Carbo Vegetabilis



Gums: The old books talk about “scorbutic gums;” now we call it Rigg’s disease: a separation of the gums from the teeth. Bleeding of the gums; sensitiveness of the gums. Separation of the gums from the teeth.

The teeth get loose.

We hear about “the teeth rattling in his mouth.”

The Carbons produce just such a state, a settling away and absorbing of the gums. They get spongy and bleed easily, and hence looseness of the teeth with bleeding of the gums, which are very sensitive.

Teeth decay rapidly. Bleeding of the gums when cleaning the teeth. Teeth and gum affections from abuse of Mercury,Teeth feel too long and are sore. Drawing and tearing in the teeth. Tearing in the teeth from hot, cold or salt food; pain from both heat and cold. This is in keeping with the general venous condition of the whole system.

Sensitiveness of the tongue. Inflammation of the tongue. In certain low forms of fever, like typhus and typhoid fevers, the gums turn black; that is, they throw out a blackish, bloody, offensive, putrid exudate. If disturbed or touched they bleed; and the tongue piles up that blackish exudate – that oozing of black blood from the veins.

This is present in putrid forms of fevers like the typhoid-in zymotic states. This remedy is rich in those zymotic symptoms, such as are described in common speech as “blood-poisoning.”

Carbo veg. is a sheet-anchor in low types of typhoid; in scarlet fever where a typhoid condition is coming upon the case, and in the last stages of collapse; in cholera, and in yellow fever at the time of collapse, where there is coldness, cold sweat, great prostration, dyspnoea – wants to be fanned. Great prostration with cold tongue,

Mouth and throat: The mouth and throat are filled with little purple aphthous ulcers, which were little white spots to begin with, but they have grown purplish and now ooze black blood. These aphthous patches bleed easily, burn and sting. Blisters form. Smarting, dryness of the mouth with bleeding aphthous ulcers. These are common features of Carbo veg. in any of the mouth and throat conditions.

Tough mucus in the throat; bloody mucus in the throat. These little ulcers run together, spread and become one solid mass. A large surface will become ulcerated, denuded of its mucous membrane, and then it will bleed. Little black spots come upon it. Food cannot be swallowed because the throat is so sore. Generally the throat feels puffed.

The Cargo veg. patient has a longing for coffee, acids, sweet and salt things. Aversion to the most digestible things and the best of food. For instance, aversion to meat, and to milk which causes flatulence. Now, if I were going to manufacture a Carbo veg. constitution I would commence with his stomach.

If I wanted to produce these varicose veins and the weak venous side of the heart; this fullness and congestion, and flatulence, this disordered stomach and bowels, and head and mind troubles; sluggishness of the economy.

I would begin and stuff him. I would feed him with fats, with sweets, puddings, pies and sauce, and all such indigestible trash, and give him plenty of wine – then I would have the Carbo veg. patient.

Do we ever have any such people to treat? just as soon as they tell their story, you will know, enough about their lives to know that they are mince pie fiends; they have lived on it for years, and now they come saying,

“Oh, doctor, my stomach; just my stomach; if you will simply fix up my stomach.”

But what are you going to do with him? He has made himself into a Carbo veg. patient for you, and it may be quite a while before you can bring him down to a sensible diet.

Now he must begin at the foot of the ladder. I only brought this up to show how a Carbo veg, patient is produced and what kind of a stomach he has, and what he has been living on. He has burning in the stomach, distension of the stomach, constant eructations, flatulence, passing offensive flatus.

In reality he is in a foetid condition, a putrid condition. His sweat is offensive. He has heartburn eructations, the stomach regurgitates the food that he takes.

Carbo veg. has much vomiting at the end of the chill. Vomiting and diarrhoea. Vomiting and blood; with the vomiting of blood the body is icy cold; breath cold, The pulse is thready and intermittent. Fainting; hippocratic face; oozing of thick black blood.

Vomiting of sour, bloody, bilious masses.

Stomach and food: There is an accumulation of flatus in the stomach, so that the stomach feels distended. All food taken into the stomach seems to turn into flatus; he is always belching and is slightly, relieved for a while by belching. Carbo veg., has cramps in the bowels and stomach; burning pain; anxiety; distension.

