Mercurius

• ▸Slow in answering questions.
• ▸Memory weakened, and loss of will-power.
• ▸Weary of life.
• ▸Mistrustful.
• ▸Thinks he is losing his reason.

• ▸Vertigo, when lying on back.
• ▸Band-feeling about head.
• ▸One-sided, tearing pains.
• ▸Tension about scalp, as if bandaged.
• ▸Catarrhal headaches; much heat in head.
• ▸Stinging, burning, fetid eruptions on scalp.
• ▸Loss of hair.
• ▸Exostosis, with feeling of soreness.
• ▸Scalp tense; oily sweat on head.

• ▸Lids red, thick, swollen.
• ▸Profuse, burning, acrid discharge.
• ▸Floating black spots.
• ▸After exposure to glare of fire; foundrymen. Parenchymatous keratitis of syphilitic origin with burning pain.
• ▸Iritis, with hypopyon.

Thick, yellow discharge; fetid and bloody. Otalgia, worse warmth of bed; at night sticking pains. Boils in external canal (Calc pic).

• ▸Much sneezing.
• ▸Sneezing in sunshine. Nostrils raw, ulcerated; nasal bones swollen.
• ▸Yellow-green, fetid, pus-like discharge.
• ▸Coryza; acrid discharge, but too thick to run down the lip; worse, warm room.
• ▸Pain and swelling of nasal bones, and caries, with greenish fetid ulceration.
• ▸Nosebleed at night.
• ▸Copious discharge of corroding mucus.
• ▸Coryza, with sneezing; sore, raw, smarting sensation; worse, damp weather; profuse, fluent.

Pale, earthy, dirty-looking, puffy. Aching in facial bones, Syphilitic pustules on face.

• ▸Sweetish metallic taste.
• ▸Salivary secretions greatly increased; bloody and viscid.
• ▸Saliva fetid, coppery.
• ▸Speech difficult on account of trembling tongue.
• ▸Gums spongy, recede, bleed easily.
• ▸Sore pain on touch and from chewing.
• ▸Whole mouth moist.
• ▸Crown of teeth decay.
• ▸Teeth loose, feel tender and elongated.
• ▸Furrow in upper surface of tongue lengthwise.
• ▸Tongue heavy, thick; moist coating; yellow, flabby, teeth-intended, feels as if burnt, with ulcers, Fetid odor from mouth, can smell it all over room.
• ▸Alveolar abscess, worse at night.
• ▸Great thirst, with moist mouth.

• ▸Bluish-red swelling.
• ▸Constant desire to swallow.
• ▸Putrid sore throat; worse right side.
• ▸Ulcers and inflammation appearing at every change in weather.
• ▸Stitches into ear on swallowing; fluids return through nose.
• ▸Quinsy, with difficult swallowing, after pus has formed.
• ▸Sore, raw, smarting, burning throat.
• ▸Complete loss of voice.
• ▸Burning in throat, as from hot vapor ascending.

• ▸Putrid eructations.
• ▸Intense thirst for cold drinks.
• ▸Weak digestion, with continuous hunger.
• ▸Stomach sensitive to touch.
• ▸Hiccough and regurgitation.
• ▸Feels replete and constricted.

• ▸Stabbing pain, with chilliness.
• ▸Boring pain in right groin.
• ▸Flatulent distention, with pain.
• ▸Liver enlarged; sore to touch, indurated.
• ▸Jaundice.
• ▸Bile secreted deficiently.

Greenish, bloody and slimy, worse at night, with pain and tenesmus. Never-get-done feeling. Discharge accompanied by chilliness, sick stomach, cutting colic, and tenesmus. Whitish-gray stools.

Frequent urging. Greenish discharge from urethra; burning in urethra on beginning to urinate. Urine dark, scanty, bloody, albuminous.

• ▸Menses profuse, with abdominal pains.
• ▸Leucorrhoea excoriating, greenish and bloody; sensation of rawness in parts.
• ▸Stinging pain in ovaries (Apis).
• ▸Itching and burning; worse, after urinating; better, washing with cold water.
• ▸Morning sickness, with profuse salivation.
• ▸Mammae painful and full of milk at menses.

• ▸Vesicles and ulcers; soft chancre.
• ▸Cold genitals.
• ▸Prepuce irritated; itches.
• ▸Nocturnal emissions, stained with blood.

• ▸Soreness from fauces to sternum.
• ▸Cannot lie on right side (Left side, Lycop).
• ▸Cough, with yellow muco-purulent expectoration.
• ▸Paroxysms of two; worse, night, and from warmth of bed.
• ▸Catarrh, with chilliness; dread of air.
• ▸Stitches from lower lobe of right lung to back.
• ▸Whooping-cough with nosebleed (Arnica) Cough worse, tobacco smoke.

Bruised pain in small of back, especially when sitting. Tearing pain in coccyx; better, pressing on abdomen.

