Hepar Sulphuris Calcareum


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


Generalities

      An impure sulphate of calcium. It affects the NERVES making the patient OVERSENSITIVE to all impressions; to cold; to pain; touch, noise, odours, to draught of air; slightest pain causes fainting. The patient is of sluggish character, and weak muscles, blondes. CONNECTIVE TISSUE is affected producing THE TENDENCY To SUPPURATION; which is very marked. It has a special affinity to RESPIRATORY MUCOUS MEMBRANES producing profuse secretions. All the discharges are profuse; foul; like old cheese; sour, stools, smell of the body, sweat etc. SWEATS EASILY and profusely, but dares not uncover; sweats without relief. Glands inflamed; swell and suppurate. The patient is CHILLY; even wears overcoat in hot weather. As of a wind blowing on part. Takes cold from exposure to damp cold weather. Pains are sore, STICKING; like sharp splinters. Skin is usually affected in folds; EVERY HURT FESTERS. Abscess, threatening; much thick pus. Establishes suppuration around and removes foreign body. Yellow; expectoration, sclerotic, sweat etc. Mastoiditis. The side lain on at night becomes gradually very painful; he must turn. Pellagra. Hard, burning nodes. Touchy mentally and physically. Ill effects of injury; suppressed eruptions; mercury. Trembling weakness after tobacco smoking. Pains in bones; caries. Spasms after injury.

Worse

      COLD dry AIR. WINTER. COLD WIND_DRAFTS. PART BECOMING COLD. LEAST_UNCOVERING; TOUCH; noise, exertion. Lying on painful part. Mercury. Night.

Better

      HEAT. WARM WRAPS_To HEAD. MOIST HEAT. DAMP WEATHER.

Mind

      Dejected and sad. Sudden weak memory. Touchy; mentally and physically; easily. Quarrelsome, hard to get along with, nothing pleases him, dislikes persons, places; becomes cross and violent. Irritable or DISSATISFIED, with oneself and others. Ferocious; wants to kill who offends him; wants to set things on fire. Horrid impulses. Hasty; in speech, and drinking. The words roll out tumbling over each other. Cross children. Child does not laugh, amuse itself. Sits silent and speechless in a corner.

Head

      Vertigo worse riding in a carriage or shaking head. Boring headache in right temple and at the root of the nose, worse motion; stooping. Hair falls; in spots, after headache. Scalp, sore and sensitive. Sore nodosity on head. Cold sweat on head. Constant pressive pain in half of brain, as from a plug.

Eyes

      Ulcers on cornea or maculae. Hypopion. Objects appear red and too large. Little pimples surround the inflamed eye. Photophobia. Field of vision one half. Anaesthesia of retina, from looking at an eclipse.

Ears

      Darting pain in the ears. Wax increased. Perforation of the drum. Foetid otorrhoea. Mastoiditis. Scurf on and behind the ears.

Nose

      Stops up or sneezing and running from the nose every time he goes into cold dry wind. Nosebleed; after singing. Sore pain at the root of nose. Stuffed painful nose. Smell like old cheese. Hay fever. Ripened colds and old catarrh. Sneezes from every cold wind.

Face

      Yellow, with blue rings around the eyes. Lower lip cracked in the middle. Bones painful to touch. Shooting in jaw on opening the mouth. Ulcers in the corner of the mouth. Upper jaw projects. Herpes following the course of the supra-orbital nerve. Pimples on forehead which disappear in open air. Hard swollen cheek; with a hard growth over it.

Mouth

      Teeth loose. Hollow teeth feel too long. Gums bleed easily. Ulcers of the soft palate that eat away the uvula. Offensive breath. Aphthous pustules on inside lips and cheeks.

Throat

      Swelling of tonsils and glands of the neck. Quinsy. Sensation as if a fish bone or splinter sticking in the throat, extending to ears on yawning. Sensation of a plug. Hawks mucus. Goitre (right), pains into the head. Stitches extending to ear when swallowing. Chronic tonsillitis, with hardness of hearing.

Stomach

      Longing for acids, condiments and stimulants; vinegar. Stomach; weak; burning and heaviness in stomach, after slight meal, easily upset. Constant acid rising sensation into oesophagus. Eating refreshes but causes heaviness. Drinks hastily. Aversion to fatty food. At times desires something but when he gets it does not like it. Painful on walking, as if it hangs loose.

Abdomen

      Stitching in the region of liver worse walking, coughing, breathing or touching it. Stools soft but expelled with difficulty. Abdomen; distended, tense. Foul mucus from anus. Bleeding from rectum with soft stool. Diarrhoea after drinking cold water. Hepatitis. Hepatic abscess. Stools; sour, white. Piles.

Urinary

      Urine is passed slowly; with difficulty; drops out perpendicularly. Must wait to urinate. Passing of blood or pus after urination. Nephritis, after exanthemata. It seems that some urine always remains in the bladder; after urination.

Male

      Chancre-like ulcers on prepuce. Flow of prostatic fluid after urination, during stool. Condylomata, foul. Obstinate gonorrhoea. Skin of folds between scrotum and thighs becomes moist and sore. Glands in groins suppurate.

Female

      Discharge of blood from the uterus during or after stools. Very foul, hot, membranous, pussy leucorrhoea; smells like old cheese. Abscess of labia with great sensitiveness. Itching of nipples and pudenda worse menses. Cancer, with ulceration. Coitus very painful from enlarged and anteverted uterus, with congestion of ovaries.

Respiratory

      Larynx; sensitive to cold air; painful. Loss of voice, and cough when exposed to dry cold wind. Cough from least uncovering. Hoarseness; chronic; of singers. Whistling, choking; breathing, must bend head back. Cough choking, barking worse cold drinks or in a.m.; hacking; as from feather. WEAKNESS AND MUCH rattling in chest; expectoration LOOSE; but cannot expectorate; tightens up in cold air. Much, thick, yellow expectoration. Recurrent bronchitis, from every cold. Sensation as of drops of hot water in chest. Asthma; after suppressions. Cries before cough. Aphonia. Cough worse evening till midnight.

Heart

      Palpitation, with stitches.

Neck and Back

      Crawling in right scapula.

Extremities

      Encysted tumour at the point of elbow. Whitlow. Nail of great toe painful on slight pressure. Easy dislocation of finger joints. Laming pain in hip joint worse walking. Swelling of knee, ankle and foot. Drawing pains in limbs. Abscess in axilla. Swelling of feet around ankles, with difficult breathing.

Sleep

      Sleeplessness; anxious dreams of fire. Unrefreshing. Wakes at night, with erection and desire to urinate.

Fever

      Low fevers; hectic. Profuse sweat; with least exertion; day and night; sour, sticky, offensive. Night sweats.

Skin

      Sensitive to cool air. Foul moist eruptions in folds. Torpid pulsating ulcers, encircled by smaller ones or by pimples or boils. Skin; chapped, deep cracks on hands and feet. Very sensitive cold sores. Chronic and recurring urticaria. Angio- neurotic oedema. Body exhales a foul odour. Impetigo. Poor granulation.

Related

      Mercurius

Complementary

      Iod; 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'.