Common name. Phosphate of Lime. Preparation. Triturations of the precipitated phosphate of time.
GENERAL ANALYSIS.
Affects exclusively the vegetative system, causing defective nutrition, imperfect cell development and consequent decay or destruction of tissue, especially in the osseous and glandular systems.
CHARACTERISTIC SYMPTOMS.
Mind. Children are peevish and fretful (Chamomilla, Cina.). Forgetful; difficulty in performing intellectual operations.
Head. Crawling sensation runs over top of head, as if ice were lying on upper part of occiput (Veratrum alb.); head hot, smarting of the roots of the hair. Delayed closure or reopening of fontanelles (Calcarea c.). Skull soft and thin; cracking noise like paper when pressed, mostly in occiput. Headache of school girls, with diarrhoea.
Eyes. Light, particularly candle or gaslight, hurts the eyes.
Ears. Singing or other noises in the ears (Calcarea c.). Inner and outer ear swollen, red, sore, itching, hot. Excoriating discharge from ears.
Nose. Coryza, fluent in cool room (Pulsatilla); stopped in warm air and out of doors. Bleeding of nose, afternoons. Nasal polypi large, pedunculated.
Face. Pain in face, particularly in upper jaw bone, from right of left; extends from other parts to face, or vice versa. Swollen upper lip (Belladonna, Calcarea c., Psorinum); painful, hard and burning.
Mouth. Retarded dentition (Calcarea c.), with cold tumors and emaciation. Tip of tongue sore, burning (Calcarea c., Carb. an., Coloc., Kali carb.); little blisters on it. Better taste in the morning, with headache (Bryonia, nux. v., Carb. an., Pulsatilla, Sulphur).
Throat. Sore aching in the throat; worse when swallowing.
Stomach. Unusual hunger at 4 P.M.; infant wants to nurse all the time. With every attempt to eat he has bellyache. After dinner heartburn, and other gastric symptom (Carb. an.). After belching, a burning in epigastrium. Empty, sinking sensation at the epigastrium (Ignatia). Vomiting from hawking phlegm. Easy vomiting in children. Burning at the stomach and rising of water into the mouth. Stomach feels expanded.
Abdomen Aching soreness and pain around the navel; relieved by passing foetid. Burning in the abdomen (Aconite, Arsenicum, Cantharis). Cutting, pinching, sharp colic, followed by diarrhoea.
Stool and Anus. Very offensive diarrhoea (Arsenicum). Diarrhoea from juicy fruit or cider; during first dentition with much wind; from vexation; containing white points or flakes, like pus; scanty with much flatulence. Passage of offensive flatus. Sore feeling in anus; worse outside, with stitching burning and throbbing. Itching in anus (Sulphur). Fistula in ano, alternating with chest symptoms.
Urinary Organs. Violent pain in region of kidneys, when lifting and when blowing the nose. Large increase of urine with sensation of weakness.
Male Organs. Erection while riding in a carriage without desire. Shooting through the perineum into the penis. Swelling of the testicles; scrotum sore, oozing a fluid.
Female Organs. Weakness and distress in the region of the uterus; worse during passage of stool and urine; with uterine displacement. Pressure upward over mons veneris. Voluptuous feeling as if the parts were filling up with blood; feels pulse in all the parts, with increased sexual desire. Menses too early, blood bright, with girls; too late; blood dark, or first bright, then dark, women. Child refuses the breast, then dark, in women. Child refuses the breast, the milk tastes saltish. Leucorrhoea like white of an egg (Ammonium mur., Borax), worse mornings. Mammae sore to the touch (Bryonia).
Respiratory Organs. Hoarseness (Aconite, Hepar s., Phosphorus). Must has or hem to clear the voice. Involuntary sighing (Ignatia, Secale). Breathing more frequent, short and difficult. Cough during difficult dentition. Contraction of chest, a nd difficult breathing, evening till 10 P.M.; better lying down; worse when getting up.
Neck and Back. Rheumatic pain and stiffness of the neck (Rhus.), with dullness of the head; from slight draught of air. Cramp-like pain in neck, first one side, then the other. Backache and uterine pains (Cimic. Pulsatilla). Soreness in sacro-iliac symphysis, as if separated or broken. Throbbing or jerking pains below scapula.
Limbs. Pains flying about in all parts of pump and limbs, after getting we in the rain (Rhus tox.). Aching in all the limbs, with weariness.
