especially on sides of head. Scabs on hairy scalp. Pimples on forehead. Eyes. Painful sensation, as if a small foreign body were in the eye (Acon.); sensation of sand. Profuse lachrymation (Euphr., Merc.); pupils dilated. Swelling and redness of the lids, with nightly agglutination (AEth., Lyc., Merc., Puls., Sil., Sulph.); also in mornings, every watery. Itching in the margins of the lids (Carb. v., Sulph.). Twitching of upper lids. Burning or stitches in the inner canthi. Far sighted. Can see only one side of an object (Lyc.). Ears. Swelling in front of left ear; painful to touch. Singing, roaring or crackling in the ears (Cinch., Sulph.). Crushing in ears when swallowing. Cracking in ears when chewing. Heat and pulsation in ears. Purulent discharge from ears (Hep. s., Graph. Lyc.). Eruption behind right ear, which becomes moist (Graph., Hep. s.). Polypus of the ear, bleeding easily. Hardness of hearing; also after suppression of intermittent fever by Quinine; from working in water. Nose. Intermittent. Swelling of the nose, especially at the root. Sore ulcerated nostrils (Alum., Aur., Graph., Kali bi., Nitr. ac., Puls.). Frequent sneezing without coryza, or with dry coryza. Stoppage in morning on rising. Fluent coryza, with headache. Dryness of the nose at night. Very offensive smell from the nose (Kreos.), as from bad eggs or gunpowder. Bleeding of the nose, especially in the morning (Agar., Ambr., Bry.). Polypus of the nose (Mar. ver., Phos.). Face. Face pale and hollow or bloated, with deep-seated eyes, surrounded by blue rings (Chinch., Kali iod., Sec.) Face yellow. Moist, itching, scurfy eruption on face, chiefly on cheeks land forehead (Ant. crud., Graph., Lyc.). Eruption on lips and mouth (Ant. crud., Graph., Lyc.). Swelling of the upper lip in the morning (Apis., Bell.). Painful swelling of the submaxillary glands (Arum., Aur., Baryt. carb., Natr. carb, Rhus tox., Sil.). Mouth. Toothache caused by a current of cold air, or by drinking cold liquids (Ant. crud., Coca., Staph., Sulph.). Inclination to gnash the teeth, as in a chill. Difficult dentition (Calc. phos.). Toothache after menstruation. Bleed as if the throat were contracted when swallowing. Spasmodic contraction of the pharynx and oesophagus (Bell., Hyos.). Stomach. Ravenous hunger in the morning. Loss of appetite, but when the began to eat he relished it. Great thirst. Frequent eructations, tasting of the food (Ant. crud. Cinch., Carb. an., Graph., Phos., Puls.); of tasteless fluid. Nausea in the morning (Nux v., Puls.), with qualmishness and shuddering., with blackness before the eyes. Nausea, with a flow of sour water from the mouth. Nausea caused by drinking milk. Sour vomiting; especially during dentition (AEth.). Pit of stomach swollen, like a saucer turned bottom up. Burning in stomach, extending up into throat (Ars.), after every meal. Pain in epigastric region on touch. Pressure in stomach, as if a lump were in it into head. Pressure in stomach, as if a lump were in it Ars., Bry.); after eating. Severe pressure in pit of stomach. Abdomen. Tight clothes about the hypochondria are unendurable (Carb. v., Graph., Lach.). A feeling as if laced below the hypochondria, with trembling and throbbing in the epigastric region. Pressure in hepatic region with ever step. Stitches in the hepatic region during or after stooping. Abdomen hard and very much distended (Ars., Baryt. c.). Frequent severe cramps in the intestinal canal, especially in the evening and night, with coldness in the thighs. Drawn pain in posterior