• Children, both physically and mentally weak
• Inability to swallow anything but liquids
• Feels as if legs are cut off and he is walking on his knees
• Sensation of a cobweb on the face (Alum, Calad, Graph, Sil)
• Offensive foot sweat; toes and soles get sore

Source: Mineral kingdom
Synonyms: Carbonate of barium
Formula: BaCO3
Prover: Dr Hahnemann
Duration of Action: Upto 40 days
Miasmatic Background: Psora
Temperament: Melancholic
Diathesis: Scrofulous and tubercular
Thermal Relationship: Very chilly patient

Introduction and History: It is a very useful remedy in homeopathy, which is long acting and deep seated. It is a white amorphous powder, odourless and tasteless, which is stable in air; almost insoluble in water and is decomposed slightly by boiling water. It is insoluble in alcohol but easily soluble in dilute HCI or HNO3. Baryta can be easily obtained by purifying bone ash. It has been proved and tested clinically and adopted by Dr Schussler.

Description: It is composed of barium and carbonic acid. It can be made available from a chemist shop.

Preparation: The salt is triturated with sugar of milk and then higher potencies are prepared.

Constitution and Physiognomy

• It is best suited to mentally backward patients who are dwarfish in body and mind; cretinism, puffy face, distended abdomen and enlarged glands with very thick lips.
• Patient looks very idiotic.
• It is also suited to old people who are fat and weak, who have a childish behaviour.

Ailments From: Suppressed perspiration of foot, emotions, crusts and vermin on scalp, etc.

Seat of Action (Pharmacodynamics): Mind, nerves, throat, glands, heart, blood vessels, nutrition, tonsils, prostate, etc.

Physio-pathological Changes (Pathology)

1. It acts on glands causing inflammation and hypertrophy.
2. It acts on blood vessels and heart, produces arteriosclerosis in old people.
3. Acts on the body in general; in a small infant producing degenerative changes.
4. Due to its action on the heart there is hypertension, especially in old people.

Characteristic Mental Symptoms (Psychology)

1. Great mental and physical weakness.
2. Loss of memory, child cannot teach for he cannot remember; forgetful, inattentive.
3. Child is very idiotic and foolish; sadness, dejection of spirit.
4. Lack of self-confidence, disposed to weep, critical and irresolute.
5. Dread of men especially strangers; sudden ebullitions of temper with cowardice.
6. Imagines that he is being laughed at or criticized.
7. Thinks that his legs are cut off and he is walking on his knees; childish, senile dementia.
8. Baby does not want to play, sits in a corner throwing stones at strangers or doing nothing.
9. Mistrustful, suspicious temper, fears to undertake anything.
10. Fears about domestic affairs and his future.
11. Thinking of one’s complaint makes him worse.
12. Child constantly changes his mind, laughs on serious matters and becomes serious at laughable matters.

Characteristic Physical Guiding Symptoms

Baldness: In young people there is baldness; scalp is very sensitive to touch.

Paralytic condition: Throughout the remedy, paralytic condition is very prominent.

Left-sidedness: It is a left sided remedy; affects principally the left side.

Affinity for glands: Great affinity for glands; swelling and induration of glands with pain and inflammation.

Soreness: Sensation of soreness in scrotum and thighs, in stomach; burning soreness on tip of tongue. Offensive foot sweat.

Emaciation: Great weakness and emaciation of the body except the abdomen.

Hypertrophy: Hypertrophy and induration of prostate and testes in old people.

Dwarfishness: Patient is both mentally and physically dwarfish; women are hysterical and dwarfish with scanty menses.

Impotency: Premature impotency; hypertension and childish behaviour with idiocy in old people.

Voracious appetite: It is the characteristic of Baryta carbonica. Patient eats enough but growth is poor due to defective assimilation.

Seminal emission: Frequent seminal emissions in young people due to the habit of masturbation.

Jerking: Twitching and jerking of muscles during sleep, also talks in sleep.

Rheumatic stiffness: Rheumatic stiffness and aching of whole body in damp weather; slightest exertion makes him tired and sleepy.

Cough: Chronic cough of children having tonsillitis, hypertrophy of tonsils.

Piles: Haemorrhoids protrude when he urinates.

Difficult swallowing: Inability to swallow anything except liquids.

Sensitiveness: Greatly sensitive to cold, takes cold very easily, even the least cold predisposes to an attack of tonsillitis; tonsillitis prone to suppuration.

Apoplexy: Apoplectic tendency in old drunkards; people who behave like a child with headache.

Important Characteristic Features

Baby: Baryta carbonica baby has stunted growth, looks very dwarfish, has a puffed face and bloated abdomen. The baby is psoric with scrofulous and tubercular tendency.

The baby is very forgetful, mentally retarded and idiotic. The baby does not want to move and play, it sits in a corner doing nothing or throws stones at strangers. Baby cannot remember anything, is unable to learn; cannot even learn how to walk. The baby becomes serious at laughable matters and laughs at serious matters.

Catches cold very easily, tonsillitis, tendency to suppurate and quinsy. The digestive system becomes very weak hence, there is always constipation, vomiting and diarrhoea. Glands of the body are enlarged and indurated with inflammation caused by suppressed perspiration of the foot. Emaciation or bloating of the body and face; slightest exertion makes him tired and sleepy.

Emaciation: Emaciation of the body, while the abdomen is greatly enlarged (bloated). The child has a voracious appetite, eats enough but grows poorly all the time. It has defective assimilation.

General Modalities

Aggravation: Thinking of symptoms of his disease, lying on the painful side, when sitting, after meals, after menses, by washing affected parts, in cold and damp weather, lying on the left side.

Amelioration: When not thinking of disease, walking in open air.

Remedy Relationships

Complementary: Merc, Con.

Follows well: Nit-ac, Ter, Ham.

Inimical: Calc.

Antidotes: Phyt, Ant-t, Camph, Merc, Bell.

Compare: Calc, Iod, Sil, Alum, Dulc, Fl-ac.

Potency: 3x, 6x, 12x, 30, 200, 1000,

Dosage

1. 3c to 200c potency. 30c is commonly used; but when the constitutional symptoms are present 200c and even higher potencies in single dose.
2. Mother tincture is found to act very well.

Repetition

1. Low potencies can be repeated daily but high potencies in single dose.
2. Mother tincture is found to act very well.

Therapeutic Value: Aneurysm, Apoplexy, Brain affections, Defective digestion, Dwarfism, Fatty tumours, Foot sweat, Gout, Headache, Heart affections, Hypertension, Impotency, Loss of memory, Piles, Quinsy, Rheumatism, Swelling of glands, Tonsillitis.