Calcarea phosphorica

Lecture LXVI — Calcarea phosphorica and Hepar

Calcarea Phosphorica.

f Cinchona, Zinc, Phosphorus (hydrocephaloid).

Dulcamara, Silicea, Sulphur.

Calcarea phos. -j Rhus, Causticum.

Sulphur, Calcarea ostr., Silicea, Phosphorus.

Baryta c. (mental weakness).

The complementary drugs of Calcarea phos. are: Zinc, Ruta graveolens, and Sulphur. Zinc you will find complementary to Calcarea phosphorica in hydrocephaloid; Ruta in affections of the joints and periosteum; and Sulphur pretty much as we found under Calcarea ostrearum.

Now there are many symptoms that are common to both Calcarea ostrearum and phosphorica. It is not a little perplexing at times, in a case which seems to call for lime, to decide which one of these preparations we should give. Perhaps I can give you distinctions enough to enable you to judge. To determine the efficacy of Calcarea phosphorica you must remember its ingredients, lime and phosphorus, and you will see how they are modified in their chemical combination, so that while we have some resemblances to Calcarea and others to Phosphorus, we have still other symptoms which belong to the combination, Calcarea phosphorica, and which are found neither in Calcarea nor in Phosphorus alone.

Calcarea phos. seems especially called for in defective nutrition, hence it is often useful in childhood as well as at puberty and in extreme old age. Beginning with the infant, we shall find it of inestimable service when the child is thin and emaciated, with sunken, rather flabby abdomen, and predisposed to grandular and osseous disease. The head is large, and both fontanelles are open. The cranial bones are unnaturally thin and brittle. The teeth develop tardily. It has curvature of the spine. The child is slow in learning to walk, and the spine is so weak that it cannot support the body. The neck is so thin and weak that it cannot support the head, which falls whichever wayit happens to be inclined. The child vomits milk persistently, whether it be the breast milk or that artificially prepared from the cow. It suffers from colic after every feeding. The stools are often green, slimy and lienteric, and are accompanied by the passage of a great deal of foetid flatus. Sometimes, the stool is very profuse, watery and hot. In cholera infantum, the stools may be of the character mentioned, or they may present a flaky appearance from the admixture of a small portion of pus. There is, in this cholera infantum, great emaciation of the whole body. The little face is pale, and the prominent parts of the body are cold. There is craving for bacon or ham. Mentally, these children are very much depressed, so that they are slow of comprehension. They seem to be stupid. Even cretinism may be developed by the continued use of Calcarea phosphorica. This will place it in your mind, along side of Baryta carb., in mental symptoms. As the child grows in years, if not in stature, any exposure to dampness or wet causes a feeling of general aching or soreness, particularly when it is moved. The least motion is unbearable. Do not be misled by this aggravation from motion and give Bryonia. It is not here a symptom for Bryonia, for it indicates the incipient symptoms of rachitis. Every little exposure produces a feeling of heat all over the body. The periosteum and the articulations are irritated and inflamed, and cause this aggravation from motion. You will find Calcarea phosphorica an excellent remedy to prevent rachitis. If it fails you, you may still fall back on Silicea.

This sensitiveness to dampness enables us to use Calcarea phos. in diseases of adults. This I consider an important qualification of the drug. Thus, it is indicated in women with a feeling of weakness and distress referred to the hypogastrium with uterine displacements, and worse by passage of either stool or urine. Especially is it indicated in women whose joints ache in every change of the weather. This quality separates it from other similarly-acting drugs. The uterine symptoms are aggravated by this change in weather, a symptom that is prominent in Calcarea phosphorica, more so, in fact, than in either Calcarea or Phosphorus. Phosphorus has the gone, weak feeling in the hypogastrium, just like Calcarea phos . , but the modality just mentioned is absent.

So, too, we may use Calcarea phos. in rheumatism appearing in any change of weather. On exposure to dampness, we find stiffness of the neck, aching and soreness in the limbs and wandering pains through the limbs, particularly around the sacral region and down the legs. All these symptoms appear with every change of weather. If the patient contracts a cold, it is associated with dryness and soreness in the throat, stitches in the chest, heat on the lower part of the chest and upper arms, and a yellow sputum.

Another use of Calcarea phos. arises from its action on joints. I refer to its use in the treatment of fractures. Wherever bones form a suture or joint, there Calcarea phos. has an action. We find it, for instance, causing pains along the sagittal suture. Again, where the sacrum unites with the iliac bones, forming the sacro-iliac symphyses, there Calcarea phosphorica produces pain. If, during pregnancy, a woman complains of pain in this locality, Calcarea phosphorica ought to help her.

Now, when there is a sort of artificial suture, as there is at the point of coaptation of broken bones, there, also, Calcarea phos. has an action. In some cases, the fractured ends may fail to unite; you give Calcarea phosphorica, which stimulates the formation of callus. It is better to use a low potency of the drug in this case.

In this respect, Calcarea phos. compares favorably with Symphytum, which is also used for non-union of fracture, particularly when the trouble is of nervous origin.

Conchiolin may here be mentioned. It is useful in osteitis at the ends of the diaphyses. This " mother of pearl " causes such a disease among workmen.

We have yet another use for Calcarea phosphorica, and that is for school-girls, particularly when they get near the age of puberty and they are exceedingly nervous and restless. They want to go away from home, and when away, they want to come back again. They suffer from headache when at school. They develop very slowly and are often chlorotic.

We may use Calcarea phosphorica in children who are suffering from marasmus. They have the peculiar craving and the diarrhoea that I have already described. The face is white and pale, or else sallow. The circulation is so imperfect that the ears and nose are cold. These cases, too, have that inability of the neck to support the head, of which I have already spoken.

There is a resemblance between Calcarea phosphorica and Cinchona. The latter may prevent this extreme picture if you give it for the drowsy, exhausted condition and has cold face, that follows the frequent and protracted discharges. In these cases, the administration of Cinchona will bring the child up and prevent the condition calling for Calcarea phos.

On the other hand, you will find Calcarea phos. will give place to Zinc when you have the rolling of the head, grinding of the teeth, cold pale face, hot occiput, fidgety motion of the feet ? and other symptoms of this remedy that I have already given you.

From Baryta carb. this drug is to be distinguished when the child under treatment is mentally stupid.

Ruta holds a complementary relationship in periosteal and articular pains. And lastly, Silicea resembles Calcarea phos. especially in rachitis, but has more offensive head sweat, more constipation and a strong tendency to suppuration, boils, etc.

In aggravation from exposure to wet we may compare Dulcamara, Sulphur, Silicea and Causticum.

It is highly important to be able to distinguish between Calcarea ostrearum and Calcarea phosphoiica. This you can do by comparing the descriptions I have given you to-day and yesterday, as follows: Calcarea ostrearum has an enlarged abdomen; Calcarea phos. has flabby abdomen, from the admixture of phosphorus with the lime. In cholera infantum Calcarea ostrearum has craving for eggs; Calcarea phos. for salt or smoked meats. The Calcarea ostrearum stools are sometimes green, but generally watery, white and mixed with curds. The Calcarea phos. diarrhoea has green, slimy or hot watery stools accompanied by foetid flatus. Calcarea ostrearum has particularly the anterior fontanelle remaining open; Calcarea phos. has both anterior and posterior fontanelles open.

Hepar Sulphuris Calcarea.