Materia Medica

Calcarea phosphorica – Farrington

Calcarea phosphorica
calc-p

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 these preparations of lime. 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 if 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 glandular and osseous disease. The head is large, and both fontanelles are open. The cranial bones are unnaturally thin and brittle. The teeth develop tardily. We have 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 way it 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, alongside of BARYTA CARB., in mental symptoms. As the child grows in years, any exposure to dampness or wet causes a feeling of general aching or soreness, particularly when the child is moved. The least motion is unbearable. Do not give BRYONIA in such a case as this, because the patient is worse from motion. Do not be misled by this aggravation from motion. 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 far 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. That symptom 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.

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.

We have yet another use for Calcarea phosphorica, and that is for schoolgirls, 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 slowly and are 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 following symptoms: When, from the frequency of the discharges, the child becomes drowsy and exhausted and has cold face. 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. to give place to ZINC when you have the Zinc symptoms that I have already given you, rolling of the head, grinding of the teeth, cold pale face, hot occiput, fidgety motion of the feet, etc.

In aggravation from exposure to wet we may compare DULCAMARA, SILICEA, SULPHUR and CAUSTICUM.

It is highly important to be able to distinguish between Calcarea ostrearum and Calcarea phosphorica. This you can do by comparing the descriptions I have given you today and yesterday. 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 fontanels remaining open; Calcarea phos. has both anterior and posterior fontanelles open.