• ▸Weakness of limbs.
• ▸Bone-pains and in limbs; worse, night.
• ▸Patient very sensitive to cold.
• ▸Oily perspiration.
• ▸Trembling extremities, especially hands, paralysis agitans.
• ▸Lacerating pain in joints.
• ▸Cold, clammy sweat on legs at night.
• ▸Dropsical swelling of feet and legs.

• ▸Almost constantly moist.
• ▸Persistent dryness of the skin contra indicates mercurius.
• ▸Excessive odorous viscid perspiration; worse, night.
• ▸General tendency to free perspiration, but patient is not relieved thereby.
• ▸Vesicular and pustular eruptions.
• ▸Ulcers, irregular in shape, edges undefined.
• ▸Pimples around the main eruption.
• ▸Itching, worse from warmth of bed.
• ▸Crusta lactea; yellowish-brown crusts, considerable suppuration.
• ▸Glands swell every time patient takes cold.
• ▸Buboes.
• ▸Orchitis (Clemat, Hamam, Puls).

• ▸Generally gastric or bilious, with profuse nightly perspiration; debility, slow and lingering.
• ▸Heat and shuddering alternately.
• ▸Yellow perspiration.
• ▸Profuse perspiration without relief. Creeping chilliness, worse in the evening and into night.
• ▸Alternate flashes of heat in single parts.

Compare: Capparis coriaccea (polyuria, glandular affections, mucous diarrhoea; influenza); Epilobium--Willow herb--(chronic diarrhoea with tenesmus and mucous discharges; ptyalism, dysphagia; wasting of body and much debility; cholera infantum); Kali hyd (in hard chancre); Mercur acet (Congestion with stiffness, dryness and heat of parts affected. Eyes inflamed, burn and itch. Lack of moisture. Throat dry, talking difficult. Pressure in lower sternum; chancre in urethra; tenia capitis favosa margin of ulcers painful): Mercurius auratus (psoriasis and syphilitic catarrh; brain tumors; lues of nose and bones; ozaena; swelling of testicles); Mercurius bromatus (secondary syphilitic skin affection); Mercurius nitrosus-Nitrate of Mercury--(especially in postular conjunctivitis and keratitis; gonorrhoea and mucous patches, with sticking pains; syphilides); Mercurius phosphoricus (nervous diseases from syphilis; exostoses); Mercurius precipitatus ruber (suffocative attacks at night on lying down while on the point of falling asleep, obliged to jump up suddenly which relieves; gonorrhoea; urethra felt as a hard string; chancroid; phagedenic ulcer and bubo; pemphigus, mucous patches, eczema with rhagades and fissures, barber's itch; blepharitis, internally and externally; leaden heaviness in occiput, with otorrhoea); Mercurius tannicus (syphilides in patients with gastro-intestinal diseases, or, if very sensitive, to ordinary mercurial preparations);

Erythrinus-South American Red Mullet Fish--(in pityriasis rubra and syphilis; red rash on chest; pityriasis); Lolium temulentum (in trembling of hands and legs); Mercur cum kali (inveterate colds, acute facial paralysis). Henchera-Alum root--(Gastro-enteritis nausea, vomiting of bile and frothy mucus; stools watery, profuse, slimy, tenesmus, never-get-done feeling. Dose, 2 to 10 drops of tincture).

Compare: Mez; Phos; Syph; Kali mur; Aethiops.

Antidote: Hep; Aur; Mez.

Complementary: Badiaga.

Second to thirtieth potency.

The pathogenesis of Mercury is found in the provings of Merc. viv.

and Merc, sol., two slightly different preparations, but not different

enough to make, any distinction in practice.

Mercury is used in testing the temperature, and a Merc, constitution

is just as changeable and sensitive to heat and cold. The patient is

worse from the extremes of temperature, worse from both heat and

cold. Both the symptoms and the patient are worse in a warm atmosphere, worse in the open air, and worse in the cold. The complaints

of Mercury when sufficiently acute to send him to bed are worse from

the warmth of the bed, so that he is forced to uncover ; but after he

uncovers and cools off he gets worse again, so that he has difficulty in

keeping comfortable. This applies to the pains, the fever, ulcers and

eruptions and the patient himself.

He is an offensive patient. We speak of mercurial odors. The

breath especially is very foetid, and it can be detected on entering the

room ; it permeates the whole room. The perspiration is offensive ; it

has a strong, sweetish, penetrating odor. Offensiveness runs all

through ; offensive urine, stool and sweat ; the odors from the nose and

mouth are offensive. When Merc, is used in large doses and the

patient is salivated he gives off these odors. One who has once smelt

a salivated patient will remember the mercurial odor. I remember

when I was a student, almost every room had the mercurial odor.

Mercury was given till the gums were touched and salivation was produced. That odor is often an index to the use of Mere.

