Materia Medica de A a Z

BARYTA CARBONICA (Bar-c)

Specially indicated in INFANCY and OLD AGE. This remedy brings aid to scrofulous children, especially if they are backward mentally and physically, are dwarfish, do not grow and develop, have scrofulous ophthalmia, swollen abdomen, take cold easily, and then ALWAYS HAVE SWOLLEN TONSILS. Persons subject to quinsy, which is prone to suppurate; gums bleed easily. Diseases of old men when degenerative changes begin; — cardiac vascular and cerebral; — who have hypertrophied prostate or indurated testes, very sensitive to cold, offensive foot-sweats, very weak and weary, must sit or lie down or lean on something. Very averse to meeting strangers. Catarrh of posterior nares, with frequent epistaxis. Often useful in the dyspepsia of the young who have masturbated and who suffer from seminal emissions, together with cardiac irritability and palpitation. Affects glandular structures, and useful in general degenerative changes, especially in coats of arteries, ANEURISM, and senility. Baryta is a cardio-vascular poison acting on the muscular coats of heart and vessels. Arterial fibrosis. Blood-vessels soften and degenerate, become distended, and aneurisms, ruptures, and apoplexies result.

Mind

Loss of memory, mental weakness. Irresolute. Lost confidence in himself. Senile dementia. Confusion. BASHFUL. Aversion to strangers. Childish; grief over trifles.

Head

Vertigo; stitches, when standing in the sun, extending through head. Brain feels as if loose. Hair falls out. Confusion. WENS.

Eyes

Alternate dilatation and contraction of pupils. Photophobia. Gauze before eyes. Cataracts. [Calc; Phos; Sil].

Ears

Hardness of hearing. CRACKLING NOISE. GLANDS AROUND EARS PAINFUL AND SWOLLEN. Reverberation on blowing nose.

Nose

Dry; sneezing, CORYZA, WITH SWELLING OF UPPER LIP AND NOSE. Sensation of smoke in nose. Discharge of thick, yellow mucus. Frequent bleeding. Scabs around wings of nose.

Face

Pale, puffed; sensation as of cobweb. [Alumina (Alum)] Upper lip swollen.

Mouth

Awakes with dry mouth. Gums bleed and retract. Teeth ache before menses. Mouth filled with inflamed vesicles, foul taste. Paralysis of tongue. Smarting, burning pain in tip of tongue. Dribbling of saliva at dawn. Spasms of oesophagus when food enters.

Throat

Submaxillary glands and tonsils swollen. TAKES COLD EASILY, WITH STITCHES AND SMARTING PAIN. QUINSY. SUPPURATING TONSILS FROM EVERY COLD. Tonsils inflamed, with swollen veins. Smarting pain when swallowing; worse empty swallowing. Feeling of a plug in pharynx. Can only swallow liquids. Spasm of oesophagus as soon as food enters oesophagus, causes gagging and choking. [Merc cor (Merc-c); Graph] Throat troubles from over use of voice. Stinging pain in tonsils, pharynx or larynx.

Stomach

Waterbrash, hiccough, and eructation, which relieves pressure as of a stone. Hungry, but refuses food. Pain and weight immediately after a meal, with epigastric tenderness. [Kali-c] Worse after warm food. Gastric weakness in the aged with possible malignancy present.

Abdomen

HARD AND TENSE, DISTENDED. Colicky. Enlarged mesenteric glands. Pain in abdomen swallowing food. Habitual colic, with hunger, but food is refused.

Rectum

Constipation, with hard, knotty stools. Haemorrhoids protrude on urinating. Crawling in rectum. Oozing at anus.

Urinary

Every time patient urinates, his piles come down. Urging to urinate. Burning in urethra on urinating.

Male

Diminished desire and premature impotence. Enlarged prostate. Testicles indurated.

Female

Before menses, pain in stomach and small of back. Menses scanty.

Respiratory

Dry, suffocative cough, especially in old people, full of mucus but lacking strength to expectorate, worse every change of weather. [Senega (Seneg)] Larynx feels as if smoke were inhaled. Chronic aphonia. Stitches in chest; worse inspiration. Lungs feel full of smoke.

Heart

Palpitation and distress in region of heart. Aneurism. [Lyc] Accelerates the heart's action at first, blood pressure much increased, contraction of blood vessels. Palpitation when lying on left side, when thinking of it especially; pulse full and hard. Cardiac symptoms after suppressed foot-sweat.

Back

SWOLLEN GLANDS IN NAPE OF OCCIPUT. Fatty tumors about neck. Bruised pain between scapulae. Stiffness in sacrum. Weakness of spine.

Extremities

Pain in axillary glands. Cold, clammy feet. [Calc] FETID FOOT-SWEATS. Numbness of limbs. Numb feeling from knees to scrotum; disappears when sitting down. Toes and soles sore; soles painful when walking. Pain in joints; burning pains in lower limbs.

Sleep

Talking in sleep; awakens frequently; feels too hot. Twitching during sleep.

Modalities

Worse: while thinking of symptoms; from washing; lying on painful side.

Better: walking in open air.

Relationship

Compare: Digitalis (Dig); Radium (Rad); Aragallus (Arag); Oxtrop (Oxyt); Astrag (Astra-mo)

Complementary: Dulc; Sil; Psor.

Incompatible: Calc

Antidote for poisonous doses: Epsom salts (Mag-s).

Dose

Third to thirtieth potency, the latter to remove the predisposition to quinsy. Baryta is slow in action, bears repetition.