All these symptoms are ameliorated by belching or passing flatus. Amelioration from belching seems quite a natural event; but when we study China, you will see that the patient appears to be aggravated from belching. The idea is that the patient gets relief from belching from eructation, but under Lycopodium and China it seems that no relief comes. They belch copiously and yet seem just as full of mind as ever, and sometimes even seem to be worse.

The Carbo veg. patient experiences a decided relief from eructation. This is a particular symptom, but it becomes almost general, and sometimes quite general. Headaches are relieved by belching; rheumatic pains are relieved by belching; sufferings and distensions of various kinds are relieved by eructations.

This abdominal fullness aggravates all the complaints of the body. The fullness, which is described as if in the veins, is sometimes in the tissues, under the skin, so that it will crepitate. This is a feature of Carbo veg., and, in rheumatic conditions, part of the swelling is sometimes of this character.

Food remains a long time in the stomach, becomes sour and putrid. It passes into the bowels and ferments further, finally passing off in the form of putrid flatus.

There is colic, burning pains, distension, fullness, constricting and cramping pains from this distension.

The patient complains of feeling as if the stomach were raw. This is described as a smarting, sometimes from taking food; sometimes from taking cold water. Carbo veg., has cured ulceration of the stomach. It is a deep-acting medicine, and is capable of curing all disordered conditions of the stomach; such as disorders from eating indigestible things, mince pie, too hearty food.

Liver: In Carbo veg. the liver, like all the other organs, takes on a state of torpidity and sluggishness. It becomes enlarged. The portal system is engorged, and hence hemorrhoids develop.

Pain and distension in the region of the liver; sensitiveness and burning in the liver, accompanied by a bloated condition of the stomach and bowels. A feeling of tension in the region of the liver; the part feels drawn, as if too tight.

There are pressing pains in the liver, and it is sensitive to touch.

Abdomen: Much that I have said regarding the flatulence and fullness of the stomach applies also to the abdomen. Carbo veg. may be indicated in low forms of fever, as in septic fever, when there is a marked tympanitic condition, with diarrhoea, bloody discharges, distension and flatulence.

Extremely putrid flatus escapes making the patient very offensive. A striking abdominal symptom of Carbo veg. is that the flatus collects here and there in the intestine as if it were in a lump incarcerated flatus; a constriction of the intestine will hold it in one place so that it feels like a lump or tumor, that finally disappears.

Colic here and there in the abdomen from flatus. There is burning in the abdomen. No matter what the trouble is, in Carbo veg. there is always burning. The part burns; it feels full; it becomes engorged and turgid with blood.

Diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera, when there is a bloody, watery stool. Cholera infantum; stool mixed with mucus; watery mucus mixed with blood.

The child sinks from exhaustion, with coldness, pallor and cold sweat. The nose, face and lips are pinched and hippocratic. With all diarrheic troubles the prostration will indicate Carbo veg. as much as, if not more than, the stool.

In the diarrhea of Carbo veg. all the stools, no matter what kind, are putrid, with putrid flatulence. The more thin, dark bloody mucus there is, the better is the remedy indicated. Itching, burning and raw ness of the anus and round about, are strong features of Carbo veg.

Soreness in all diarrheic conditions – soreness to pressure over the abdomen. Round about the anus, in children, there is excoriation. The parts are red, raw and bleeding, and they itch.

Itching of the anus in adults. Ulceration of the bowels. This tendency to ulceration of mucous membranes is in keeping with the character of the remedy. Whenever there are mucous membranes there may be ulceration. Aphthous appearance. Ulceration of Peyer’s glands. The patient lies in bed and oozes involuntarily a thin bloody fluid, like bloody serum.

Bladder: Old chronic catarrhal conditions of the bladder, when the urine contains mucus, especially in old people, with cold face, cold extremities and cold sweat.

James Tyler Kent
James Tyler Kent (1849–1916) was an American physician. Prior to his involvement with homeopathy, Kent had practiced conventional medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. He discovered and "converted" to homeopathy as a result of his wife's recovery from a serious ailment using homeopathic methods.
In 1881, Kent accepted a position as professor of anatomy at the Homeopathic College of Missouri, an institution with which he remained affiliated until 1888. In 1890, Kent moved to Pennsylvania to take a position as Dean of Professors at the Post-Graduate Homeopathic Medical School of Philadelphia. In 1897 Kent published his magnum opus, Repertory of the Homœopathic Materia Medica. Kent moved to Chicago in 1903, where he taught at Hahnemann Medical College.

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