CALCAREA CARB AND SILICA A COMPARISON


CALCAREA CARB AND SILICA A COMPARISON. Anxiety and apprehension run through both Calcarea and Silicea. They are equally mild, yielding and faint-hearted,but when annoyed they are cross, peevish and vindictive. then they sink back again into a state of apathy and indifference. Both remedies have a false full-bloodedness an anaemic plethora,but Calcarea has a greater tendency toward obesity than Silicea.


These two remedies are about equally related to disturbed nutritional states and to retarded growth and development. Calcarea affects the glandular system, especially the lymphatic glands such as the tonsils, nasopharyngeal,m cervical and mesenteric glands. It also affects the blood and blood-forming processes and is therefore associated with anemic conditions.

The growth of the skeletal structure may be retarded or perverted causing over-development of the cranium, flattened occiput and late closing of the fontanelles. There may be irregular development of slowly and decay early. The child is late in beginning to walk and may become bow-legged, knock-kneed and pot- bellied. spinal curvature may result in cases in which there is an underlying tuberculous dyscrasia.

Silicea acts upon bony and cartilaginous structures, on cellular and connective tissues as well as on the skin, mucous membranes, glands and NERVES. An important differentiation between these remedies is the fact that Silicea is fundamentally more nervous than Calcarea,the latter having characteristically the leucophlegmatic temperament,whereas Silicea is sensitive, marked tendency to sluggishness and inertia. When some trying ordeals to be faced the Silicea patient improves with action. His efficiency picks up as he warms to that occasion. Calcarea on the other hand, wearies with the effort,cannot overcome the lethargy which weighs him down.

Anxiety and apprehension run through both Calcarea and Silicea. They are equally mild, yielding and faint-hearted,but when annoyed they are cross, peevish and vindictive. then they sink back again into a state of apathy and indifference.

Both remedies have a false full-bloodedness an anaemic plethora,but Calcarea has a greater tendency toward obesity than Silicea.

Calcarea patients are often blonds with light hair,blue eyes and fair skin. Many however, have black hair and a very white skin. Pallor is more pronounced under Calcarea and redness under Silicea,yet the Silicea fact is often “sickly, anaemic, waxy and tired” (Kent).

When redness of the fact is observed it is generally due to capillary dilatation.

Calcarea and Silicea are cold remedies and worse from cold but silicea is far more sensitive to drafts than is Calcarea. Sensitiveness is characteristic of Silicea and this holds in both the physical and mental spheres.

Both remedies profoundly affect the glandular system, especially the lymphatic chains. Silicea ranks far ahead of Calcarea in all supportive conditions,-abscesses,boils, every cut or injury festers, and the sensations of a splinter,needle or fish bone in the affected area is as characteristic of silicea as it is of Hepar.

Under the rubric of perspiration we find both drugs ranking as high as an in the materia medica., The Calcarea sweat is either odorless or sour while that if Silicea is apt to be offensive, especially that of the body is characteristic of each but particularly of Calcarea. “Head is characteristic of each but particularly of Calcarea.” Head sweats profusely during sleep” is a strong Calcarea symptom. there is ask perspiration of the body is is characteristic of each but particularly of Calcarea.”Head sweats profusely during sleep” is a strong Calcarea symptom.

There is also perspiration of the hands and feet the palms warm and moist,the feet cold and clammy. With silicea the patient must have the head covered during perspiration and well protected against the least possible draft of air. Hepar and Psorinum approach silicea in this respect.

Ailments following suppression of an offensive food sweat will require silicea in the majority of cases,but to say that this would always be the remedy following such suppression would be untrue and would amount to an unhomoeopathic surrender to routinism.

In the digestive sphere we find that the appetite is often markedly increased under Calcarea,less frequently or to a some what less degree in Silicea. sudden repletion or easy satiety is noted under Silicea but not often with Calcarea.

Calcarea has a desire or craving for beet and nearly all alcoholic beverages also for eggs, especially soft boiled, ice cream, lemonade, oysters,salty foods, acid and sour foods and starches. There is often a marked craving for sweets, milk, particularly hot milk and for such things as lime,chalk and other strange and peculiar things.

Silicea has a desire for bread, milk, warm foods and drinks and for something different, but cannot think what it would be.

Calcarea has an aversion to coffee which is often quite pronounced,also a dislike for fats,rich foods and very noticeably for tobacco.

Sometimes there is an aversion to meat and occasionally for milk.

Silicea has hunger with aversion to food. Often there is a dislike for salty foods (Calc. craves salt). Aversion to milk is common and we find the symptom “child refuses the breast”. Silicea has aversion to meat to a slightly greater degree than Calcarea.

