Aswin, aged four, is brought by her mother for constant and chronic running nose (fluent coryza). I do not ask any question. (Any interruption would only break the chain of thought of the narrator, and all they would have said at first does not again occur to them in precisely the same manner after that. Footnote to S.84 of the Organon.)
While I was going through Dr. Calvin B. Knerr’s Repertory, the boy’s mother breaks in, “Doctor, he is very angry at times.” (At this stage I simply note in the case-sheet the word anger.)
I copy on the case-sheet the following portions from Knerr’s Repertory.
NOSE, Coryza, Chronic: Calc., Canth, Colch, Cycl., Sil., Spig. (page 248)
MIND, Anger (plus above list): Calc.
Again, at this stage, the lady tells: “Doctor, whenever he is at home on holidays, running nose is not there. But whenever he goes to school, on those days, it is worse.” To classify this last symptom is a somewhat difficult job.
I now turn to HOMOEOPATHIC THERAPEUTICS by Dr. Samuel Lilienthal.
At this stage, after a pause, the lady continues, “Doctor, two years ago he was diagnosed to be suffering from primary complex and we gave a course of allopathic treatment.”
To classify the symptom (aggravation on the days of going to school) is a difficult task. For “primary complex’ the equivalent rubric in homoeopathy is phthisis (prodromal stage).
I just glanced through Samuel Lilienthal’s Homoeopathic Therapeutics (page 858) and under the chapter PHTHISIS PULMONUM the following lines under Calcarea Carb. caught my attention:
…very susceptible to external influences, currents of air, cold, heat, noise, excitement.”
When he goes to school he is exposed to air, noise, excitement and therefore the above quoted line confirmed my selection of Calc. Carb.
I gave this in 10M potency in single dose and the patient is under treatment with lot of improvement.