Calcium carbonicum Anhängsel

‡ Pharmacology of calcium

Calcium used to treat allergic conditions since 1996. The discovery was primarily connected with serum treatment of diphtheria. In the early years, it caused exanthemata, as the serum had not been adequately purified. Wright in England was the first to treat such patients by giving calcium by mouth.

Calcium treatment soon found its way to the Continent, with the originally weak doses progressively increasing. Calcium was also given intravenously for severe allergic reactions including anaphylactic shock and angioneurotic edema. Intramuscular injections were given to get a depot effect, and long-term elevation of serum calcium levels.

Capillaries were believed to be the main point of calcium attack, and this led to the idea, which is still around, that calcium sealed the capillaries (though pharmacologists do not find it adequate). It is interesting that the early users of calcium spoke of a "long-distance astringent action," so that even the terminology established a parallel to the astringent quality of tannins. Calcium also played an important role in the treatment of hemorrhages - certainly a plausible indication in view of the central role calcium plays in the coagulation cascade. Increasingly massive doses of calcium caused local reactions with parenteral use, and the search for more easily-tolerated calcium compounds held center stage for years.

Professor Hugo Schuiz of Greifswald (1853-1932), the only German pharmacologist showing interest in homeopathy (low potencies) and attempted to give it a scientific basis, advised caution with calcium dosage, actually believing high doses to be counterproductive. Evident from his lectures on inorganic medicinal substances that he had a real idea of the "boundary-forming" quality of calcium and was therefore skeptical toward the unending efforts to increase doses even further: We also encounter calcium under very different conditions, when it is a kind of protective against tissue irritation (vascular tissues). Chronically inflamed vessels have the peculiar and interesting tendency to deposit often auite considerable amounts of calcium in their walls. We also see such calcium deposits elsewhere. Let me just remind you of the calcification of old tubercular nodes, the forming of calcium deposits in chronically inflamed lymph glands, in the walls of old abscesses. Another highly characteristic phenomenon occurs when Trichinae penetrate into muscle and become encapsulated there. This happens because of the peculiar reflex action evoked by their presence in muscle tissue.

Composition of Calcium carbonicum/Cortex Quercus designed to combine the active principles of calcium and tannin, creating a new whole.

Oak bark goes through intense decoction to release tannins (are not easily soluble).

Bark is heated to incandescence (= Weißglühen) to obtain pure calcium oxide (CaO). This combines with carbon dioxide from the air to CaCO2 (= calcium carbonate). The tannin extract and the calcium preparation are then potentized together up to the D 6.

The idea for this preparation may have come from the 5th lecture in Rudolf Steiner's Agriculture course where he spoke of oak bark as one of the 6 compost preparations. He said emphatically that the calcium must remain within the sphere of life if it was to have "healing qualities." Nothing could be done with ordinary calcium carbonate. He spoke of oak bark as the source of such "live calcium."

Goethe's perception of the beginnings of a dying process in bark correlates with Steiner: And it is, above all, the bark of oak which is a kind of intermediate product between plant nature and living soil, wholly in the way I have spoken of concerning the relationship between living soil and the earth. With reference to the calcium principle that shows itself here, the calcium structure found in oak bark is the most ideal.

A transition from living to dead matter is created to match the situation in which oak bark develops. The "composting" and, therefore, partial mineralization of oak bark is taken to a higher level in pharmacy by ashing. If one lives for a time with the image of a skull wintering over in damp, "muddy" soil, it can become the counter image of the allergy sufferer who is flowing apart under innumerable sensory stimuli in Summer.

Calcium Carbonicum /Cortex Quercus is available in 1 and 10 ml ampules and impregnated globuli.