Calcarea is aggravated by peas,beams, cabbage, and flatulent foods in general. coffee aggravates. Milk and sweet as may disagree, also potatoes, sauer krout and salty foods in general, the patient often desiring these foods and yet they may aggravate.

Silicea is often aggravated by meat (seldom observed under Calc). There is marked aggravation from cold foods and cold drinks. Silicea requires warmth,both externally and internally.

In the pelvic tract we find amenorrhoea under both remedies,although, more marked under Silicea. Menses clotted under Calcarea,seldom with Silicea. Calcarea has too early,profuse and long lasting menstrual periods. Menses are often offensive with Silicea, seldom so with Calcarea. At the menopause Calcarea is a very frequently indicated remedy, ranking with Lachesis, Psorinum, Pulsatilla, Sepia and Sulphur,Silicea is not so closely related to the climacteric cycle.

For the bad effects following vaccination silicea ranks with Arsenicum, Malandrinum, Sulphur and Thuja. It is second in the order of frequency in these conditions, Thuja being first.

PHILADELPHIA, PA.

DISCUSSION.

DR.ROYAL E.S.HAYES: In considering Silicea and Calcarea carb. I think we must also consider Calcarea silicata,which is great remedy,m and may follow in between either of the others of after either of the others, but more especially after Silica has done what it can.

DR.HARVEY FARRINGTON; That is one advantage we Homoeopaths have because a combination of two remedies partake of the symptoms of each, but it is like a marriage, because there are other symptoms develop which occur in neither, and so they dwell in combination as interim remedies.

DR.J.W.WAFFENSMITH;I think it is Clark who speaks of Silicea as being a good intercurrent following Lycopodium; you give it and then follow with Lycopodium and it renews the action of Lycopodium.

DR.ANTHONY SHUPIS; I should like to ask the doctor a question. You said Silica was the chronic of Pulsatilla. I understand that when Pulsatilla ceases to act, you might consider Silicea.

Is that when it is the chronic? Does that mean it has the same symptoms and it just acts a little deeper? What is the tie-up? If you take Pulsatilla as a flower, it probably has a little Silicea in it.

DR. V.TABER CARR: What relation do Silicea and Calcarea carb have to septic states?.

In my experience Silicea plays a greater role in septic states than Calcarea. For instance, I have a case now under treatment that had an appendiceal abscess when about ten years of age,and the thing polluted the system with septicemia, so much so she developed skin symptoms,acne vulgaris abscess on the back,kyphosis,and a mental state diagnosed as psychopathic personality, very sensitive to everything coming along, craved vinegar-she would drink it-and if she was excited and exasperated at anyone,she said, “I will kill you.”.

Now that fell easily in to Hepar sulphuris, and that carried her along until she got joint symptoms,three months following it. Those are identical conditions. There years after she had the ruptured abscess,her knees were swollen and red and inflamed,localized septicemia, I tried Hepar sulphuris but it wouldnt touch it. I looked it up in the Materia Medica and Silicea is complementary. I gave that and the whole thing cleared up,and the mental state, too.

DR.WILBUR K.,BOND: I should like to hear a comparison of Sanicula and Silica and Calcarea.

DR.WILLIAM B.GRIGGS: I think we could work around all day when we come to these things. Sanicula has identical constipation with Silica. The stools are hard,dry,and passed with a great deal of effort but the stool of Sanicula will smell almost like a brewery compared with the almost odorless stool of Silica.

A Silica child has offensive sweaty feet,but the whole make- up of the child is more that of a normal child in contrast to the fat, phlegmatic picture of Calcarea carb, and, again, the Silicea child is practically perfectly normal as far as the general physical condition,except the head is a little large ad the belly. I see very little difference between the Sanicula child and the Silica child in the general symptoms. It is only when you get into these mixed-up symptoms of Borax and Natrum muriaticum that you want to think of Sanicula,diagnosing the difference between Silica and Sanicula.

Eugene Underhill
Dr Eugene Underhill Jr. (1887-1968) was the son of Eugene and Minnie (Lewis) Underhill Sr. He was a graduate of Swarthmore College and the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. A homeopathic physician for over 50 years, he had offices in Philadelphia.

Eugene passed away at his country home on Spring Hill, Tuscarora Township, Bradford County, PA. He had been in ill health for several months. His wife, the former Caroline Davis, whom he had married in Philadelphia in 1910, had passed away in 1961. They spent most of their marriage lives in Swarthmore, PA.

Dr. Underhill was a member of the United Lodge of Theosophy, a member of the Philadelphia County Medical Society, and the Pennsylvania Medical Society. He was also the editor of the Homœopathic Recorder.