It will be of help in differentiating between two remedies if you remember this quotation from Allen’s Handbook: “Kali carb. is almost as frequently indicated,” in chest conditions, “as Calcarea c., though the Kali patient is worse from cold, while the Calcarea patient is worse from dampness; the chronic troubles requiring Kali should be sent to a warm climate, though moist; those requiring Calcarea should be sent to a dry climate, though cold.”
The Kali carb. patient emaciates rapidly, with great loss of strength and weak pulse; he is short-breathed, has the gastric symptoms of the remedy and perhaps the swelling under the eye- brows.
It is useful in chronic catarrhal conditions, in chronic interstitial pneumonia, in chronic pleurisy with the sharp chest pains, and in chronic inflammation of the upper part of the lungs, tending towards tuberculosis. Hahnemann says: “Patients suffering from ulceration of the lungs rarely get well without this antipsoric” (Chr. Dis.).
It is frequently indicated in asthma (19), especially when constitutional and hereditary, the patient waking at 3-4 A.M.; with dyspnoea, wheezing and sharp pains in the chest on breathing. They are markedly worse from sudden cold changes in the weather (21).
Kali carb. has a lumbago, with sharp, sticking, lancinating pains that extend up and down the back and down the back of the thighs (128). These pains are worse in the early morning hours, about 3 A.M., and from cold changes in the weather; the pains make the patient very uneasy and they cannot remain in bed and on walking there is great weakness and a sensation as if the back would break.
With this form of backache, the pains beginning in the small of the back and running down along the buttocks and back of the thighs,”aggravation when walking, they are obliged to sit down” (Lilienthal), it may prove useful in threatened abortion (13), especially of the earlier months.
It is of value in sciatica, muscular rheumatism of various parts of the body and in hip disease (117) of scrofulous children, with the general characteristic of sharp, lancinating pains, aggravation from cold air and cold changes in the weather (5) and at 3 A.M.
Dearborn, in speaking of the skin symptoms of this remedy, says: “Chronic eczema of the squamous or papula type, wherever located, occurring in the anaemic, attended with sticking, burning or itching sensations, which are worse in the open air, is nearly always benefited by Kali carb.”
In erysipelas (68) the sac-like swellings under the eye- brows would be an additional and characteristic indication for the remedy.
Why, with its prominent symptoms, Kali carb. should not be a better known and more frequently used remedy, I never could understand. Farrington says: “It is a drug much neglected in practice, for much the same reason that many other remedies are, because the hurried and careless physician falls into routinism.”
I use Kali carb. 3d.