Upper Limbs. Rheumatic pain in shoulder and arm. Pains as if ulcerated around the finger nails, especially of right hand.
Lower Limbs. Lower limbs fall asleep; feel restless; anxious; has to mover them. Legs tired, weak, restless, crawling, tingling. Pains above the knee. Cramp-like pain in calves (Aconite, Calcarea c., Nux v.), when walking.
Generalities. Weariness when going arts.
Aggravation. Mornings; evenings; from motion; artificial light; from cold; after eating; from juicy fruit; from change of weather, or from getting wet in rain.
Amelioration. Mornings; evenings; from motion; artificial light; from cold; after eating; from juicy fruit; from change of weather, or from getting wet in rain.
Amelioration. After lying down.
Conditions. Girls at or near puberty; during dentition; especially second dentition, old people.
Compare. Baryta c., Berberis, Calcarea c., Fluor ac., Iodi., Nitr. ac., Phosphorus, Ruta, Silicea, Sulphur
THERAPEUTICS.
The clinical range of Calcarea Phosphorica is very similar to that of Calcarea carbonica, though not so extensive. Like the latter it is a tissue remedy and is especially useful in defective nutrition, particularly in diseases of the bones and glands, especially in strumous tubercular and rachitic subjects. In such cases this drug may be indicated when the patient fails to present the characteristic Calcarea carbonica individuality, fair, fat and flabby, but is thin, emaciated, and the skin is not so white, having more of a brown or yellow hue. The child grows slowly and does not learn to walk readily; is stupid and sluggish. The fontanelles are open, but the drug is more useful when they have reopened during the second dentitions; the cranial bones are thin and brittle; curvature of the spine; neck thin and weak, so that it will not hold the head up; emaciation; at the same time the child always has more or less indigestion; vomiting of undigested food, especially milk; colic after eating; green mucous stools, etc. Chronic hydrocephalus; spina bifida; tabes mesenterica; promotes the development and healing of bones hence its value in non-union of fractures, especially in old people. Caries of the hip-joint and heel with offensive pus. According to Grauvogle, a woman who has scrofulous children, with a tendency to hydrocephalus, should be given Calcarea phos. and Sulph., occasionally during pregnancy. The adult Calcarea phos. patient is always very sensitive to damp, and worse at every damp change of weather. This may indicate the drug in chronic rheumatism, and assist in its selection in many other conditions. Pott’s disease. Lumbar abscess. Useful in the disorders of the female functions, when other characteristics of the drug are present; menorrhagia; dysmenorrhoea; leucorrhoea; uterine displacements. Chronic dry cough, with night sweats; incipient phthisis; cough during difficult dentition, better on lying down, worse when sitting up. The action on the skin is not characteristic, yet the drug is recommenced for fistulous ulcers on ankles; varicose veins. A valuable remedy for school girls at or near puberty, especially for their headaches. They are usually anaemic and are developing a chlorotic condition, and are nervous and restless. Vertigo of old people. Farrington (Clinical Materia Medica, page 629) gives the following excellent clinical differentiation between Calcarea carb. and Calcarea phos.: “Calcarea ost. has an enlarged abdomen; Calcarea phos. has flabby abdomen, from the admixture of Phosphorus with the lime. In cholera infantum Calcarea ost. has craving for eggs; Calcarea phos. for salt or smoked meats. The Calcarea ost. stools are sometimes green, but generally watery, white, and mixed with curds. The Calcarea phos. diarrhoea has green, slimy or hot, watery stools; accomplished by foetid flatus. Calcarea ost. has particularly the anterior fontanelles open.”.
ALLEN CORSON COWPERTHWAITE was born at Cape May, New Jersey, May 3, 1848, son of Joseph C. and Deborah (Godfrey) Cowperthwaite. He attended medical lectures at the University of Iowa in 1867-1868, and was graduated from the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia in 1869. He practiced his profession first in Illinois, and then in Nebraska. In 1877 he became Dean and Professor of Materia Medica in the recently organized Homeopathic Department of the State University of Iowa, holding the position till 1892. In 1884 he accepted the chair of Materia Medica, Pharmacology, and Clinical Medicine in the Homeopathic Medical College of the University of Michigan. He removed to Chicago in 1892, and became Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College. From 1901 he also served as president of that College. He is the author of various works, notably "Insanity in its Medico-Legal Relations" (1876), "A Textbook of Materia Medica and Therapeutics" (1880), of "Gynecology" (1888), and of "The Practice of Medicine " (1901).