10 ml ampules: effective in controlling acute allergic reactions, which is in accord with experience gained in conventional calcium therapy. Highly positive results have also been seen with marked pruritus of non-allergenic origin (pregnancy). Mothers-to-be tolerate the injections well, as they are highly effective. Calcium carbonicum/Cortex Quercus may also be considered for acute hayfever attacks when Citrus/Cydonia (Gencydo) on its own proves insufficient. The 1 ml ampules and globuli serve mainly to continue the treatment of acute conditions and for more chronic situations. More recently, the solution for injection has been used in inhalations to treat asthma, also in combination with Levico D 3. This merits attention in view of growing advocacy of anti-inflammatory basic treatment for asthma. It needs systematic investigation and development, as do all inhalation treatments using anthroposophical medicines. The use of 10 ml ampules of Calcium carbonicum/Cortex Quercus to treat hemorrhages also requires closer investigation, and work needs to be done on differential treatment (as alternative/complementary to Stibium met. prep. D 6).

It is interesting to note that the styptic (= blutstillend)properties of calcium were discovered on the end of the 18th Century, while its anti-allergic properties were noted by Wright 100 years later. Apart from the "external" aspect of serum treatment, this no doubt also has a deeper reason. The allergy problem appears to have become genuinely topical around the turn of the century, with the term "anaphylaxis" first used by Charles Richet and Paul Portier in 1902. Clemens Pirquet introduced the term "allergy" in 1906, having interpreted serum sickness as an antigen-antibody reaction a year earlier. ‡

Calc-p. predominates in the head of a bone, Calc. in the shaft.

R.S. once said Calc-p. active in round-shaped bones/Calc. in the long parts. The head and shaft of a thigh bone should, therefore, show a difference in this respect. Calcium in the head of bone 87,87%/Phosphate in the shaft of bone 10,18% ‡

[S. K. Banerjee]

Puffy, pale, devoid of contour. Old looking expression. Swollen upper lip. Pale with deep seated eyes, surrounded by dark rings. Formication. Huckles. Greasy. Hair. Whiskers, falling out of. Heat. Expression, facial absent.

Idiotic. Sickly. Anxious, old looking, sickly appearance.

Anxiety; Worry; Fearful; Independent; Night terrors; Stork - bite; Late; Good organizer. Badly behaved child à Temper tantraum:- Screaming & moaning (soft voice - loud shrill voice, Chamomillla). Disobedient. Gets upset

by criticism. Gets upset from hearing horrible/sad stories (e.g. accidents).

Hand-shake: No firm responding grip, clammy hand. Flabby and have a boneless kind of hand-grip. Clammy hand. No bone, no firm responding grip.

Slide down. Anxious & scared. Insecure. Cold hands. During consultation: switches off à withdraws à does not co-operate à obstinate

Short limbed. Fair, fat, flabby, freezing and pulp. Jiggles like jelly. Sit in a chair and slides down because she is so flabby. Good planners and organizers. Late in attending social gatherings. Tears just drip down silently.

Damp head may smell mildly of cottage cheese. More strongly of old cheese. Slides down because she is so flabby. Trust-worthy, reliable, loyal, dedicated, hard-working. Have damp hands and heads. Loose firmless garb,

socks, floppy shoes, hats, no constriction around middle. Dislike tightness around the waist. Can be quiet stubborn resistance. Behave like a dunce (= Schwachkopf), jaw hangs, uncomprehending looks, pretends to be slower - defends himself by "switching off" in various ways. Capricious appetite. Principle defensive action is to withdraw and protect - close off the world and ignore it. Visibly upset by criticism and takes umbrage at the least little comment. Strong willed, obstinate, toddler often difficult to distract from his desires. upset by horrible things, stories, events in the news, by terrible tragedies happening to others.

Dressed: Light colour. Loose, no constriction around middle. Floppy shoes. Doesn't tie the lace of the shoes.

Reliable, reserved; Fearful; Dutiful, compassionate; Anxious; Sensitive; Shy.

Invites criticism. Pressured Calc. turns peevish, grumpy, querulous or childish, but is rarely nasty. Stubborn. Self-assertive. This non-aggressive but determined obstinacy.