He is worse at night. The bone pains, joint affections and inflammatory conditions are all worse at f night and somewhat relieved during

the day. Bone pains are univers^, but especially where the flesh is

thin over the bones. Periosteal pains, boring pains, worse at night

and from warmth of the bed.

The glands are inflamed, and swollen; the parotids, sub-linguals,

lymphatic glands of the neck, groin and axilla are all affected ; the

mammae swell and there is inflammation and swelling of the liver. It

is pre-eminently a glandular remedy. Induration is also a general ;

inflamed parts indurate. If the skin is inflamed it is hard. Inflamed

glands are hard. There is induration with ulceration.

The urine burns and smarts. Frequent urging to urinate, dribbling a little ; bloody urine, great burning. Haemorrhage from the

urethra. Itching worse from the presence of urine. Gonorrhoea

which has existed for some time ; discharge thick, greenish-yellow,

and offensive. Smarting and burning in the urethra when urinating.

Loss of sexual power. Lascivious excitement with painful erections.

Ulcers on the prepuce and glans, making it suitable in chancre and

chancroid. Flat ulcers ; ulcers with lardaceous base. Inflammation

of the inner surface of the prepuce. Balanitis, offensive pus. In

chronic balanitis when pus forms behind the glans and under the foreskin, gonorrhoeal or psoric, consult Jacaranda caroba.

The woman has much tribulation. Burning, stinging in ovaries.

Screaming from pain. Stinging, tearing, cutting pains in the ovaries,

patient covered with vsweat. Copious, excoriating Icucorrhoea, parts

raw, sore, inflamed and itching, ; Stinging, itching and boring pains

in the uterus. Pains in the uteruli and ovaries at the menstrual period.

Milk in the breast of the non-pregnant woman at the menstrual period.

Milk in the breasts instead of the menstrual flow. I once had a freak

in a sixteen-year-old boy, who had milk in his breasts. I cured him

with Merc.

Menstrual flow light red, pale, acrid, clotted, and profuse or scanty.

The menses are sometimes suppressed. Women who have been in

the habit of taking mercury for biliousness remain sterile. (Coffee

drinkers often remain sterile also and you must stop their coffee.)

Amenorrhcea with ebullitions. Chancres on the female genitals. Aged

women have denuded genitals, rawness, soreness and false granulations, which are always bleeding. Burning, throbbing and itching in

the vagina. Itching of the genitals from the contact of the urine ; it

must be washed off. In children, boys or girls, the urine burns after

urinating and they are always carrying the hands to the genitals. Little

girls have acrid Icucorrhoea causing burning and itching and much

trouble. Phlegmonous inflammation of the genitals. Boils and abscesses at the menstrual period ; little elongated abscesses along the

margin of the mucous membrane and skin, painful, aggravated by

walking, forming during the flow and breaking after the period. This

with itching, causes great suffering.

Morning sickness. A woman, while pregnant, has oedematous

swelling of the genitals. Diffused inflammation, soreness and fulness

of the genitals and pelvis, causing difficulty in walking, and she must

take to bed. In pelvic cellulitis in the early months of pregnancy Merc,

is an important remedy. Repeated miscarriages from sheer weakness

Merc, is a wonderful strengthener when properly used. Prolonged

lochia. Milk scanty and spoiled.

Merc, is one of the best palliatives in cancer of the uterus and mammae. It will restrain and sometimes cure epithelioma. I knew one case

cured by the Proto-iodide, an ulcerated, indurated lump in the breast,

as large as a goose egg, with knots in the axilla, blueness of the part,

and no hope. The stooth attenuation, given as often as the pains were

very severe, took it away and she remained well.

The effect observed on the nose is not all of the Merc, coryza. Most

Merc, cases begin in the nose and travel down the throat, creating rawness and scraping of the larynx, and rawness and soreness in the chest ;

laryngitis, tracheitis and bronchitis. Loss of voice, complete aphonia.

The course of the Merc, cold is downwards, even going on to pneumonia, with sweat, restlessness and aggravation from the warmth of

the bed. Of course many of the colds remain in the nose.

There are various conditions in the chest. Coughs ; colds that remain in the chest, lack of reaction and tardy recovery. The colds

finally settle in the bronchial tubes ; the chest feels as if it would burst

and the cough is worse tying on the right side. I look back over many

cases of patients who took cold from exposure and now look sickly and

sallow, with a dreadful cough and rattling on the chest ; every change

of the weather gives them a new cold, and they cannot lie on the right

side ; their tendency is to go into mucous phthisis or quick consumption, The cough is worse in the night air. There are many pains in

the chest. He has a rheumatic constitution, is always sweating, worse

while sweating and from the extremes of heat and cold. Stitching

stabbing, rheumatic pains in the chest with night sweats. Bloody,

thick green expectoration. Suppuration of the lung, great quantities

of pus form. Tremendous orgasms, bubbling and flushes of heat

in the chest. With many complaints there is sore throat and rheumatism and stiffness of the neck ; stiff neck with swollen glands and

goitre. Stiff neck with every cold ; stiffness of the side and back of the

neck. Induration and soreness of the cervical glands along with other

complaints.

