Lapis Albus

A white rock from the Austrian Alps, traditionally associated in homoeopathy with soft, swollen glands, lumpy swellings and burning, itching skin.

Lapis albus, the white stone, is a silico-fluoride of calcium, a pale gneiss found by the physician Grauvogl in the mineral springs of Gastein in the Austrian Alps. The springs flow over this rock into a valley where swollen neck glands were once common, which led him to try it. It combines calcium, silica and fluorine.

Homoeopaths traditionally associate it with the glands and the tissue around them: glands that are enlarged yet soft and elastic rather than stony hard, and lumpy swellings under the skin. Its picture also includes burning, stinging pains, itching skin, and pale, plump babies with a large appetite.

• Swollen glands
• Soft, lumpy swellings
• Burning, stinging pains
• Itching skin