[Peter Morell]

Just as the earth consists of hard and soft material, such as rocks, water and air, so too does the human body consist of the liquid, racing, iron-filled blood, the sulphurous skin and hair and the hard, rock-like, calcareous skeleton. The legion correspondences that really exist between earth, minerals, remedies, body and disease-states are endlessly fascinating and profoundly enriching for the natural therapist to consider. These patterns, when exposed and explored in detail, also point to deeper, more meaningful psychological insights about our remedies, health and disease.

Calcium manifests in the mineral world chiefly as chalk and limestone, as ossified deposits, layers of white or grey material consisting mainly of the compacted shells of dead microscopic organisms that lived in oceans millions of years ago and which then accumulated over vast periods of time to be changed into rock. Limestone and chalk contain fossils or fossil imprints, often in abundance, or are actually composed of fossils. More than any other rock, they seem to contain the most complete, the most detailed and the best preserved fossils. Shortly, we shall see their relevance and importance to our understanding of the Calc. mentality.

Calcium manifests as shells (Molluscae/some marine worms/corals/many crustaceans/bryozoans/crinoids/sea-urchins/spicules of sponges). Many of the molluscs, corals and worms are (like the typical Calc.) profoundly immobile, while the crustaceans (crabs) use their calcareous shells merely as armour-plating with which to protect themselves from change and in the wars of existence. Very few of these animals are adapted for swift movement. Nor must we forget the calcareous shells of birds' eggs. As with all other vertebrates, in the human body, calcium manifests as the skeleton and teeth, but it is also important

in fat metabolism (linking to Vit. D).

We can identify certain Calcium subthemes like ossification, time, depos-its, layers, roundness/plumpness, hardness, enclosedness (refuge), white-ness, immobility and alkalinity.

These subthemes are found not only in the minerals, but also in the body, in the provings of calcium salts and in the Calc mentality.

In the birds' egg, we see the roundedness, the layering, the smooth matt whiteness and the inward enclosedness (refuge) of the Calcium type. Likewise there is a clear link between calcium as a medicinal agent and its use in cement, concrete, house building and an agent of defences and protection. Again, we see that the theme is one of laying down defensive structures, hard ossifications, stubbornness, hardness, immobility, unwillingness to change and longevity. Limestone and chalk are both porous and permeable rocks, that are not very soluble in water, though they do render water `hard' and calcareous. These rocks also become hollowed out by the erosive action of water and contain vast interconnecting systems of underground caverns. Lime is also used in agriculture to render more permeable the heavy clay soils of the eastern counties. Calcium has the same saturnine slowness typical of lead, trees, mountains and the earth itself. It has slowness to develop, longevity, sluggishness, obstinacy, stubbornness, inability or unwillingness to change and the lumbering immobility (mentally/physically) of molluscs. `Dull lethargic children who do not want to play' (Phatak, p126). They live as if in a different time-frame from the rest of creation. Little wonder then that the classic Calc type is so often described as overweight, pale, cold, slow and breathless!

Related remedies are Silica (silicates)/Plumbum/Aluminium/Lyc. All these remedies have broad parallels with the Calc. state: slowness, as briefly outlined above.

Rocks can be broadly grouped into 3 major categories of calcareous, silicious and aluminicious. The 5 major remedies here are Calc. Sil. Alum. Calc-sil. Alum-sil. Plb-sil.

Is it really a coincidence that Hahnemann chose the Oyster shell, Calcarea ostrea, as the basis for the remedy we call Calc.? Maybe he dimly sensed that the calcium of the Mollusc is the archetypal Calcium per forte of the living world, as opposed to the more inert limestone or chalk of the mineral world that was his other major Calcium source. In strictly Steinerian terms, the Calc. of molluscs is the calcium

that has been absorbed, processed, and metabolised `through' the tissues of a living organism and thus we might believe it has been transformed somehow into a partially organic form and thereby rendered more suitable as an agent of healing in medicine. Certainly, Steiner (1860-1925) held the view that a mineral or element is subtly altered (`retuned') when it passes through an organism, and in different ways according to the particular organism it passes through. He also avowed that it thereby becomes stamped with a subtle `fingerprint' of features that typify the organism concerned. Thus according to this view, crabshell, eggshell and oystershell (even from the same beach), would all differ from each other and from chalk, limestone or calcite, in spite of their overwhelming chemical similarity.