Merc, especially affects the joints ; inflammatory rheumatism with

niLUch swelling, aggravated from the heat of the bed and from uncovering. It is difficult to get just the right weight of clothing. Rheumatic affection with sweat, aggravation at night, from the warmth of

the bed and while sweating, with sickly countenance, ft especially atmercurius

tacks the upper limbs, but is also found in the lower.

Tremulous condition of the extremities, like paralysis agitans.

Trembling of the hands with great weakness. Paralysis of the lower

limbs, and twitching, jerking and quivering of the paralyzed parts.

Arg, n., Phos., Stram,, Secale and Merc, have twitching of the muscles

of the paralyzed limb.

• ▸Soreness between the thighs and genitals.
• ▸Ulcers on the legs ; abscesses.
• ▸(Edematous swelling of the feet.
• ▸Cold perspiration.
• ▸Copious sweat during sleep.
• ▸Pain and sweat come on when comfortable in

bed ; bone pains. He covers up because he feels cold, but when he becomes warm the pains are aggravated.

Merc, is full of fever. Very seldom, however, has it a true, idiopathic, continued fever. It stands very low for continued fever alone,

but it is especially indicated in surgical fevers, at first remittent, but

later continued, such as come on from the suppression of discharges.

The Merc, patient about to go into a chill is chilly even when the chill

• ▸has not yet come on ; sensitive to the moving air in a warm room ; violently sensitive to a draught.
• ▸Cold hands and feet.
• ▸The sweat is profuse and offensive.
• ▸The complaints in general arc worse while he

sweats, and the more he sweats the worse he is. He sweats copiously

and his greatest sufferings are in the sweat. Merc, does not have a

clear intermittent. Between the paroxysms he has liver disturbances,

diarrhoea, fever. In surgical fevers, bilious fevers, worm fever in

children, and remittent fevers thtre is much aching in the bones, great

sensitiveness to the air, aggravation at night in bed when the fever

runs highest, mercurial breath and sallow skin. The fever docs not

go so high and the skin is not so hot as in Bell, The loaded tongue

and the bilious fevers fade out after Merc. It is useful in hectic

fever in the last stages of consumption, and in exhausting diseases

with hectics, and in cancer when there is the aching, foul sweat, etc.

It acts wonderfully in catarrhal fever, grippe, etc., and when colds

extend to the chest and there are the copious discharges everywhere.

It is suitable in quasi-typhoids that have come out of remittents, symptomatic typhoids, when the patient is icteric, low, prostrated, tremulous, with quivering muscles, great exhaustion and continued fever.

There are many skin symptoms ; scurfy eruptions, vesicular eruptions, eruptions discharging pus. Vesicles burn and smart, with excoriating discharges, especially on the head. Much itching of the

skin, violent, in all parts of the body, as from fleas, especially when

warm in bed at night. Copper-colored eruptions as in syphilis, and

• ▸mucous patches.
• ▸The scurfy eruptions are especially marked.
• ▸Ulcers on parts where the skin and flesh are thin over the bones.
• ▸Offensive forms of eczema.
• ▸Most eruptions are moist with copious oozing.
• ▸It cures shingles.
• ▸The skin is sallow.
• ▸Excoriating wherever

two parts come together. Rawness between the thighs and between

the scrotum and thighs. Eruptions in such places. It has fissures at

commissures, at the corners of the mouth and eyes ; rawness and bleeding of the perinaeum rendering walking difficult.

This furnishes a basis for the Salts of Mercury.*

TOE SALTS OF MERCURY.

After studying Merc., corrosive mercury, the proto-iodide and the

bin-iodide, we may from some specific symptoms in the case say that

we prefer one of the salts of Mercury. When we go to rheumatic

and gouty cases with the aggravation from sweat, aggravation fromi

the warmth of the bed, the mercurial odor, etc., we can commonly say

that one of the Mercuries will cure this case.

A tendency to ulcerate runs through the remedy. Ulcers are found

everywhere, in the throat, nose, mouth, and on the lower limbs. Ulcers sting and burn and have a lardaceous base, an ashy-white appearance looking as if spread over with a coating of lard. It looks like a

diphtheritic exudate, and Merc, has diphtheritic exudations on inflamed

surfaces. Ulcers in the throat have this appearance. The mucous

membrane sometimes inflames without ulceration, but with exudation,

and hence it is useful in diphtheria. It has the same condition in

ulcers ; when the system is run down they exude a grey lardy or ashy

deposit. Chancres take on that form, a whitish cheesy deposit on the

base. When you realize that the complaints of Merc, are worse at

night, and think of the bone pains, periosteal inflammations, etc., it is

MEKCtmiUS

not surprising that Merc, sometimes cures syphilis. It is wonderful

that the allopath hit upon it for this disease, and he cures or suppresses

enough cases by similarity to justify its continued use. When given

suitably it cures.

