DOSE : The usual potencies are from the 1-6th; on the other hand Dahlke prefers the 12-30th.
NATRIUM PHOSPHORICUM
The secondary alkaline disodium phosphate, Na2HPO4 is meant. It is not surprising that in sodium phosphate the gastro-intestinal symptoms stand in the center. This aspect of phosphate action is increased through the sodium component.
The chief indication is the complaint of acidity which occurs after the excessive ingestion of sugar and fat; sour taste, sour eructation, sour risings, sour vomiting. The diarrhoea is green or yellow, painless as with acidum phosphoricum.
Schussler conceives a connection to lactic acid and moreover to its decomposition into H2O and CO2. Natrium phosphoricum should therefore be directed against excess of lactic acid and should also be a suitable remedy for diabetes. As a further characteristic he reports a yellow color of coatings and secretions, in particular a thick yellow coating on the tongue and generally over the posterior part of the mouth; likewise the ocular and nasal secretions, expectoration and leucorrhoea should have this yellow creamy nature and moreover the coating on ulcers. Schussler even proceeds farther from the totally unproven conception that natrium phosphoricum has a particular relation to the white blood cell picture, that it is indicated in swelling of the lymph-glands, and even a remedy for leukemia. If one compares the results of Farrington’s proving on 19 provers and almost exclusively with potencies, including the very high, then practically nothing can be found therein to confirm this indication. The clinically proven report of “sour burning” was discovered by Neidhard.
If the provings, at present very scanty, are reviewed then the agreement with those of natrium carbonicum and phosphoric acid is very great. The depression, particularly after the loss of semen, anxiety and poor memory, especially recall phosphoric acid. Dilatation of the pupil is a special report which has also been made for acidum phosphoricum. Just as phosphoric acid, so natrium phosphoricum has frequent nocturnal emissions which are followed by weakness of the back and trembling of the knees.
A further trend of action is alleged to be available for gouty rheumatic disorders. According to Schussler natrium phosphoricum should keep the urates in the blood dissolved and absence of natrium phosphoricum should give the occasion for the precipitation of urates. There is not the least basis for such a hypothesis. From the symptoms of the proving, a series of symptoms referred to the muscles and joints, in particular synovial crepitation, exists; clicking in the joints is often reported; but it has not been confirmed that a gouty-rheumatic trend of natrium phosphoricum has more definite clinical significance than the other alkaline salts.
How the clinical reports of oxaluria and jaundice have come into the clinical picture of natr. phos. is not apparent. Natrium sulfuricum has more claim to consideration for a liver action in any case. The origin of the recommendation in morphinism (H. Schulz) is likewise unclear. The administration in large doses in Basedow’s disease by Kocher has been mentioned above.
Thus for the present only the acid burning remains as a sure clinical indication for natrium phosphoricum. Whether the report of Schussler about the yellow creamy secretions will be confirmed must be left undecided at present. The general actions in common with acidum phosphoricum or natrium carbonicum are not expressed so characteristically that one should give preference to natrium phosphoricum over these remedies in definite cases.
DOSE : The most commonly employed dose is the D 6.
KALIUM PHOSPHORICUM
The acid monopotassium phosphate, KH2PO4 is the preparation meant. In kali phos. both constituents unite in their actions to form the picture of muscular and nervous exhaustion as it arises partly from over work and partly from phsychic causes. The mental state consists of marked anxiety, depression, bad memory and downcast nature particularly from acidum phosphoricum. To this potassium adds a note of nervous irritability because we know besides the anxiety and fearfulness also the “critical”, irritable, restless disposition from potassium. Kali phos. has proven valuable in brain fatigue from excessive study. Generally the early morning aggravation, as well as from cold, is traced back to the potassium influence; aggravation after coitus is common to both components. The association with sexual weakness exists here as with acidum phosphoricum. Sticking pains, sensation of numbness, motor weakness up to paretic states, weakness and sensation of cold in the back, trembling (especially in the calves) are signs of potassium; the same is true of the weakness of the bladder sphincter and enuresis.
The diarrhoea of kali. phos. is present in the early morning on arising, is worse after eating and shows its vegetative character by a dependence upon nervous factors. Colitis mucosa is an indication given by Schussler. A decomposed odor to the stool is cited as a peculiarity.
