KALI CARBONICUM


Homeopathic remedy Kali Carbonicum from A Manual of Homeopathic Therapeutics by Edwin A. Neatby, comprising the characteristic symptoms of homeopathic remedies from clinical indications, published in 1927….


      Potassium carbonate. (K2CO3).

INTRODUCTION

      CARBONATE OF POTASH is not much used in ordinary practice, though it occasionally figures in prescriptions as an antacid, and was at one time used for whooping cough and (externally) for pruritus. It appears to have a direct depressant action on muscular tissue when administered intravenously, lessening the force of the heart’s action and ultimately arresting it in diastole. At first it stimulates metabolism by increasing the oxidation of proteids and fats. The excretion of urea is increased and that of ammonia lessened, but the total nitrogen excretion is increased.

It is interesting to note the difference between the orthodox and the homoeopathic schools in their estimation of the therapeutic value of the alkaline carbonates and bicarbonates. According to the orthodox school (vide Cushny, sub voce)they owe their pharmaco logical action entirely to the non-metallic ion, which is so much the more powerful that the metallic ion can be neglected. The active constituent is the hydroxyl (OH), of their alkaline action. In homoeopathic pharmacy, on the contrary, the hydroxyl is dissipated by successive dilutions of the metallic ion remains, so that the effects of the potentized metal are available for therapeutic purposes. This is why in homoeopathic practice only the dilutions, from 6c. upwards, of the alkaline salts of potassium, sodium and ammonium are commonly used.

PHARMACODYNAMICS.

      Kali carbonicum, under which name this remedy is known in homoeopathic literature, has been proved by Hahnemann and some of his associates. It causes general weakness, anaemia and sensitiveness, and affects the respiratory organs, muscular tissue and, to a lesser extent, the digestive system. Dryness of mucous surfaces or a thick, sticky secretion is induced, e.g., in mouth, nose and larynx. The pains caused by kali carb. are sharp, sticking or shooting pains in various parts of the body, especially in the chest walls back and extremities. They rapidly change their site. They may be so severe and sudden as to make the patient cry out, and they are worse at night. In the last named (.e., the limbs) cramps occur, chiefly in the calves; or a feeling of heaviness and powerlessness may be experienced. Warmth relieves the pains, and they change their site to a cold area. The right side of the body is more affected than the left (scapula, calf, thigh, chest. &c.). Left-sided symptoms are often associated with cardiac lesions.

THERAPEUTICS.

      Kali carb. is a remedy of which the curative sphere can best be realized by studying the provings in extenso. It has not many focal lesions to its credit, but it is of great value in many anomalous chronic, and even deepseated disturbances of health such as are common enough in real life, but which are chiefly functional, and are difficult to place in any formal scheme of classification. Such cases to-day are put down to some form of toxaemia, the sources of infection being one or more of many. Some other conditions are as follows.-

Respiratory System.-Chronic nasal and post-nasal catarrh may require this remedy, if there is accumulation of secretion during the night, which dries and forms crusts which are hawked or coughed up in the morning. The detachment of these sometimes causes the discharge to be blood-stained. These chronic colds are liable to alternate with headaches, especially if the flow is stopped by cold winds, the arrest of the catarrh appearing to be the cause of the headache.

Conditions in which a moderate degree of hoarseness, and weakness of the voice amounting to aphonia are present may require this remedy. The cases will probably be associated with congestion of the fauces, nasopharynx and larynx, producing a peculiar kind of catarrh. The secretion may be described as adhesive and cohesive. The mucus adheres closely to the mucous membrane and requires violent and probably prolonged coughing to dislodge it. When at last it is loosened, being cohesive or solid it is liable to be projected to a distance from the mouth by the violence of the cough. It is not ropy, drawing into strings, like that produced by the bichromate (kali bich.). This description applies also to the mucous secretion of the trachea and upper bronchi. The cough, besides being forcible, is paroxysmal, dry and suffocative, and an important indication for kali carb. is the time modality, “cough worse from 3 to 4 a.m.”. Difficulty of breathing, apparently due to a spasmodic or asthmatic element, is another feature of cases requiring the remedy, and in most cases chest pains are associated. They are of the typical sharp, shooting character, worse on deep breathing and in even after lying down, on talking or lifting heavy articles; and one of their favourite sites is over the base of the right lung. The heavy coughing may produce a sore, bruised feeling in the chest walls.

Though there is no definite proof that kali carbonicum produces pneumonia, it has been given in the stage of hepatization, especially where sharp “sticking” pains, which catch the breath and suggest extension to the pleura, are present. The base of the right lung is the site of predilection for a kali carb. pneumonia. When the leading general indications are present kali carb. is of great use after pneumonia, where a lack of resistance exists and the lung breaks down and there are fever and emaciation, cough, and profuse, purulent, offensive expectoration, tasting of bad cheese. This may be associated with tubercle or with streptococcic infection. Cases of emphysema, bronchiectasis and pleural adhesions may have kali carb. features. If, after pneumonia, there be present over- sensitiveness to chills, changes, cold and damp air, and the patient be constantly getting ” a cold on the chest,” kali carb is one of the most likely remedies. Relief from the warmth of a fire or the sun would confirm the choice. In Hahnemann’s day it was much used, on his recommendation, in cases of phthisis pulmonalis.

