A patient with acute complaints. The man was born on 23 April 1952 and attended for initial consultation on 7 February 1985. He works as a surveying engineer for British Rail. The young man was shy, dressed old‑fashionedly, made a very conservative impression and was rather awkward in his manners. Professionally he never took the initiative and had little chance of advancement. Privately he lived with two women who took care of everything.
For a few days he had flu‑like symptoms with fever and stomach upset. He could not keep liquids down, although swallowing was not a problem. For a few days he also had frontal headaches, worse from heating air.
Cold weather aggravated and seemed to be the cause of the complaints. Cold wind was not tolerated at all and was particularly bad that month.
Paralytic symptoms since taking penicillin. He had the sensation that his face was swollen, which was not visible on examination.
The patient could not raise his LEFT eyebrow and could not close or keep his left eye closed. He had left‑sided headaches and his left nostril felt swollen. Left‑sided twitching in the face, which almost caused the whole body to cramp.
In the patient history there were nervous twitches when he felt rundown, a left clavicle fracture, a blow to the left side of the head and pain in the left hip.
No involuntary urination, no nocturnal underarm sweating, digestive tract unremarkable.
Analysis
In Kent we find the following interesting rubrics:
FACE – PARALYSIS: Agar., all‑c, anac., Bar‑c., Cadm., Caust., Cocc., crot‑h., Cupr., Cur., Dulc., form., Graph., iod., Kali‑chl., Kali‑p., Nux‑v., op., petr., plb., puls., ruta., seneg., stry., syph., zinc.
FACE – PARALYSIS – right: Arn., Caust., hep., kali‑chl., kali‑p., Phos., plb., sil.
FACE – PARALYSIS – left: All‑c., cadm., Cur., form., graph., Nux‑vom., spig., sulph.
FACE – PARALYSIS – from cold: Cadm., Caust., Dulc., ruta.
How can we use this information? The patient's paralysis is caused by cold WIND, not by bathing, so we can exclude Dulcamara. The only other remedy with a strong indication is Causticum, but it has RIGHT‑SIDED paralysis, although there could be other possible indications in the patient's history. Although the three‑legged stool is absent, we were able to establish that there is no involuntary urination. I had never prescribed Cadmium sulphuratum and I had to look up the remedy's abbreviation to make clear to myself that it is not the metal. I only knew the remedy as a cancer remedy as described in Arthur Grimmer's works.
Eyes – open – in sleep
Eyes – closing the eyes: difficult, is (the face appears swollen).
Follow-up
Seven days later there was no sign of the complaints; an immediate 75% improvement had occurred and everything else improved gradually. No further treatment was necessary.
Comment:
Cadmium metallicum was described by William Gutman as a remedy for 'influenzosis' (BrHomJ, pp. 20–21, 1961). Grimmer describes the properties of the sulphuratum component as fear of solitude and mental work, worse from cold wind and a tingling sensation with facial paralysis. A note at our school contained the remark that Cadmium sulphuratum CM is taken every 20 minutes for a severe influenza!! (Is that a joke?) I followed this lead and found that this information comes from Eric Powell's 'Natural Home Physician'. Clarke confirms the facial paralysis and the aggravation by cold wind. Clarke and Grimmer both confirm the stomach symptoms, but attribute them to yellow fever or cancer, as well as to extreme cold and – again – underarm sweating. All this and more was summarised by Hering on seven pages!
The remedy was prescribed by me in a C200 potency.
Several years after treating this patient Jan Scholten's work on minerals and elements appeared. His theory confirms the possible applications of the cadmium salts; one could therefore call this case an anecdotal proof. I personally prefer to call it an interesting case study.
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Category: Cases
Keywords: Cadmium sulphuratum, paralysis, Bell's palsy
Remedy: Cadmium sulphuratum.
Original article: interhomeopathy.org