Another marked feature is the tendency to the forniation of pus.

With inflammation there is burning and stinging and the rapid formation of pus and the part is aggravated by both warmth and cold. Abscesses burn and sting ; inflammation of joints is attended with pus

formation ; in inflammation of the pleura the cavity fills up with pus.

The discharges of pus are yellow-green. The Merc, gonorrhoeal discharge is thick greenish-yellow, with stinging and burning in the urethra.

Rheumatic inflammation of joints and catarrhal inflammation of

mucous membrane are features running through the remedy, and these

are attended with sweat, and an astonishing feature is that the sweat

does not relieve, and there is even an aggravation while sweating.

Rheumatism in old syphilitic, gonorrhoeal and gouty patients. It is

similar enough to relate to some cases of psora, syphilis and sycosis.

It partakes of the nature of all three miasms.

After a prover has taken Merc, a long time he emaciates. This is

seen in old mercury takers and in syphilitics who have been mercurialized. It is a great remedy in this condition — steady emaciation with

trembling, worse at night and from the warmth of the bed, great restlessness, can’t find peace in any position. These miserable wretches,

who are breaking down, are great sufferers, whether psoric, syphilitic

or sycotic.

A strange feature is repeated swelling and abscess formation without any heat. An abscess or swelling in a joint forms, and he sweats

from head to foot, is worse at night, loses flesh, trembles and is weak,

but there is no heat while the abscess goes on. Abscesses form when

the life force is so low that there is no tendency to repair ; a slow and

prolonged pus formation, no irritability in the abscess, no tendency to

granulate, it opens and keeps on discharging and seems dead. Merc,

will warm it up, stop the sweat and favor granulation.

The superficial ulceration is inclined to spread and become phagedenic ; it is not deep but grows larger. These open ulcers are especially

seen in old syphilitics ; lardaceous base ; not much irritability, they are

• ▸even numb, and if pus is discharged it is greenish-yellow ; false granulations appear.
• ▸Merc.
• ▸cor.
• ▸is a greater remedy for the superficial, eating, phagedenic ulcer.
• ▸At times Merc, takes on a gangrenous condition This may be seen anywhere, but especially on the lips, cheeks

and gums. Cancrum oris. Gangrenous chancre, foetid and black; a

sphacelus forms in the chancre and the part sloughs off. All these

conditions are aggravated by heat. A patient with a typical Merc,

kbscess rebels at times against the poultice, for it makes the trouble

MERCVRIl^S

^53

worse.

Trembling runs through the remedy, quivering all over. It has been

used wirh benefit in paralysis agitans. Tremor of the hands so that

he cannot lift anything or eat or write. Merc, is a great remedy in

children with epileptiform fits, twitching and disorderly motions. It

will help children to grow out of these incoordinate angular movements

• ▸of the hands and feet.
• ▸Jerking, twitching and trembling, The motions of the tongue are disorderly and the child cannot talk.
• ▸Convulsions.
• ▸Involuntary motions which can be momentarily controlled by

volition. The restlessness is extreme.

The trembling, weakness, sweat, footer, suppuration and ulceration,

the aggravation at night and from heat and cold, give the earlier impressions of the remedy.

The mental symptoms, which still more deeply show the nature of

the medicine, are rich. A marked feature running all through is hastiness ; a hurried, restless, anxious, impulsive disposition. Coming in

spells, in cold cloudy weather, or damp weather, the mind will not

work, it is slow and sluggish and he is forgetful. This is noticed in

persons who are tending toward imbecility. He cannot answer questions right off, looks and thinks, and finally grasps it. Imbecility and

• ▸softening of the brain are strong features.
• ▸He becomes foolish.
• ▸Delirium in acute complaints.
• ▸From his feelings he thinks he must be

losing his reason. Desire to Mil persons contradicting her. Impulse

to kill or commit suicide ; sudden anger with impulse to do violence.

She has the impulse to commit suicide or violent things, and she is

fearful that she will lose her reason and carry the impulses out. Impulsive insanity, then, is a feature, but imbecility is more common than

insanity. These impulses are leading features. The patient will not

tell you about his impulses, but they relate to deep evils of the will, they

fairly drive him to do something. Given a Merc, patient, and he has

impulses that he tries to control, no matter what, Merc, will do something for him. During menses, great anxiety, great sadness. Anxious

and restless as if some evil impended, worse at night, with sweat.

A1 these symptoms are common in old syphilitics, broken down after

mercurial treatment and sulphur baths, at the springs, with their bone

pains, glandular troubles, sweating, catarrhs and ulcerations everywhere.