Calcium also has links with Phos./Zinc-o. and luminescence where we may witness their use in luminous gas mantles (the `limelight') and cathode ray tubes (TV/VDU's). Containing the notion of `after-image' or afterglow. These relate to the light absorbing quality and the memory trace ideas close to Calcium itself. Peculiar glow-worms only live in limestone and chalky areas.

This theme of bioluminescence is further carried by its link with Phos. as an element. There are also links between calcium and architecture, struts, bones and buttresses as revealed in the detailed micro-structure of bones (ribs/cranium/head of femur) and in the architecture of churches and cathedrals. And how such churches glow in the golden sunshine!

Calcium closely allied to Mg. Sr. Ba. in the materia medica and in minerals. With Mg think of Chlp., the light-capturer, which is unquestionably the single most important chemical on the planet, as without it there would no photosynthesis/no other life. And through Mg think of Mag-p. and Calc-p. With magnesium we might also think of the softer minerals Dolomite and Gypsum and thus the mighty Alps.

Finally, Chlp. and Mag-p. might leads us on to reconsider the light-capturing, the glow-worms and the link between the oily vitamins A and D and the Rhodopsin (= visual purple/= roter Farbstoff) in the retina that enables us to see the world around us and record and store our visual memories.

More distantly cognate with both are the nervous and photographic Argentum salts.

Think of chalk: cheese, both rich sources of Calcium. And that brings us back to Phos., fish, the brain-food and the nervous system yet again. Chalk is also used for writing.

Think chalk, think white cliffs of Dover and that links in to the Romans and how those cliffs must have appeared - like huge defensive ramparts as old as time itself and repelling wood-be invaders perhaps?

Calcium also links with vitamin D (Calciferol) and the fats, to the breast and milk feeding and thus to the nutrition of the infant and the problems of nursing mothers.

Links in with Rickets, a calcium deficiency-disease and also the general medical problems of milk, breasts, infantile milk intolerance, female reproductive hormones, fibroids and the other diseases of the female reproductive system. Milk, which is white like marble, is rich in Ca. P. and fats (Lacs allgemein). The typical Calc patient being milky white, breathless, malnourished, well-rounded and sensitive to cold. The strong link between calcium, reproduction and fats is further reinforced in birds' eggs, which are reproductive structures, contain high fat levels and have a calcareous shell.

Like Lead and trees, Calcium is linked to the time-god Chronos, for it is in the minute sculpturing of seashells that we find the records of the days/weeks/months/years of their lives, etched minutely into the patterns of the layers of calcium carbonate. This also applies to snail-shells, where each twist of the shell represents a year and the finer serrations mark out the days, weeks and months. Time and the life of the animal, is recorded and `stored up' in the shells, just like the rings in the wood of treetrunks, the fossils in the rocks or the files in an archive or record. These can all be seen as aspects of Saturn.

or Chronos, the god of time and history. Skeletons and fossils are also like histories, memories and records of lifetimes and often lurk in our deepest cupboards! Heaping up or collecting the days, weeks, months and years in this way is typical of the sense of memory and history common to both Plumbum and Calc. And the keeping of records requires writing, say with chalk on a board or slate, or with a piece of lead (Plumbum). The god of time counts and records the passing of the days and records events, obsessed with history and the minutiae of life. So similar to the remark about Calc patients: `sits and thinks about little affairs that amount to nothing' (Phatak, p127). Witness also the intense clarity of their memories, dreams and visions! As if their recordings are so perfect.

We might also see fossils as collected memories, records and histories that the Calc rocks have accumulated and retained in incredible wealth and detail. They are recorded with great faithfulness.