part, extending towards back; in right hypochondrium extending towards symphysis pubis. Tensive pain in abdomen. Incarcerated flatulence (Aur., Carb. v., Lyc.; rumbling. Mesenteric glands swollen and hard in children. Relieves pain attending the passage of biliary calculi. Swelling and painfulness of the inguinal glands (Clem.) Painful pressure in lower abdomen; on physical exertion. Stool and Anus. Swollen haemorrhoids protrude and cause pain during stool (Aloe, Lach., Mur. ac., Puls.). Discharge of blood from the rectum. Feeling of heaviness in lower portion of rectum (Aloe). Cramp in the rectum the whole forenoon; a griping and stitching, with great anxiety; was not able to sit, but obliged to walk about. Burning in rectum and anus (Ars., Canth., Iris). Crawling as from pin worms in rectum. Stool frequently first hard, then pasty, then liquid; undigested (Ant. crud., Cinch., Podo.); offensive, like bad eggs (Ascl., t., Cham.); white; sour. Stools look like lumps of chalk, in children during dentition. Tendency to diarrhoea and acid stomach, and prolapsus recti; precursory of tuberculosis of the lungs. Constipation; stools large and hard (Bry., Sulph.). Urinary Organs. Very dark-colored urine, without sediment; offensive (Kreos., Sulph.); dark-brown, with white sediment (Canth., Colch.); sour smelling at night. Frequent urination. Male Organs. Inflammation of the prepuce, fraenum, and orifice of the urethra, with a little yellow pus beneath fraenum and glans. Excessive sexual desire, with retarded erection, and too early emission of semen during coitus (Natr. carb.); followed by excessive weakness. Frequent emission at night which debilitate both body and mind. Female Organs. Menses too early; last too long; too profuse (Ambr., Amm carb., Coccus., Nux v.). Leucorrhoea like milk (Coni., Lyc., Puls., Sep., Sulph. ac.), with itching and burning. Mammary glands pain as if suppurating (Merc., Phyt., Sil.)., especially when touched. Inflammation and swelling of genitals. Respiratory Organs. Whistling in the larynx after lying down evenings. Painless hoarseness, mornings (Caust., Carb. u.). Frequent need to breathe deeply. Shortness of breath on going up the slightest ascent (Acon., Amm. carb., Ascl. t., Ars., Cact.). Cough; tickling as from a feather in the throat; at night; dry, especially at night (Hyos.); first with dry, afterward profuse salty expectoration ( Ambr., Carb. v., Lyc., Phos. Stan., Sep.), with pain as if something had been torn loose from the larynx; in the morning, with yellowish expectoration (Puls.). Cough caused by a sensation of a plug, which moved up and down the throat. Cough excited by inspiration; by eating. Expectoration of mucus, with a sweetish taste (Stan.); of blood, with a rough, sore sensation in chest. Stitches in chest in evening on breathing. Raw pain in chest during cough. Chest painfully sensitive to touch, and on inspiration. Tightness and oppression of the chest, as if filled too full with blood; anxiety. Cutting in chest on inspiration. Sore pain in chest on inspiration. Heart. Palpitation of the heart with anxiety (Acon., Cact., Spig.). Neck and Back. Hard swelling of the cervical glands (Baryt. c., Carb. v., Iodi.). Painless swelling of the glands in the neck, at the margin of the hair. The glands of the neck pain. Pain in neck on turning the head, as if a tumor would protrude there. Pains in loins and back, as if sprained, could scarcely rise from a seat (Rhus tox.). Drawing pain between the shoulders. Pressure between shoulders which on motion