Generally still another special trend to decompostition processes is ascribed to kali phos., this apparently originating from the report of Schussler since he has recommended the remedy in septic states with fever and hemorrhage, carbuncles, typhoid and typhoid-like fevers, scurvy, noma, phagedenic chancre, gangrenous states, etc. We need not attribute much significance to this side of the kali phos picture. It is entirely clear that for the trend of Schussler with its minimal materia medica of 12 or rather 11 remedies, a breadth of clinical indications are attributed to a single remedy which can be scarcely justified. If one will refer to phosphorus, for example, a greater part of its indications have been taken over for the phosphate; entirely apart from this, we possess a large series of much more active remedies in these septic and adynamic states. It is similar for the clinical indication of albuminuric retinitis and gastric ulcer where we prefer phosphorus and in alopecia areata where we may use acidum phosphoricum. Kali phos., just as acidum phosphoricum, is much better when selected as a remedy in convalescence after severe septic and especially typhoidal diseases.
A further report from the proving of H.C. Allen that all secretions, stools, urine, sputum, and nasal secretion should have an orange-yellow color requires considerable confirmation.
Generally kali phos. will be selected when the muscular and nervous exhaustion is combined with neurasthenic-depressive states showing definite relation to the kali component, particularly in the modalities.
DOSE : The most commonly used is the 6th decimal.
ARSENIC
Arsenic is a “chalkophilic” element, that is, its characteristic site of deposit is in the sulphur-oxygen shell of the earth. Thus it appears in the lithosphere only in traces in the sulphide compounds (orpiment and realgar), moreover, compactly in crystalline pieces and in combination with heavy metals and their sulphides. In the lithosphere it does not have the possibility of stabilization by precipitation with calcium as does phosphorus. As a rare element with an uneven ordinal number, it finds no special conditions for enrichment in the lithosphere; it also remains “foreign” to the organism, that is, it is not enriched by natural selection and combination.
Arsenic appears in a number of springs and is used therapeutically in this way.
For example the Durkheimer Maxquelle contains 19.6 mg. As2O3 in a liter and most of the other springs are iron-arsenic waters, Levico, 6 mg, Val sinstra 3.7 mg, Roncegno 42.6 mg. Guberquelle 6 mg. As2O3 per liter.
There are two allotropic modifications of the element, exactly as with phosphorus. The yellow arsenic corresponds to the yellow or colorless phosphorus and is a typical non-metal (molecular size As2). It is volatile even at low temperatures and has a garlic- like odor. Like yellow phosphorus it acts strongly, reducing even more rapidly than yellow phosphorus it is transformed by light (especially by short waves) or by warming into the metallic modification, which corresponds to red phosphorus. Metallic arsenic which conducts electricity is grey, black or brown and is stabile at ordinary temperatures.
From arsenic-containing soils arsenic passes into plants and for this reason it is not surprising that the animal body, likewise the human, contains light traces. Gautier in particular has found it regularly in the thyroid moreover in the thymus, the brain and in traces in the skin and hair and he ascribed a physiologic role to it. It is said to leave the body in men through the hair and in women with the menstrual blood and milk, It remains longest in the hair. Bertrand goes so far as to give all cells an arsenic content. But later investigations have shown that the occurrence of arsenic in the body is not so regular. In any case it is not proven that arsenic is a physiologically necessary constituent of the organism. It is conceivable that the ingestion of traces of arsenic in the food varies according to geologic conditions. Moreover the arsenic containing smoke or coal comes into consideration as a source. The hair of men who live in the English manufacturing cities regularly contains arsenic in traces while the hair of people in regions where peat is burned is always free from arsenic.
Leeser, a Consultant Physician at the Stuttgart Homeopathic Hospital and a member of the German Central Society of Homeopathic Physicians, fled Germany in 1933 after being expelled by the German Medical Association. In England Otto Leeser joined the staff of the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital. He returned to Germany in the 1950s to run the Robert Bosch Homeopathic Hospital in Stuttgart, but died shortly after.
Otto Leeser wrote Textbook of Homeopathic Materia Medica, Leesers Lehrbuch der Homöopathie, Actionsand Medicinal use of Snake Venoms, Solanaceae, The Contribution of Homeopathy to the Development of Medicine, Homeopathy and chemotherapy, and many articles submitted to The British Homeopathic Journal,