This magpie or squirrel tendency to absorb and collect, record and store in detail for very long periods might be seen as a feature of the Calc mentality. It is like a mental equivalent of the afterglow on the TV screen when it is switched off. And in Plaster of Paris the Calc habit of making copies, taking impressions, of being a mould or template comes to the fore and is cognate for example, both with fossils and with cenent for joining walls. Plaster of Paris is also for setting bones!

Sammler:

Calcium

Mensch

Pica pica = Elster Aves

Sciurus vulgaris = Eichhörnchen Mammalia

Another important aspect of Calc is that the two main mineral forms of it - chalk and limestone - were formed by accumulation of calcareous particles in the oceans or in shallow seas.

This links it as a remedy to sea remedies (Nat-m./Sep). In the case of certain marine worms (Sterculids), if you look at their twisting and convoluted calcareous tubes, they very closely resemble veins in the body. Maybe that particular form of Calc. could be used as a specific for varicose veins and clogging of arteries, heart attacks? There is not only a physical similarity here, it also operates on a functional level, as the tubes are being sclerotized, as the worm hardens its mucilaginous tube until it becomes hardened and limey. The close parallel between the condition and this particular form of Calc. is very interesting and worth further investigation clinically. In the case of a common tropical form of Calc. Diploria labyrinthiformis (= brain coral), we can see a direct physical similarity to the brain.

Maybe this should also be proved or investigated clinically as a separate form of Calc to discover if it has any specific usefulness for brain disorders of a sclerotic nature, such as apoplectic strokes due to hardening of the arteries or even Alzheimer's disease.

Psychological aspects of the Calc type: introverted/too sensitive/defensive/insecure/want security in shells and deposits/security of the womb/egg/mother's milk (which disagrees), seek refuge in castle-like interiors protected by vast shell-like stone ramparts; relate badly to cold/water/winter, want to be immobile; eat uncontrollably and compulsively, without knowing why and hate activity as they sweat easily and become breathless and flustered.

They appear to be locked in a heavily protected, stone-like shell of armour that greatly reduces their mobility, a crab-like carapace or shell. They seem to 'clam-up' and 'go into their shell', become agoraphobic, turn inwards to the detailed phantasmogoria of an inner world of visions, dreams and nightmares, where they seek refuge and security from the transient, unpredictable and painful events of the outer world. They seem to prefer the greyness of their refuge to the stark unbearable contrasts of black and white outer reality. They fear change and resist change. Even their recording of time is like a clinging on to things and not wanting to let them go. It is like a form of attachment.

They are disappointed and constipated people. There is the constipated mentality, just described. There is also an air of failure and withdrawal to this mentality, a sloping off to lick one's wounds in a private refuge. They are stuck in a peculiar limbo-land which is neither one thing or another, which hovers in fact between night and day, an eternal twilight. They follow the moon, suffer menstrual irregularities for the same reasons and also reproductive problems and problems related to the link between outer world-cycles and inner world constancy. They retreat into the greyness of their shell as they dislike change of day-night, high-low rhythms of move ment of planets, change of cycles, highs and lows and attempt to regulate this outer change into a vastly attenuated realm of stillness, greyness, no change and their precious secret dreams and visions. There is ossification of emotions and inner-outer world, thoughts and aspirations as well as the outer processes of the body. Sluggishness is a very good general rubric for Calc., as it bridges both the Molluscan features we have explored and the general slowness.

Important to remember that we all contain a bit of this mentality. We must resist the temptation to stand in judgement over the remedy archetypes, as we all have skeletons and must acknowledge these qualities of the Calcium in ourselves. We are all stubborn and resist change to some degree and we all at times find difficulty of going with the flow or want to control the outer world's more painful twists

and turns. We all contain the Calc archetype, but clearly it finds its ultimate expression in the imbalances of the typical Calc person. Then these inbalances become pathological in their immensity.