impedes respiration. Limbs. Weakness and weariness of the limbs. Paralytic bruised pain in the long bones and in the joints of the limbs; also i n the small of the back on motion. Upper Limbs. The arms feel bruised on moving them, or taking hold of them. The arm goes to sleep if he lies on it, with pains. Cramps in the whole of one or the other arm. Weakness and a kind of paralysis of the left arm. Pain as from a sprain in right wrist, or as if something had been wrenched or dislocated (Acon., Bry., Eupat., Rhus tox.). Pain in joints as if swollen on waking in morning, without swelling. Trembling of the hands; finger joints much swollen. Sweating of the palms. Lower Limbs. Painful weariness of the lower limbs, especially of the thighs and feet, as after a long walk (Arg. nit., Cinch., Nit. ac.). Swelling and trembling in the legs after coition (Cinch., Phos. ac.). Swelling of the knees; stitches, tearing. Stitches in patella on stepping when beginning to walk. Cramps in the legs (Camph.); in calves at night (Acon., Camph., Nux v., Sil., Sulph.); in hollow of knee when stretching out legs; in the soles; in the toes. Legs go to sleep in the evening when sitting. Burning in the soles (Sulph.). Feet feel cold and damp; sweating of the feet (Sep., Sil.). Generalities. Twitching of the muscles (Ign., Stram.). Trembling of the body. Great weariness; not able to walk. Easily strained; cannot lift anything (Rhus tox.). Weak and sick of the morning; unable to go up stairs, or becomes much exhausted from it. Inclination to stretch in the morning. Takes cold very easily (Kali carb., Natr. ars., Phos., Sil.). Epileptic attacks (Ars., Bell.). Tendency in children and young people to grow very fat. Great heaviness of the body. Children cannot walk; they have no position to do so and will not put their feet down. Skin. Elevated red stripes on the tibia, with severe itching and burning after rubbing. Unhealthy, ulcerative skin; even small wounds suppurate (Graph., Hep. s., Sulph.). Warts here and there. Nettle rash, mostly disappearing in cold air. Itching over various parts. Scurfy pimples on border of red portion of lower lip. Moist, scurfy eruptions (Graph., Hep. s., Lyc., Merc.). Sleep. Sleepiness and weariness during the day. Difficult to arouse on walking, mornings. Persistent sleeplessness; so soon as he closes his eyes he sees figures. Late falling asleep in the evening. Frightful, anxious dreams (Arn., Bell., Bry.). Fever. Excessive internal chilliness. Chill and heat alternating (Coccul., Merc.); forenoons. Frequent flushes of heat, especially at night (Lach.). Internal heat at night, especially in hands and feet; in morning; dry tongue. Profuse sweat from the slightest exertion (Ambra, Chin. s., Kali nit., Merc., Phos., Sep., Sil.). Profuse sweat in the mornings (Chin. s., Nitr. ac., Phos., Rhus tox.). Night sweat (Cinch., Merc., Phos., Phos. ac., Sulph.). Aggravations Mornings, evenings or after midnight; from cold and cold air; on ascending a height; during and after coition; after eating; from exertion; from walking; from milk; near or during full noon. Chronic troubles, better every other day. Conditions. Fair, plump children; leuco-phlegmatic temperament. Excessively obese young people. Compare. Arn., Ars., Baryt. c., Bell., Calc., phos., Cinch., Cupr., Iodi., Graph., Lyc., Kali c., Mag. c., Nitr. ac., Merc., Phos., Sepia., Sil., Sulph. Antidotes. Camph., Nitr. ac., Nitr. sp. d., Nux v., Sulph. Calcarea Antidotes. Acet. ac., Bism., Cinch., Chin. s., Nitr. ac., Sulph.
THERAPEUTICS.