Merc, is suitable to rheumatic troubles of the scalp, and neuralgias

and brain trouble when there are burning, stinging pains and pains

affected by the weather, and when there arc head troubles that have

come on from suppressed discharges, such as suppressed otorrhoea

after scarlet fever, or when there arc head troubles in scarlet fever.

Think of Merc, if you are called to a child with sweating of the head,

dilated pupils, rolling of the head, and aggravation at night, who has

had scarlet fever or a suppressed ear discharge. Merc, cures linger-

^54

ing febrile conditions analogous to the typhoid state, but caused by

• ▸suppressed ear discharge.
• ▸I have cured cases that were due to packing the ear with borax, iodoform, etc.
• ▸, the patient having first a remittent and later a continued fever.
• ▸This would go on for five or six

weeks and be relieved only when the discharge returned after a dose

of Merc. I remember a case of this type. It was called cerebro-spinal

meningitis ; the head was drawn back and twisted and held to one side.

It began as an otitis media with discharge which was suppressed. Two

or three doctors were called and could do nothing. In the night I

went to the bedside and got the history and symptoms of Merc. Merc,

re-established the discharge in twenty-four hours, the torticollis passed

away, the fever subsided and the child made an excellent recovery.

I can recall many such cases.

There is a tension about the scalp as if it were bandaged. Nervous

girls have headache over the nose and around the eyes as if tied with

a tape, or as if a tight hat were pressing on the head. Pressing, tearing pain in the eyes. Burning pains in the temples ameliorated by

sitting up and moving about, worse at night. Periosteal pains worse

in cold, damp weather, in rheumatic and gouty constitutions, with sensitiveness in the eyes and ears, sore throat and glandular swellings.

Headaches in old mercurialized syphilitics ; they become barometers ;

• ▸sensitive to the weather.
• ▸The catarrhal headaches are very troublesome ; headache in those suffering from chronic catarrh with thick discharge.
• ▸The thick discharge becomes watery and the pain in the forehead, face and ears very distressing.
• ▸These headaches are violent.

Chronic rheumatic headache from the suppression of a discharge from

any part, or from foot sweat suppressed ; alternation of foot sweat and

headache. When the foot sweat is gone he has pain and stiffness in

the joints. Silicea has that also. Sil, and Merc, do not follow each

other well, when well selected ; but if crude Mercury has been taken

for a long time. Silica, like Nitric acid, is a good remedy to eliminate

it when the symptoms agree.

With all headaches there is much heat in the head. Bursting headaches, fullness of the brain, and constriction like a band. Vise-like

pressure. He is sensitive to the air when he has headache. This is

true of Merc, all through. He is relieved in the room, but worse in

a warm or cold room, and violently worse from a draught. He wants

to be covered but is worse from heat. The hoop-like sensation is

worse at night.

Merc, is a wonderful remedy to ward off acute hydrocephalus after

measles and scarlatina ; the child rolls the head and moans, and the

head sweats. It is closely related to Apis, which is also a great remedy after scarlet fever to ward off or cure hydrocephalus.

Exostoses in old syphilitics. Lacerating, tearing pains in the peri-

6J5

cranium. The whole external head is painful to touch. The scalp is

tense and sore. Foetid, oily sweat on the head. Children have moist

eczema, an excoriating, offensive eruption.

Mrc. is a wonderful eye remedy, especially for ‘‘colds.'’ Every cold

settles in the eye in gouty and rheumatic patients. Catarrh of the eyes

worse from looking into the fire or rather from sitting close to the fire ;

the radiated heat causes smarting. Eyelids forcibly drawn together as

if long deprived of sleep. Fog or mist before the eye. Merc, cures

iritis in syphilitics. The rule now-a-days is to use a mydriatic in iritis

to prevent adhesions. I have treated many cases and I have no desire

to dilate the pupil. I believe it is unnecessary. The homoeopathic

remedy will stop the iritis speedily so that no adhesions will form, and

if they have begun the remedy will remove them. Pains tearing and

burning around the eyes, in temples, etc. Tension of the scalp as if it

• ▸were a tight fitting cap, or tension as from a tape.
• ▸Ulceration and inflammation of the cornea.
• ▸Vascular appearance of the cornea ; inflammation, especially confined to the cornea, sometimes pustular, sometimes diffused.
• ▸There is copious lachrymation with all eye symptoms,

and the tears excoriate, causing a red line down the cheeks. Greenish

• ▸yellow, or a green discharge.
• ▸Lids spasmodically closed.
• ▸Great photophobia.
• ▸In inflammatory conditions of all the tissues of the eye lids,

conjunctiva and deeper structures* Colds settle in the eye like Dulc,

Sometimes you will sec a little fine growth on the iris, growing

• ▸across the pupil and attached by k pedicle.
• ▸It is really a syphilitic condyloma.
• ▸Merc, cures it in a fewv days.
• ▸Inflammation of the retina

and choroid and of the optic ndrVK^. All sorts of disturbed vision. It

is useful in purulent ophthalmia, with swollen lids. Two kinds of constitution need it, the syphilitic and the rheumatic or gouty. He can

not open the eyes ; they are spasmodically closed, and there is great

tumefaction.

