K carbonicum
Made from potassium carbonate — the old 'salt of tartar' of the soap-boilers, and the classical remedy of the 2 a.m. asthma and the stitching back.
The whole picture, in one breath
Think of 2 a.m. in the asthmatic's house: the cough and suffocation wake the sufferer between two and four in the morning, who must sit up bent forward for relief, with a stitching, bruised small of the back that cannot bear to lie, and dropsical swellings. The 2 a.m. asthma, can't-lie stitching back: that is Kali carbonicum.
The substance, in plain words
Potassium carbonate is the caustic alkaline salt once central to soap and glass making — 'potash' itself. Its proving gave the library's great asthma-with-backache portrait; the chemistry is harsh in bulk, the portrait precise in the old books.
The traditional picture Classical sources
The inner state
- Anxiety at night. Fear, restlessness and dread peak in the early morning hours with the asthma.
- Irritability. Cross, quarrelsome, worse from contradiction; the books paint a touchy asthmatic.
- Despair of recovery. The long chronic breathlessness breeds hopelessness.
The body
- The 2–4 a.m. aggravation. The keynote: asthma and cough wake the sufferer between 2 and 4 a.m.; must sit up, lean forward, puff.
- Stitching backache. Small of the back bruised and stitching, cannot lie on the back or either side comfortably — the famous 'can't lie' back.
- Weakness of the chest. Lungs feel weak, stitching on every breath; worse lying right
- Dropsical swellings. Puffy eyelids and ankles; the books' cardiac-asthma companion.
- stitching pains everywhere. Stitches in chest, back, liver — worse motion and lying.
- Worse cold and damp. Cold air, damp weather and getting chilled set the breath off.
Modalities (worse and better factors)
| Worse from ⬇ | Better from ⬇ |
|---|---|
| 2–4 a.m.; lying down; cold and damp; eating | sitting up bent forward; moving about gently; warm drinks. |
Where it acts (organ affinities)
Lungs and respiration (asthma), back (stitching), heart and dropsy, stitching membranes.
Where the classical picture comes from
The caustic salt's proving gave the stitching, night-climbing asthma picture; clinically Kali-carb served the chronic bronchitics and asthmatics whose 2 a.m. hours the old books knew by heart.
The substance in real medicine Pharmacology
What this section is: the pharmacology and toxicology of the source substance. It is not clinical evidence that a homeopathic preparation of it treats any condition. What controlled trials do and do not show is set out on the Evidence page.
Potassium carbonate's history is industrial — soap, glass, potash — and its medical career belongs to the alkaline era of medicine, retired. The asthma it portrayed is now managed with bronchodilators and inhaled steroids, among respiratory medicine's clearest successes; dropsy is now heart-failure medicine.
Look-alikes (how the classical authors told it apart)
| Remedy | Looks similar because… | Tells it apart because… |
|---|---|---|
| Arsenicum album | Anxious asthma, midnight worse | Arsenicum is chilly, fearful and sipping; Kali-carb is stitching, backachy and 2 a.m.-waked. |
| Antimonium tartaricum | Rattling chest | Ant-tart is drowsy and rattling, coated and sinking; Kali-carb is stitching, irritable and positional. |
| Bryonia alba | Stitching worse motion | Bryonia is dry, hot and motion-worse with thirst; Kali-carb is the 2 a.m. asthma with the bruised back. |
| Phosphorus | Chest weakness | Phosphorus is thirsty, bleeding and twilight-worse; Kali-carb dropsical, stitching and morning-waked. |