Calcarea carbonica is a tissue remedy and invaluable in the treatment of all conditions resulting from mal-nutrition. Especially useful in scrofulous, tubercular and rachitic affections in general. Defective growth and development in children, both mental and physical; especially of the osseous system; open fontanelles; slow dentition, and consequent troubles; even convulsions; hydrocephalus; emaciation; skin flabby, hanging in folds; marasmus; patient weak and sluggish. Diseases of the bones; curvature of the spine, especially in dorsal region; child slow in learning to talk and walk. Tabes dorsalis. Chronic information of the joints , swelling without inflammatory symptoms, worse from change of weather, especially damp: white swelling and hip-joint disease after abscesses have formed. Disease of the glands; enlargement and induration in Calcarea subjects, as already explained; glandular suppuration and fistulous ulcers. Goitre. Valuable in polypus of the nose or ear. Scrofulous inflammations of the eyes and ears. Corneal inflammations, ulcers and opacities; closure of lachrymal ducts; as thenopia. Chronic nasal and bronchial catarrh in scrofulous subjects. Tuberculosis; hoarseness, dyspnoea on ascending purulent expectoration. Calcarea is often indicated for the disordered nutrition, menstrual derangements, and general cachexia that so often indicate incipient phthisis; dry night cough; emaciation; weakness; sweats, etc. Abscesses in the lungs, with characteristic symptoms. Hectic fever. Diseases of the skin in scrofulous children, especially eczema of the scalp. Warts, rhagades, etc. In chronic rheumatism Calcarea may be indicated in the characteristic subject, after Rhus has failed, especially if caused by working in water. Allen gives special stress to the value of Calcarea in all affections caused by working in water. Constitutional gout, nodosities caused by working in water. Constitutional gout, gouty nodosities on fingers. Rheumatoid arthritis. Calcarea may be useful in some nervous diseases in scrofulous subjects, especially epilepsy, particularly if it results from the constitutional cachexia or brought about by fright or suppression of some chronic eruption. Chorea; insomnia; melancholia. Enlarged liver in scrofulous subjects; jaundice; passage of gall-stones. Enlarged mesenteric glands. Calcarea is of great service in stomach and bowel troubles, especially of teething children. In such, milk disagrees, may be vomited in curds, or pass the bowels in the same manner. Sour vomiting; sour or undigested stools; cholera infantum. Dyspepsia, ravenous hunger; craving for eggs; also for coal, chalk and other indigestible things; bloated abdomen; acid fermentation, everything sours, sour risings; irregularity in menstruation, especially menorrhagia. Amenorrhoea in scrofulous girls, with symptoms pointing to tuberculous. Leucorrhoea like no nourishment, in scrofulous or tubercular women. Calcarea is useful for the results of sexual excesses in the male; impotence; sexual desire without erection; emissions imperfectly or premature; weakness after coition. Hydrocele, especially in scrofulous children.

William H.Burt

SPHERE OF ACTION
Acts especially upon the ganglionic vegetative nervous system, affecting particularly the osseous system, producing imperfect ossification, difficult and slow dentition, rachitis, &c. Also affects the mucous, serous, fibrous, and cutaneous tissues and lymphatics. It especially affects the reproductive organs of women, through the lymphatic system. Marcy and Hunt say: In constitutions in which we see defect in the reproductive system; obstructions, deposits, intumescence in the lymphatic and glandular systems; dyscrasial affections of the membranous structures; of all the white structures, which have but little vitality or blood, and are nourished chiefly by lymph. Obstructions in cartilages, tendons, serous membranes, where development is arrested; obstructions in the lymphatics. In early infancy these structures predominate, and in them Calc. carb. is specific where there is any arrest of the development of the organs; imperfect formation of the blood, as in scrofulosis. The only cases of hemicrania curable by it are those caused by disease in the reproductive system, or in whom scrofula was visible in early life. CHARACTERISTICS: large head, bloated abdomen; narrow chest; flabby, poorly-developed muscles; bones containing but little phosphate of lime. R. Hughes says: It is in the large class of disease due to disorder of the secondary assimilation that Calc. carb. finds its curative place; where the assimilation of the digested food to blood and tissue does not proceed as it should do, there are few agents more powerful than Calcarea for restoring healthy functions. The three great forms of assimilative derangement are scrofula, tuberculosis and rachitis; in all these cases it is a principal remedy. It is the constitutional tendency that it controls, rather than the local manifestations. It has a special and profound influence through the lymphatic system over the generative organs of women; in fact this is Calcarea’s greatest sphere of usefulness.
GRAND CHARACTERISTICS.
