Once upon a time, years ago, you will remember I told you all about the wedding of Mr. Phosphorus and Miss Calcarea. Since that time, a little child came to bless their home. He was tall and slim like his father and had the light brown hair and fair complexion of both parents. In most respects, Calcarea phosphorica was his mother’s own child. If anything, he rather outdid his mother in slowness of development. Like her he had large open fontanelles, but he reopened after closing, while hers did not, and the bones of his skull were soft and thin. His mother had been a big, fat baby, so there seemed to have been some excuse for her bowed legs, but Calcarea phosphorica, a little emaciated fellow, was just as bow-legged as she had been. She had a decided curvature of the spine and he followed her example.
It would be natural to think that bones that bend as easily as Calcarea phosphorica’s bones bend, would never break, but fractured bones have come even to Calcarea phosphorica. When his bones do break, it seems as though they never would unite again. The little fellow was very slow in teething, had a good deal of trouble in getting them, then after all that trouble was over, the teeth decayed rapidly. Here again, he was like his mother, though his father’s teeth decayed rapidly also.
He was a peevish, fretful, youngster, stupid and forgetful, so like his mother. He never could bear a bit of grief, disappointment or vexation; they really made him sick. In his inability to bear troubles, he resembles his uncle Phosphorus acid, who by the way is a crusty old bachelor, that in his youth was disappointed in love and has been lazy, good for nothing fellow ever since. Calcarea phosphoric is inclined to imitate his uncle in this also, for he never wants to do anything that must be done; this indolence, though, he may have inherited from his mother, who is a fat, lazy woman.
You wouldn’t think such a stupid fellow as Calcarea phosphorica would ever be in danger of brain-fag, but it is even so; perhaps it is an inheritance from his brilliant father developed by the school of town life.
Calcarea phosphorica is very likely to be hungry at four o’clock in the afternoon and is likely to want salt, meat or potatoes, but it is no wonder that he chooses substantial food, for dainties like fruits or ice-cream gives him the colic, vomiting or diarrhoea; it is strange that ice-cream gives him the colic, for both his father and mother are very fond of ice-cream and it does not hurt them; then, too, neither of them like meat.
Like his mother, Calcarea phosphorica has pressing pains in the forehead, but it is not nearly so severe as hers, which are stupefying. Mental occupation is likely to relieve Calcarea phosphorica’s headaches unless he thinks about the pain itself, then it is worse. His mother’s headache is worse from mental exertion, while his father has terrible attacks of headache from mental work.
Calcarea phosphorica has had an affection for warm weather ever since he had rheumatism. His rheumatism in the fall lasts habitually until spring. This may be due to the changeable weather of this season. He can’t stand melting snows and east winds, therefore he doesn’t like winter weather. His mother also is sensitive to cold, damp air. From his mother, he inherited his corneal ulcers and chronic catarrhs, even eczema. From both parents, he inherited nasal polypi, which bleed easily.
Calcarea phosphorica is troubled with much numbness. There is numbness of the tongue, of abdominal wall, in sacrum, arms, buttocks, back and lower limbs; he complains of the parts going to sleep. He inherited this from his father, but Mr. Phosphorus’ numbness belongs to paralysis. Burning pain is another heirloom that has descended to Calcarea phosphorica. He has burning in his stomach, abdomen and anus, and in the urethra during and after urination. Those burning pains come from both sides of the house, but his mother suffers from them to a great extent than Calcarea phosphorica, while the father has them to a much less extent.
Calcarea phosphorica is scrofulous; so is his mother. He is gouty; so is she. When a child, he had rachitis, but she had already travelled the path before him.
Calcarea phosphorica is full of rheumatisms. He has rheumatic pain and stiffness in the neck, lumbago worse on motion; Rheumatic pains in the upper arm, in nates, in lower limbs, in joints, aggravated after getting wet and in cold stormy weather. How could he, born of sycotic parents, possibly escape having rheumatisms. he is quite likely to have a fistula in the anus. He has protruding piles, aching, sore; with oozing of a yellow fluid and bleeding. His mother also is troubled with hemorrhoids which protrude and bleed freely. His father also has the protruding hemorrhoids, but the bleeding from the father’s hemorrhoids is more profuse than either of the other.
Calcarea phosphorica is sleepy enough during the day time, but his sleep is disturbed before midnight. He has vivid dreams, starts from sleep as in a fright, cries out in sleep, but he cannot waken early in the morning. His mother cannot understand why he should sleep so late, for she cannot sleep after three o’clock in the morning; but his father understands, for his own sleep is also restless and full of vivid dreams, and in the morning he feels as though he had not slept enough; indeed he is sleepy all day long. If the truth were told, the mother would have to admit that she too, is sleepy during the day, though probably not so sleepy as Calcarea phosphorica and his father.
She was one of the first students to graduate from the Philadelphia Post-Graduate School of Homeopathy and served at the school as Clinician, Professor of Children's Diseases and Professor of Repertory. She taught from 1933 until her health failed. She also taught Pierre Schmidt how to use the repertory.
Her accomplishments include being one of the founders of the American Foundation of Homeopath. She was a frequent contributor of articles, many of which are printed in the Homeopathic Recorder. She died on May 7, 1931.