Turning finally to the materia medica we can see a repetition of many of the above themes we have listed about Calc = fat/chilly/congested/sensitive in every possible way/has boney growths/ossifications/encrustations/polyps/cysts/warts. Exostoses and peculiar deformities of bones, skin and nails. Weak/lack stamina, have an inclination to sit rather than work, get breathless and sweaty very easily. Get gouty and rheumatic, joint problems and arthritic. Then there are the generals like slowness and weakness, dullness and great debility and tiredness. These are typical. The symptoms of eyes, ears, nose and throat are also typical, showing congestions and catarrhs, loss of smell, dimness of sight and hearing, as if the consciousness would prefer to withdraw from the sensory world altogether. Stomach and digestion are impaired and the bowels very sluggish and constipated. There is marked love of or aversion to eggs. In general they adore eggs and hate milk, which disagrees.

The Calc urge is more of a pausing, a rest, a putting down roots, leaving traces and keeping records, collecting memories, dwelling in matter and time and making deposits. This tendency seems to

represent a deeper attachment to things and life and surroundings and thus a desire to keep a record of one's life. So the link with the past/time/matter/records/traces/memories/the old. Cognate animals are those that are sessile, have reduced motility, which put down roots or attachments to rocks or which have large shells, calcareous deposits around them or which leave a hard skeleton. The fact that they leave these hardened or sclerotized parts behind them after their death is evidence of their strong plant-like urge.

Also in the Calc mentality (molluscs/marine worms/corals/bryozoans) we encounter the most plant-like animals, those that must keep records and build up traces of their life. This desire to keep a record, to leave deposits, shells, bones and traces of one's existence is a plant-like drive that is much more diminished within the animal world. It manifests in the plant by the layering of tree-rings, which is an expression in the lignified cellulose of a record of the years. The tree rings are records of the passing years and represent the life record of that tree.

Yet in all plants the record-keeping or sclerotizing tendency is very strong. While it is true that plants push out green shoots, like to grow and expand, they also tend to consolidate such gains by sclerotizing, hardening, making into wood and laying down harder tissues, thorns and spikes both for protection and to demarcate owned territory. Thus plants are the natural record-keepers and deposit makers of the living world.

In its more extreme forms, this plant-like Calc. force manifests as shrunken, withered leathery, thorny and spiky plant stems as seen in the Cacti/succulents (Lithops = stone plant), in trees.

But even amongst trees, it manifests most typically in the dry, thorny, withered, hardened and emaciated kind of tree that has adapted to extreme aridity.

In spite of many differences between Calc. and Sep., it is useful to compare them. In the Sep. the calcareous external shell of other molluscs has been greatly reduced and internalised to produce the `cuttlefish shell'. Going back to our previous analysis of the molluscan nature of Calc., we can see that by reducing and internalising the shell, Sep. has achieved a much greater mobility and has hidden away inside itself the basic Molluscan problem of being `insecure and defensive and needing a shell for protection against hostile forces in a painful world'. In exchange, Sep. has the ink-jet, the agility, the brilliant and mesmerising stroboscopic skin colour-changes, the improved stereoscopic vision and the aggressiveness of a marine predator. It has moved from the sessile and slow but secure life of a limpet or clam and out into the sea as an active hunter.

Sep. tried to solve the ancestral Molluscan problem of defensiveness and insecurity by reducing and internalising its shell. It is only partially successful in this. It is still very weird and unstable in its behaviour - evasive, jealous, emotion al, angry and callous. It has exchanged the 'femininity of submissiveness and immobility' (clam/limpet) for a mock male mobility and assertiveness that still appears incomplete,

forced and imbalanced. The parallels here pathologically are too obvious to require further emphasis.

So we could also extend this discussion indefinitely to all the other Molluscs and then take a look at the Peter Morell Crustaceans and Insects, who present similar problems, solved in different and novel ways. But that must wait for now.

Vorwort/Suchen Zeichen/Abkürzungen Impressum