Kali-bi.
Why do you have to be a non-conformist like everybody else?
[James Thurber]
Kalium bichromicum |
Signs
Potassium bichromate. Potassium dichromate.
CHEMISTRY Orange-red crystals or powder; not hygroscopic or deliquescent [difference from sodium dichromate]. Dissolves sparingly in water. The compound is a strong oxidizer; contact with other material may cause fire. It is incompatible with iron, and any combustible, organic or other readily oxidizable material [paper, wood, sulphur, aluminium, plastics].
USES Its special uses are in the manufacture of safety matches, pyrotechnics and explosives. Other uses are in tanning leather, dyeing, painting, decorating porcelain, printing, photolithography, pigment-prints, staining wood; for bleaching palm oil, wax, and sponges; waterproofing fabrics; as oxidizer in the manufacture of organic chemicals; in electrical batteries; as depolarizer for dry cells. 1 In pyrotechnics used as a surface treatment to suppress the corrosion and reactivity of magnesium. It lowers the activation energy of the chemical reaction that takes place when the composition burns, making fireworks ignite at a lower temperature.
Kali bich nasal discharge stingy. |
CHROMIUM Chromium is an essential trace element for animals and man. It functions as the Glucose Tolerance Factor [GTF]. GTF stimulates insulin activity. It has also been found to reduce the concentration of cholesterol in the blood. The best natural sources are egg yolk, molasses, meat, shellfish and crustaceans, beer yeast, black pepper, hard cheese and wheat germ. Chromium deficiency may arise from diets high in refined and processed foods. Other causes of deficiency include excessive losses of body fluids, prolonged slimming regimes, alcoholism, and prolonged intravenous feeding. Symptoms of chromium deficiency are similar to those of hypoglycaemia or to early stages of diabetes; they include irritability, intolerance, mental confusion, weakness, depression, learning disabilities, alcohol intolerance, frequent urination, thirst and hunger, weight loss, and itching. 2
TOXICITY Contact with skin may cause burns, eczema, or ulcers; can be fatal if absorbed through skin. Ulcerations at first may be painless, but may penetrate to the bone producing ‘chrome holes.’ Known to be a human carcinogen. Internally a corrosive poison. When inhaled, extremely destructive to tissues of the mucous membranes and upper respiratory tract. May cause ulceration and perforation of the nasal septum. Symptoms may include sore throat, coughing, shortness of breath, and laboured breathing. May produce pulmonary sensitization or allergic asthma. Higher exposures may cause pulmonary oedema. Swallowing can cause severe burns of the mouth, throat, and stomach, leading to death. Can cause sore throat, vomiting, diarrhoea. May cause violent gastroenteritis, peripheral vascular collapse, dizziness, intense thirst, muscle cramps, shock, coma, abnormal bleeding, fever, liver damage and acute renal failure.
PROVINGS •• [1] Drysdale – 17 provers [11 males, 6 females], 1844; method: doses of 1-100 drops of saturated solution, several times daily for periods varying from several days to 2-3 weeks; also repeated doses of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd dils.
•• [2] Austrian proving – 13 provers [11 males, 2 females], 1845; method: repeated doses of solution, and of several C- or D-potencies [30, 12, 7, 3, 2, 1].
[1] Merck Index. [2] Mervyn, Vitamins and Minerals.
Affinity
MUCOUS MEMBRANES [air passages; NOSE; pharynx; stomach; duodenum]. Fibrous tissue. Ligaments. JOINTS. Skin. Circulation. Kidneys. Root of nose, tongue, penis, etc. * Right side. Left side.
Modalities
Worse: COLD [damp; open air; spring; undressing; winter]. MORNING; after sleep; 2-3 a.m. Protruding tongue. Hot weather. Beer. Alcohol. Suppressed catarrh.
Better: Heat. Cold weather [> skin symptoms]. Eating. Vomiting. Short sleep. Motion.
Main symptoms
Common traits of all Kali’s: conservative, regular, proper, down to earth.