Ear troubles. Horribly stinking greenish discharge. Green, thick,

acrid pus from the cars like the discharge from the nose and other

parts. Stinking otorrhoea. In otitis media with ruptured drum,

Merc, is a frequently required remedy. In Spring after a long, cold

Winter, the cold, damp weather causes many cases of otorrhoea ; it is

almost endemic in large cities. The ear drum heals like any other

place if the patient is put in good condition by the remedy. It not

well treated a hole will be left. Ears inflamed, with cramp-like pains.

Merc has stinging pain like Apis. All routinists will give Apis for

stinging pains, and yet it often is Merc, that the patient needs. Purulent, offensive otorrhoea. Enlargement of the parotids and cervical

glands with all inflammations of the ears. Parotids sore and enlarged,

neck stiff, and head sometimes drawn back. Furuncles in external

canal. Fungous excrescences and polypi.

The nose troubles would take a long time to describe. Old syphilitics, with nasal bones affected, thick, greenish, yellow, acrid, stinking

discharge. Nosebleed and bloody discharge from the nose. Coryza

acrid, watery^ with pressure through the bones of the face, worse fromi

heat or cold, worse at night ; sensitive to every draught ; must get up

and walk the floor. It has coryza with much sneezing with an opposite

state, ameliorated lying, not at all during the night while lying in bed,

only in the daytime while up and about. The inhalation of hot air

feels good to the nose, but the heat arggravates the body. Incessant

sneezing. Bleeding, scurfy, red nostrils. Old catarrhal smell in the

• ▸nose.
• ▸Rawness, burning and swelling.
• ▸Inside of the nostrils smarting and burning.
• ▸Aching, tearing and pressure in the bones.
• ▸Bones

of the face painful, feel as if pressed outward, and he wants to press,

but it is painful.

Merc, is not deep enough to cure the whole constitution in psoric

cases that are constantly taking cold. It cures the cold at once, but

implants its own nature and the patient catches cold oftener. It should

not be given often, not oftener than twice in a winter. Kali iod, is

better for the same burning in the face, running coryza, and aggravation from heat and warmth of the bed, and it will cure the coryza in.

a night when apparently Merc, is indicated. It is also an antidote to

Merc. Don’t give many doses of Merc, in psoric cases ; look for a

deeper medicine.

It has syphilitic eruptions and neuralgias of the face with or without

catarah. It is a great medicine for mumps ; it is a routine remedy for

this condition, which shows that it must be frequently indicated. It

cures where the symptoms agree.

Scorbutic gums in those who have been salivated. Rigg’s disease ;

purulent discharge from around the teeth. Toothache ; every tooth

aches, especially in old gouty and mercurialized patients. Looseness

• ▸of the teeth.
• ▸Red.
• ▸, soft gums.
• ▸Teeth black and dirty.
• ▸Black teeth

and early decay of the teeth in syphilitic children, like Staph, Copious

salivation. Gums painful to touch. Pulsation in the gums and roots.

Gums have a blue red margin, or purple color, and are spongy and

bleed easily. Gums settle away, and the teeth feel long, and are

elongated. Teeth sore and painful so that he cannot masticate. Abscesses of the gums and roots of the teeth.

The taste, tongue and mouth furnish important and distinctive symptoms. As the tongue is projected it is seen to be flabby, has a mealy

surface, and is often pale. The imprint of the teeth is observed all

round the edge of the tongue. The tongue is swollen as if spongy,

and presses in around the teeth and thus gets the imprint of the teeth.

Inflammation, ulceration and swelling of the tongue are strong features.

Old gouty constitutions have swollen tongue ; the tongue will swell

in the night and he will waken up with a mouthful. The taste is perverted, nothing tastes right. The tongue is coated yellow or white

as chalk in a layer. Ofensivc mouth ; putrid odors from the mouth

especially the mercurial odor of the salivated patient. The tongue

becomes clumsy ; difficulty in talking ; his speech is hardly intelligible.

Awkwardness of the tongue as in persons intoxicated. Ulcers flat ;

eating ulcers ; holes are eaten through the cheek. Eating away of

the soft palate and the bone of the hard palate is often eaten away.

Purulent formation in the antrum of Highmore and fistulae from the

mouth to the antrum. Fluoric acid and Silicea are more frequently

indicated in these fistulae, especially if the bone is involved. Copious

flow of foetid saliva. Sore mouth of children and nursing mothers ;

little aphthous patches with the mercurial odor and flabby, spongy

appearance of the mucous membrane and tongue. General diffused

inflammation of the mouth. The whole mucous membrane is sensitive and painful, burning, stinging and smarting ; dryness with or

without aphthous patches. Thrush of children. Scorbutic gums.