Especially adapted to the constitutional diseases of scrofulous women and children, of leuco-phlegmatic temperament, prone to affections of the mucous membranes. The assimilation of the digested food to tissue does not proceed as it should do.- HUGHES. Children with dry and flabby skin; large, open fontanelles; much perspiration in drops on the head, which wets the pillow far around where the child is sleeping. Pale and fair children; their muscles soft and flabby; their hair dry and looking like tow. She is very weakly in general; walking produces great fatigue; in going up stairs is out of breath, has to sit down. Her feet feel as if she had on cold, damp stockings, continually; they are cold in bed. Head.-Vertigo on running up stairs. Fear of going crazy or that people will observe her, and suppose her to be crazy. . Anxiousness, shuddering and awe, as soon as the evening comes near. Despairing; hopeless of everything, with fear of death; tormenting all round him day and night. Extremely peevish. As often as the patient falls asleep the same disagreeable feelings rouse him. Head too large, the fontanelles not closing. The head and upper part of the body sweat profusely. Headache, with an unusual accumulation of dandruff on the top. Excessive mischievousness. Cannot sleep after 3 a.m. Vertigo on ascending a height. Chronic headache, depending on brain fag; the pain is dull, worse in the morning; the head is often cold. Itching of the scalp; children scratch when their sleep is disturbed or they are awakened. With much dandruff on the scalp. Troubled about an absent son; imagines he saw him at the bottom of the river; could not rest but constantly walked about. Great fear, as if located in the upper epigastrium, causing a sensation as if from shock.-JAHR. Eyes.-Excessive secretion of mucus in the eyes.-MARCY and HUNT. All objects look as if seen through a mist.-JAHR. Long-lasting super-orbital neuralgia.-JAHR. Pupils inclined to dilate.-MARCY and HUNT. Dimness of the cornea, with mist before the eyes. Digestive Organs.-Sour taste in the mouth or of the food; sour vomiting, especially with children during dentition; also, sour diarrhoea. Longing for eggs, particularly with children, in sickness, or during convalescence. The tongue is sore on the tip, sides, or dorsum, so that she can scarcely eat. Vomiting of the ingesta, which tastes sour. In cholera infantum, excessive acidity of the stomach, and a partial or total deficiency of biliary secretions.-BAEHR. Swelling over the pit of the stomach like a saucer turned bottom up. Cannot bear tight clothing around the hypochondria. Diarrhoea worse towards evening. Diarrhoea of sour smell; putrid; during dentition; generally painless. A copious watery, sour-smelling diarrhoea, is the surest indication for Calc. carb.-BAEHR. Chronic diarrhoea, clay-like stools. White, chalk-like stools. Feeling of coldness in the abdomen and thighs. Much crawling and itching in the anus. Urine.-Involuntary emissions of urine on walking. Urine has a brown, bloody or white sediment. Generative Organs of Women.-The history of the case shows that the menses have been too profuse, and return too often and to soon. The least excitement causes the menses to return. Finds it difficult to stand on account of a pressing down, as if the internal organs would press out. Albuminous leucorrhoea, from the cervical canal, with great lassitude, debility, sinking and trembling at the stomach, and burning pains in the cervical canal.-MARCY and HUNT. Profuse leucorrhoea, like milk. Inflammation, redness, and swelling of the vulva, with purulent discharge. Much moisture between the labia and thighs, with biting pain.- With much aching of the vagina. Breasts are distended; milk scanty; she is cold, and there seems to be a want of vitality to bring the milk forward. Healthy women, with defective lactation; children die early, with diarrhoea and convulsions. GOULLON. Respiratory Organs.-This is the most useful remedy in the Materia Medica for consumption. Dry, tickling cough, aggravated by speaking. Cough, with rattling of mucus in the bronchi; the cough is worse in the morning.:. Chronic hoarseness. Haemoptysis, with ulceration of the lungs, accompanied with great debility, emaciation, and constant inclination to take cold from the least exposure. Great emaciation; abdomen bloated, and the least cold goes through the patient. Hectic fever, with copious perspiration of the head and chest. In children enlargement of the glands of the neck, with dry, flabby skin and cold, damp feet. The pains are aggravated by the slightest touch, as from a current of air, cold or warm; noise, excitement, etc. Cold, damp, east wind is sure to bring on a fresh cold. Adapted to cold, leuco-phlegmatic people, especially if inclined to grow fat.