Though not much used for whooping-cough in the present day, it should be kept in mind should kali carb. characteristics be present in a pertussis case. It is also useful to mention here a symptom much relied on as an indication for this remedy, because it was first brought forward as a “key-note” in connection with whooping-cough, viz., a puffy, baggy condition of the upper eyelid, described as being between the lid and the eyebrow-it is a kind of sagging-not oedema as in renal cases. It may occur in violent paroxysms of cough and then is possibly due to subcutaneous emphysema. However originating, it may serve as a reminder of kali carb. and should cause the prescriber to consider whether the rest of the patient’s condition corresponds with the rest of the pathogenesy of the drug. The rarity of the symptom would add to its value as a guide when it is present.

Circulatory System.-With the respiratory troubles heart symptoms may develop or they may cause the difficulty of breathing. The pulse is feeble and quickened, palpitation shaking the while body is brought on by the slightest effort, and systoles are missed or are too feeble to be felt at the wrists. Blood-pressure is lowered. Some of the kali carb. cases have fatty degeneration of the cardiac muscle. Cardiac dropsy, even amounting to anasarca, has been successfully treated by the remedy; there is cardiac dyspnoea, the patient cannot walk any distance nor can he lie down; he must be propped up to breathe comfortably or must sit leaning forwards. There is aggravation from lying on the left side and the asthmatic attacks are worse from 2 to 5 o’clock in the morning. Flushes of heat and throbbing in the vessels in any part of the body have led to its prescription for menopausic symptoms. The stitching pains in the chest have led to its use in pericarditis and endocarditis, but the heart symptoms of kali carb. subjects are mainly myopathic rather than valvular.

Neck, Back and Limbs.-Stiffness of the neck and lumbar muscles is present; the pains in the loins are sharp and lancinating (shooting) in character. Similar pains in the limbs occur and they may cause restlessness at night in bed. All these pains are worse from movement, from cold, damp air and in the early morning, and are relieved by the warmth of fire or sun. In place of the shooting pains there may be heaviness and a weak, powerless feeling, with numbness, especially in the arms. Cramps, too, are present in the thighs and calves, worse at night or in the early morning and when standing.

Pain from the hip to the knee, especially if on the right side and accompanied by a feeling of weakness as if the thigh would give out on walking, is characteristic of kali carb.

The relationship of kali carb. provings and of patients possibly requiring the remedy, to the movement modality, requires some consideration. It does not frankly conform either to the rhus or the bryonia type. Most of the symptoms are definitely worse during and after movement, especially (like rhus) on first movement. The aggravation extends beyond such efforts as walking, to semi-voluntary movements, such as respiration, coughs, &c. The pains may persist even during rest, and they may compel movement to relieve a long-held position, and may he more noticed at night or when otherwise at rest and unoccupied. In this sense there may be an element of aggravation during rest. That that main aggravation is from movement is shown by the following examples; (a) Headache is worse from walking, stooping, moving the head, jaws and eyes, or even from the movement of a carriage; (b) in the liver region there is pain on walking; (c) in the chest there are pains on breathing, lifting and talking, and palpitation is worse from the least exertion; (d) the backache is worse from walking and from breathing (but it may persist during rest); (e) there are shooting pains in the right scapular region on breathing; (f) the feet are heavy and the toes painful on walking; (g) rheumatic pains in the back, chest, shoulders and arms, are worse during and after movement, and the pain of “spinal irritation” is relieved by lying; (h) weariness and faintness come on as soon as the patient moves; (i) even aggravation from eating may in part be attributed to the fatigue of the effort. Eating leads at once to drowsiness, it seems ” as though the mere effort of mastication an deglutition, and in the early secretion of the gastric juices put an extra strain on the system, which it resents” (C.E. Wheeler, loc. cit.).

Edwin Awdas Neatby
Edwin Awdas Neatby 1858 – 1933 MD was an orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy to become a physician at the London Homeopathic Hospital, Consulting Physician at the Buchanan Homeopathic Hospital St. Leonard’s on Sea, Consulting Surgeon at the Leaf Hospital Eastbourne, President of the British Homeopathic Society.

Edwin Awdas Neatby founded the Missionary School of Homeopathy and the London Homeopathic Hospital in 1903, and run by the British Homeopathic Association. He died in East Grinstead, Sussex, on the 1st December 1933. Edwin Awdas Neatby wrote The place of operation in the treatment of uterine fibroids, Modern developments in medicine, Pleural effusions in children, Manual of Homoeo Therapeutics,