Kali-bi.: • “Something gluey about them; carries the properness of the Kali’s a little bit further; goes into DETAILS; the perfect bureaucrats.” [Morrison]
M Everything on a REGULAR basis.
[dinner, sex, going out, fishing, procedures, tempo, life].
KEEP REGULAR HOURS. Conformist. Living according to a routine.
M Goes by the book. RULES. Narrow-minded.
M Aversion to troubles.
Sucking up. Self-occupied.
• “Mostly interested in their own little existence.” [Morrison]
Like to be with family.
• “Kali bich. patients are quite closed into their own world. They neither seek nor need company. They have emotions, of course, but they do not show them. A Kali bich. man feels perfectly content to stay alone, or only with his wife. He could be a literary man, focussed on his own particular field, and content to remain so. He doesn’t want any kind of interference. Even if someone comes to the door and rings the bell, he may not answer it. The Kali bich. patient wants to spend time only with his family. He will be unlikely to have many friends outside the family, and whatever friend he may have he will welcome visits only infrequently. Taken to the extreme, then, Kali bich. patients become misanthropic and antisocial. They close themselves into their narrow world. … There is a peculiar characteristic of the mental state which I have noticed in Kali bich. patients; because of their narrowness and lack of social contact, they seem to become excessively conscientious in explaining things to others. … He is trapped in his narrow, step-by-step, routinized way of thinking, and he naturally assumes that others think the same way.” [Vithoulkas]
G CHILLINESS.
< Becoming COLD. G Increased thirst. G Desire for BEER. Yet < from beer. • “The chronic beer drinker is fairly typical of Kali-bi.” [Borland] • “One also finds it repeatedly stressed in the materia medica that beer is not well tolerated and from this association it has said that Kali bichromicum is particularly suitable for the gastritis of beer drinkers.” [Leeser] [Beer yeast has a high chromium content.] G Eating > mental symptoms; may also > in general.
• “Feeling of cold, trembling and hunger, > eating.” [Hughes]
G < WARM WET weather. < SUMMER. < Spring. < Autumn. G Summer < fibrositis, skin irritation, acne, sciatica. Spring and autumn < respiratory affections, bronchitis, asthma, dysenteric diarrhoea. G < 2-5 A.M. G < On WAKING. G Pains appear and disappear SUDDENLY. G Pains shift rapidly form one part to another [e.g. wandering rheumatic pains]. Pains appear every day at the same hour [regular basis]. G Pain in SMALL SPOTS. Ulcers look punched out. Sore spot in stomach. G THICK, STRINGY, yellow [or white] DISCHARGES. G Sensation of a HAIR [tongue, nostril, palate, etc.]. G Rheumatic affections [esp. fibrositis] alternating with digestive disorders. G Type. • “In the industrial poisoning in the English factories it is always striking [according to Drysdale] that fat and light haired people are especially susceptible to kali bichromicum, which can serve as a constitutional sign. Likewise in these workers in chrome factories the modality of aggravation of many symptoms in hot weather was observed.” [Leeser] [This may be linked to the fact that there is wide geographical variation as to adult body content of chromium, e.g. Europeans and North Americans have 6 mg body content, African natives 7.45 mg, Middle East inhabitants 11.8 mg, and Far East inhabitants 12.5 mg.1] P Migraine, pain in a SMALL SPOT. Preceded by visual disturbances [blindness, blurred vision, dim vision]. Starts at night. Pain > firm pressure [on root of nose], warmth.
