Baryta carbonica


Dr. S.R. Phatak describes the clinically confirmed symptoms of the homeopathic remedy Baryta Carbonica in his Concise Materia Medica, published in 1977….


Generalities

      It has a marked influence on the GROWTH esp. of children and old people, who become childish. In children the growth is retarded; they become dwarfish mentally and physically; children are late coming into usefulness, to take on their responsibilities and do their work. Dull, apathetic; or marasmic. There is a tendency to enlargement of the glands, with indurations esp. tonsils, cervical and prostate. Prostration; weariness; constant inclination to lie down, sit or lean on something. Upper half of the body feels stiff and numb. Too tired even to eat. It is a remedy for early senility and when degenerative changes in old men begin in heart, brain and vascular system. Tendency to take cold and every time tonsils are swollen. Paralytic effects. Symptoms occur in single parts, such as paralysis, numbness, burnings. Sensation as if forced through a narrow place is peculiar. Vascular softening and dilatation, aneurism, ruptures, apoplexy. Ill effects of checked foot sweat. Cysts. Sarcoma, with burning. Lipoma. Emaciation of persons who were well nourished. Sleepiness and weariness on slightest exertion.

WORSE

      Company. Thinking of symptoms. Cold damp. Cold to feet and head. Lying on painful part; left side. Odours. Heat of Sun, of stove. Raising arms. Eating.

BETTER

      Cold food. Warm wraps. When alone.

Mind

      SLOW GRASP; SILLY; absurd and backward. Childish and thoughtless behaviour. Timid. Cowardly. Groans from every little thing. Whining mood. Increasing mental weakness. Beclouded mind. Bad Memory. Forgets her errand or word in her mouth. Irresolute. Mistrustful. Shy of strangers. Thinks his legs are cut off and he is walking on his knees. Child does not want to play but sits in the corner doing nothing. Children cannot remember and learn. Grief over trifles. Thinks one is being laughed at and made fun of. Hides behind the furniture and keeps the hands over the face, peeping through the fingers. Always borrows trouble. Loss of self confidence. Talking mania; during menses, in young girls. Idiocy.

Head

      Vertigo_of old people; with nausea worse stooping; when lifting arms up. Brain feels loose, better cold air. Baldness of vertex. Wens on scalp. Heavy pressure over eyes. Dry eruptions or moist crusts on the scalp. Stitching pain when standing in sun.

Eyes

      Pupils dilate and contract quickly. Pressure deep in eyes better looking downward. Light dazzles. Opaque cornea. Lids; granular; thickened. Fiery sparks before eyes, in dark.

Ears

      Crackling noises; worse swallowing, walking. Glands around ear painful and swollen. Eruptions on lobes of ears. Hardness of hearing. Sound on sneezing.

Nose

      Dry, worse blowing it. Coryza, with swelling of upper lip and nose (children with large abdomen). Sensation of smoke in nose. Discharge of thick yellow mucus; scabs around wings of nose. Epistaxis.

Face

      Pale, puffed; sensation as if a cobweb. Upper lip swollen. Lips pendulous.

Mouth

      Tongue; weak, paralyzed, hard in old people, cannot speak. Burning soreness or vesicles on tip or under the tongue. Toothache worse before menses. Mouth feels numb. Whole mouth filled with vesicles_ esp. inside the cheek. Saliva runs out, while asleep. Foetor oris, unnoticed by himself. Frequent and considerable bleeding of gums.

Throat

      Tonsils are affected by every cold or worse menses. Chronic quinsy. Enlarged tonsils. Spasms of oesophagus, as soon as food enters oesophagus, causing gagging and choking. Pain in throat, worse empty swallowing. Can swallow liquids only. Waterbrash; sudden. Submaxillary gland swollen. Much burning in throat. Throat trouble from overuse of voice.

Stomach

      Sore spot in stomach. Hungry but refuses food. Aversion to sweet things, fruits esp. plums. Sudden disgust while eating. Dyspepsia of young masturbators or with seminal emissions. Pain while fasting and after eating. Weak digestion of old people with possible malignancy, better cold food.

Abdomen

      Hard and tense, tender, distended, with emaciation of body. Diarrhoea with lumbar ache. As if intestines fell from one side to other on turning in bed. Stools; hard, knotty. Piles protrude, while urinating. Crawling in the rectum. Oozing at anus. Habitual colic of children who do not thrive, and though apparently hungry refuse food. Mesenteric glands hard and swollen.

Urinary Organs

      Urging to urinate, cannot retain the urine. Burning in urethra, while urinating. Frequent urination. Urine; dark brown, scanty.

Male

      Genitals flabby. Enlarged prostate gland. Testicles indurated. Impotency. Premature emissions. Erections when riding. Falling asleep during coition. Genitals feel numb. Painful nodes in mammae, in old fat men.

Female

      Menses scanty, last only one day. Before menses, pain in stomach and lumbar back. Genitals feel numb. Dwindling of ovary and mammary gland. Amenorrhoea. Leucorrhoea, immediately before menses.

Respiratory organs

      Paralytic aphonia. Asthma; of old people, worse wet, warm air. Larynx feel as if smoke were inhaled. Lungs feel full of smoke. Cough worse in the presence of strangers; eating warm food. Chronic bronchitis. Dry suffocative cough in old people, full of mucus but lacking strength to expectorate.

Heart

      Cardiac symptoms, after suppressed foot sweat or after masturbation. Heart feels bruised, sore. Palpitation and distress in region of heart lying on left side. Palpitation felt in head. Aneurism. Pulse; slow, small. High blood pressure. Arteriosclerosis.

Neck and Back

      Glands swollen in nape and occiput. Chronic torticollis. Spine weak. Pulsation in back: after mental emotion. Fatty tumours upon the neck.

Extremities

      Fingers numb. Limbs feel numb. Trembling of feet, and of hands while writing. Soles feel hot or bruised at night, during sleep. Numbness from knees to scrotum better when sitting. Cold, foul foot sweat. Pain in deltoid worse raising arms. Pain in the knees, while kneeling.

Sleep

      Talks in sleep (old men). Awakes frequently; feels hot. Twitching during sleep.

Fever

      Flushes of heat, more at night. Sweat on single parts, one hand, one foot, one side of body, face; stinking; of feet, worse in presence of strangers.

Skin

      Warts. Acne. Lipoma. Cysts. Burning sarcoma.

Related

      Kali-p; Lyc; Med; Puls; Sep; Sil; Tuberculinum

Complementary

      Ant-t; Dulc; Psor; Silicea

S.R. Phatak
A pioneer of Homoeopathy in Maharashtra, Dr Shankar Raghunath Phatak was born on 6th September, 1896. He did his MBBS from Grant Medical College, in 1924. Started his practice but somehow not satisfied with Allopathic Treatment.

He was convinced about Homoeopathy while going through Sir William Osler's writings on 'History of Medicine' so switched over to an entirely Homoeopathic Practice in 1932. He also started working on Homoeopathic literature along with his Practice.

He has contributed immensely to homoeopathic literature. He was an ardent follower of Dr Boger. His Repertory is based on Boger's ''A Synoptic key to Materia Medica'.