Sore throat. It is a remedy for inflammation of the throat, with

spongy appearance, general diffused tumefaction, swelling of the

parotids, fulness and stiffness of the neck. Lardaccous base in ulcers ;

flat ulcers, spreading ulcers. Great dryness in the throat. The swelling impairs the motion of all the, muscles that take part in swallowing.

Swallowing is attended with difficulty, pain and paralytic weakness,

and the effort to swallow forces the bolus up into the nose, and liquids

come out through the nostrils. The mercurial odor is a strong feature,

but Merc, often cures when that odor is not perceptible ; it has such

an affinity for the throat. It has chronic throat troubles and syphilitic

ulcers and patches. The inflammation extends upwards and downwards, red and pale patches, the red looking as if they would suppurate or ulcerate. The red spots become quite purple, but the more

purple they are the more they are like Lack, Tonsils dark red with

stinging pains. Quinsy, after pus has formed. It is useful in diphtheria, and most cases are diffused, extensive patches or patches here

and there, with spongy appearance, but no ulceration. Tumefaction ;

• ▸and the exudations are upon a tumefied base.
• ▸Stiff neck.
• ▸Erysipelatous inflammation of the throat.
• ▸Dark, sloughing, eating, corroding

ulcers in the throat.

He has aversion to meat, wine, brandy, coffee, greasy food, butter.

Milk disagrees, and comes up sour. Sweets disagree. He is turned

against his beer. The stoniach is chronically disordered ; eructations,

regurgitations, heartburn, etc. Sour stomach ,* it is foul. He has

nausea with vomiting and regurgitation of food. In such a stomach

food is like a load. Bad taste ; bitter mouth ; he tastes the food ; it

comes up sour. With all this the saliva constantly , runs from the

6j8

mouth. It docs not improve as digestion goes on. The half-digested

substances are vomited. It is like the state in persons v^^ho have destroyed their stomach from crossing liquors, beer, wine and whisky.

The liver furnishes much trouble. Our forefathers for years took

blue mass every Spring to regulate the liver. They physicked themselves with it and tapped their liver every Spring with it, and as a

result they had worse livers than they would have had if the doctors

had stayed at home. Constipation, bilious habits and disordered

stomach. The fulness in the region of the stomach, coming in spells,

worse in cold, damp weather and warm, damp weather, worse in the

Spring, jaundiced condition, disordered stomach, the aggravation at

night and from the warmth of the bed, nightly feverishness and foul

mouth, will give you the Mere, state. Stitches in the liver. liver

symptoms worse lying on the right side. Many complaints of Merc,

arc aggravated by lying on the right side. The lung symptoms and

cough, liver, stomach and bowel symptoms are all worse while lying

on the right side.

In the abdomen we find colic, rumbling, distension, aches and pains,

stinging and burning. It has a great variety of stools, of diarrhoea

and constipation. It has a well-defined dysenteric condition. Slimy,

bloody stools with much straining, he feels as if he could never finish,

even when no more is passing, a **never-get-done'^ feeling. This is

the very opposite of Nux and Rhus in dysentery. These are relieved

if a little stool is passed, but Merc, and Sulph. will sit and strain, and

all the salts of Merc, have the same state. Merc, cor, has a more

violent attack, with violent urging to stool and to urinate, and intense

suffering, with burning in the parts and the passage of pure blood.

Merc., Ipec. and Aeon, are frequently indicated in epidemic dysentery

that comes in hot weather, and Ipec., Dulc. and Merc, are frequently

indicated in the dysentery of cold weather. You should go to the

bedside of a case of dysentery with the repertory or go home and

send medicine. Your first prescription should cure in epidemic

dysentery, and if you work cautiously you will cure every case. It

is a very simple condition to cure, but a very bad thing to get mixed

up. Do not give Arsenic just because it conforms to the dysenteric

condition, for if it does not cure it will mix up the case. Hesitate

about giving Ars, in dysentery until you arc perfectly sure it is indicated. A few days ago I saw a patient who could not lie down because

of pain in both hypochondria ; he had incessant vomiting, inflammatory rheumatism of the ankles, hands, arms and shoulders, he had

purpuric spots on the arms and legs, he had inflammation of the

stomach, and was a perfect museum of diseases. He had had Phos.

and Ars. and many remedies very high, all supposed to be well selected

but Cadmium sulph. put biip to 9lccp in fifteen minutes. The point

MERCU^S

was that he wanted to keep perfectly still, and hence it was unlike Ars.,

although all the other symptoms were like Ars. That is a strong

feature of Cadmium sulph ; he wants to keep as still as Colch. and

Bry. For many years I have used it for such cases. I saw another

case of cancer with coffee-ground vomit, and Cadmium sulph. stopped

her vomiting, and she ate quite well until she died six weeks later.

The doctor in charge had given her Ars. and Phos. and Morphine till

she could take no more.