< Cold, stooping. And Nausea and vomiting of white, ropy mucus. And Aversion to light and noise. • “Feeling well all day till about 7 p.m. , when I had sudden feeling as if a black plate were placed before both eyes at a distance of about ten paces, so that I was unable to recognise any object at that distance. As I was looking through a closed window I thought that might be the cause of difficulty, but on turning round and speaking to a person standing about two paces from me I was unable to recognise him, vision being so obscured; this lasted about 10 minutes, when obscuration gave way to sensation as if a veil were hanging before eyes, and were drawn upwards and downwards; this, however, soon disappeared, and the former condition returned. I washed the eyes in cool water, hoping thereby to find relief, especially as eyes had already begun to be painful, but it was of no avail; after lasting about 15 minutes obscuration disappeared, and a kind of vertigo set in [quite similar to that which follows too large an amount of alcoholic stimulants]. This lasted 2 or 3 minutes, when it disappeared, giving place to a violent headache, especially in frontal and orbital regions, at times associated with sticking pains in eyes and tearing in ears; whole attack lasted till 9 p.m. ” [Hughes] P Important remedy for sinusitis. [pressure and fullness at root of nose, stringy and yellow discharge when acute, stringy and white when chronic]. Colds extending to sinuses. P Digestion. Stomach upset by simplest of foods. Repletion after only a few mouthfuls of food. Sudden nausea. Stomach pains – in a small spot – coming on between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. Heartburn immediately or soon after eating. Heartburn at night; awakes with / from it. Marked < starchy food, esp. potatoes. And Thick yellow coated tongue. [1] Mervyn, Vitamins and Minerals. Rubrics Mind Anxiety, before menses [1]. Confusion, at night on waking [1]. Delusions, he had committed a crime [1], he will become insane from pain [1/1]. Mental symptoms > when eating [1]. Fear of death before menses [1]. Indifference, to external things [1]. Aversion to reading [1]. Desire for rest [1].
Vertigo
Tea > [1*]. Warm soup > [1/1].
Head
Pain, comes and goes with the sun [1], > epistaxis [1], periodical, every day at the same hour [3], > tea [1]; forehead, middle, frontal sinuses from chronic coryza [2]; sides, in a small spot [2]; pressing, vertex, as from a weight [1*].
Eye
Lachrymation, from tobacco smoke [1*]. Sensation as if loose [1]. Pain, burning, from looking steadily at an object [1*], from tobacco smoke [1*]. Winking, during epilepsy [1/1].
Vision
Blurred, before headache [2]. Colours, red [2], yellow [2]. Diplopia, vertical [1].
Hearing
Impaired, cannot tell direction of sound [1].
Nose
Sense of fulness at root of nose [2]. Heat, expired air feels hot [3]; in root [3/1]. Obstruction, alternating sides [2], in warm wet weather [2]. Odours, imaginary, of putrid eggs [1]. Sensation as if nose were made of parchment [2]. Pressure of glasses < [1]. Mouth Ropy mucus during epileptic convulsions [1/1]. Ropy saliva [3]. Taste, sweetish, after smoking [1*]. Throat Choking, < clothing [1], on waking from nightmare [1*]. Pain, > after swallowing [1]; constrictive, when moving jaw from side to side [1*].
Stomach
Eructations, salty [1*]. Heaviness, after beer [3], after chocolate [1*], after meat [2]. Nausea, < coffee [1*]. Vomiting, after coffee [1*], after milk [1], < stooping [1*]; tendency to vomiting from slightest pressure on pit of stomach [1*]. Rectum Diarrhoea, after beer [2]. Female Prolapsus, uterus, in hot weather [2/1]. Chest Sensation of coldness in region of heart [2]. Back Pain, cervical region, on blowing nose [2/1], < raising arms [1*], < turning head [1*]; sacral region, during coition [1*]; coccyx, in morning on waking [2], > after rising [in morning] [1*], < sitting [3]. Dreams Of someone sitting crosswise over chest and belly, which caused choking sensation [1*]. Suffocation [1]. Perspiration Profuse, while sitting quietly [3]. Skin Eruptions, in summer [2]. Itching, > cold air [2].
Generals
Lying, pain goes to side not lain on [1]. Slow motion > [1]. Pain, bones as if broken [1*]; in small spots [3].
* Repertory additions [Hughes].
Food
Aversion: [2]: Beer; meat; water. [1]: Fruit; drinks; smoking; sour.
Desire: [2]: Beer; sour drinks. [1]: Cold drinks; pickles; sour; wine.
Worse: [2]: Beer; food, sight of; meat; meat, sight of; sour drinks. [1]: Chocolate [= heaviness in stomach, and meteorism]; coffee; farinaceous; fruit; ice; milk; tea.
Better: [1]: Soup; tea.