Kali carbonica, or pure carbonate of potash, like all the potash salts, is poisonous: all promote tissue waste, weak heart, and deficiency of red corpuscles in the blood.
Its action upon the mind, sensorium, and head does not present a formidable array of symptoms, and those presented are largely due to the action of the salt in promoting tissue waste. Still when we find great irritability, peevishness, despondency, sleeplessness after 3 a.m., present in young girls or aged people of lax fibre with dark hair, inclined to obesity, we think of Kali c.
It acts upon the mucous membrane of the nose in a less marked degree than some of the Kali salts; it causes frequent coryza with sneezing, pain in head with great lassitude; in fact, it is one of the important remedies to be considered in influenza; it is more frequently indicated in chronic conditions with thick, yellow, green or bloody foetid discharge, dull sense of smell or complete closure of nostrils from dryness of the mucous membrane, consequently sharp stinging pain in membrane of nose.
I wish to call attention to a condition or symptom sometimes, not often, met with in chronic catarrh in fair-skinned, anaemic cases: Nosebleed in the morning when stooping to wash the face. Try Kali c. in such cases, and I think physician and patient will be gratified with the result.
It is indicated in chronic inflammation of the middle ear, with sharp stinging pain from within outward, thick yellow, pus-like discharge; in inflammation of the parotid gland or mumps, especially of right side, it divides honors with Belladonna.
In muscular weakness of eyes following acute diseases, if attended with puffiness of upper eyelid; this latter symptom is one of the marked characteristics of this drug, and is a guide to its selection in many chronic diseases. Apis has oedematous swelling of both eyelids, or enormous bag-like swelling under the eyes.
In pharyngitis and tonsillitis with its sticking silver-like pains, it makes one think of Arg. n., Hepar s., and Nit. ac.
Indigestion in debilitated, anaemic subjects, whether from age or acute disease, will often be cured by Kali c. In many ways, the gastric symptoms of this drug remind us of China, Carbo veg., Lyc. and Puls., and like them has a great distension of stomach and abdomen with great sensitiveness to touch or pressure, full feeling after taking a little food– “all food is converted into gas”– feeling as though they had partaken freely of “wind pudding”.
In haemorrhoids with sharp stinging or sticking pains in the tumors, pains < by sneezing or coughing, it is indicated. In piles following parturition it has given me great satisfaction.
In puerperal fever with profuse perspiration without the relief of the sharp stinging pain or other symptoms, Kali c. is often the remedy.
In anaemia or chlorosis of young girls that do not seem able to menstruate on account of the poor quality of the blood, where the skin has a white, watery look, inclined to bloat, especially the upper eyelids; shortness of breath from slight exertion; hearts action weak and irregular, with giving out of the back and legs, Kali c. is the remedy and should often be given when Collinsonia, Ferrum or Puls. is wrongly prescribed.
In dysmenorrhoea in fair, fat women who menstruate profusely, with the characteristic symptoms of the drug, consider Kali c.
In acute and chronic inflammation of the air passages it has a wide range and is often overlooked when it should be given instead of remedies less prominently indicated and more often prescribed.
In asthma with suffocative breathing and cough, sharp shooting pains in chest or sides, < from cold air and 3 a.m. perspiration on upper part of body, remember this remedy.
In pleurisy, pleura-pneumonia and pneumonia it is often indicated, especially when the inflammation is in the lower right chest; the sharp stinging pains may run through to back.
In all diseases of chest and heart with sharp sticking pains, the pains coming on independently of movement, Kali c. may be the remedy and follows Bryonia well when the latter fails to relieve. The pains for Bryonia are usually in the serous membranes and are mitigated by rest and < by movement; the pains of Kali c. are of similar sharp, shooting character; may be felt in all the tissues and often come when the patient is at rest; the cough is < by cold air and at 3 a.m.
In diseases of the chest many of the symptoms of Kali c. are similar to Calc. c. but kali c. symptoms are < by cold while those calling for Calc.c. are < by dampness. In pulmonary troubles the Kali c. patients should be sent to a warm damp air, say that of Florida; the Calc. c. patients to a cool dry climate, like the Adirondacks or Colorado.
During epidemics of whooping cough we sometimes meet with sympathetic or “chin cough” in adults. For many years I have used Kali c. in such cases with results so satisfactory that I have come to consider it almost a specific in controlling the cough in a few days.
Fair, fat and flabby persons with dark hair, are more easily affected by it; the sharp stinging pains in any and all parts of the body, < from cold air and 3 a.m. and puffy swelling of the upper eyelid are characteristics of Kali c. and call for its use in both acute and chronic diseases.
It has many symptoms and sensations similar to Apis and Bryonia, but circumstances, conditions and times of aggravation are different.
In many of the throat symptoms it is similar to Arg. n., Hep. s., and Nit. ac.; its chest symptoms to Bry., Lyc.; its gastric symptoms to Carbo v., China, Lyc.; the sexual organs to Collinsonia, Ferrum, Puls.
In giving heed to these differences in making our selection of the properly indicated remedy we, as homoeopaths, succeed or fail in curing the sick.
