Materia Medica
Mercurius .- Hydrargyrum
Quicksilver
Every organ and tissue of the body is more or less affected by this powerful drug; but especially so the lymphatic system, with all the membranes and glands, and internal organs, bones, etc. Tremors everywhere. Weakness with ebullitions and tremblings from least exertion. All Mercury symptoms are worse at night, from warmth of bed, from damp, cold, rainy weather, worse during perspiration. Complaints increase with the sweat and rest; all associated with a great deal of weariness, prostration, and trembling. Sensitiveto heat and cold. Parts are much swollen, with raw, sore feeling; the profus
Mind
Slow in answering questions. Memory weakened, and loss of will-power. Weary of life. Mis- trustful. Thinks he is losing his reason.
Head
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.
Eyes
Lids red, thick, swollen. Profuse, burning, ocrid discharge. I Floating black spots. After exposure to glare of fre; foundrymen. Parenchymatous keratitis of syphilitic origin with burning pain. Iritis, with hy- popyon.
Ears
Thick, yellow discharge; fetid and bloody. Otalgia, worse warmth cf bed; at night, sticking pains. Boils in extermal canal. [Calc. pic.]
Nose
Much sneezing. Sneezing in sunshine. No.- trils raw, ulcerated: nasal bones swollen. Yellow- green, fetid, pus-like discharge. Coryza; acrid dis- charge, but too thick to run down the lip; worse, warm room. Pain and suwelling of nusal bones, and caries, ith' greenish fetid ulceration.1 Nosebleed at night. 495 Copious discharge of corroding mucus. Coryza, with sneezing; sore, raw, smarting sensation; worse, damp weather; profuse, fluent. Quinsy, with difficult swallowing, after pus has formed. Sore, raw, smarting, burning throat. Com- plete loss of voice. Burning in throat, as from hot vapor ascending.
Face
Pale, earthy, dirty-looking, puffy. Syphilitic pustules on face.
Mouth
Sweetish taste. Salivary secretions greatly increased; bloody and viscid. Saliva fetid, coppery. Speech difficult on account of trembling tongue. Gums sponyy, recede, bleed easily. Whole mouth moist. Crown of teeth decay. Teeth loose, feel tender and elongated. Furrow in upper surface of tongue length- Terisc. Tongue heavy, thick; moist coating; yellow, flabby, teeth-indented; 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.
Throat
Bluish-red swelling. Constant desire to swallow. Putrid sore throat; worse right side. Ulcers and inflammation appearing at every change in weather. Stitchies into ear on swallowing; fluids return through
Stomach
Putrid eructations. Intense thirst for cold drinks. Weak digestion, with continuous hunger. Stomach sensitive to touch. Hiccough and regurgita- tion. Feels replete and constricted.
Abdomen
Stabbing pain, with chilliness. Boring pain in right groin. Flatulent distention, with pain. Liver enlarged; sore to touch, indurated. . Jaundice. Bile scecreted deficiently.
Stool
Greenish, bloody and slimy, worse at night; zerith pain and tenesmus. Never-get-done feeling. Dis- charge accompanied by chilliness, sick stomach, cutting colic, and tenesmus. Whitish-gray stools. Urine. —- Frequent urging. Greenish discharge from urethra; burning in urethra on beginning to urinate. Urine dark, scanty, bloody, albuminous.
Male
Vesicles and ulcers; soft chancre. Cold genitals. Prepuce irritated; itches. . Nocturnal emis- sions, stained with blood.
Female
Menses profuse, with abdominal pains. Leucorrhoea excoriating, greenish and bloody; sensa- tion of rawness in parts. 3. Stinging pain in ovaries [pis.] Itching and burning; worse, after urinating; better, washing with cold water. Morning sickness, with profuse salivation. Mammx painful and full of milk at menses.
Respiratory
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. Ca- tarrh, with chilliness; dread of air. Stitches from lower lobe of right lung to back. Whooping-cough with nose- bleed. [Arnica.] Cough worse, tobacco smoke.
Back
Bruised pain in small of back, especially when sitting. . Tearing pain in coccyx; better, pressing on abdomen.
Extremities
Weakness of limbs. Bone-pains and in limbs; worse, night. Patient very sensitive to cold. Oily perspiration.7 Trembling extremities, espe- cially hands; paralysis agitans. Lacerating pain in joints. Cold, clammy sweat on legs at night. Dropsica! swelling of feet and legs.
Skin
Almost tonstantly moist. Excessive odorous viscid perspiration; worse, night. General tendency to free perspiration, but patient is not relieved thereby. Vesicuiar and pustular eruptions. Ulcers, irregular in 497 shape, edges undefined. Pimples around the main erup- tion. Itching; worse from warmth of bed. Crusta lactea; yellowish-brown crusts, considerable suppura- tion.( Glands swell every time patient takes cold. Buboes. Orchitis. [Clemat.; Humam.; Puls.]
Fever
Generally gastric or bilious, with profuse nightly perspiration; debility, slow and lingering. I Heat and shuddering alternately. Yellow perspiration. Pro- fuse perspiratron zeithout relief. Creeping chilliness; worse in the evening and into night. Alternate flashes of heat in single parts.
Modalities
W'orse, at night, wet, damp weather, lying on right side, perspiring; warm room and warm bed.
Relationships
Compare: Capparis coriaccra (poly- uria, glandular affections, mucous diarrhcea; influenza) ; Epilobium -- Willow berb -- (chronic diarrhcea with tenesimus and mucus discharges; ptyalism, dysphagia) ; Kali hyd. (in hard chancre); Mercur. acet. (Conges- tion with stiffness, dryness and heat of parts affected. Eyes inflamed, burn and itch. Lack of moisture. Throat dry, talking difficult. Pressure in lower sternum). Mercurius nitrosus -- Nitrate of Mercury — (especially in pustular conjunctivitis and keratitis; gonorrhoea and mucous patches, with sticking pains; syphilides); Mercurius auratus (psoriasis and syphilitic catarrh) ; Mercurius bromatus (secondary syphilitic skin affec- tion) ; Mercurius phosphoricus (nervous diseases from syphilis; exostoses); Mercurius pracipitatus ruber (suffocative attacks at night on lying down while on the point of falling asleep, obliged to jump up sud- denly, which relieves; gonorrhoea; urethra felt as a hard string; chancroid ; phagedenic ulcer and bubo; pemphi- gus, mucous patches, eczema with 1 rhagades and fis- sures, barber's itch; blepharitis, 'internally and ex- ternally; leaden heaviness in occiput, with otorrhoea) ; Mercurius tannicus (syphilides in patients with gastro- intestinal diseases, or, if very sensitive, to ordinary mer- curial preparations) ; Erythrinus — South American Red Mullet Fish-(in pityriasis rubra and syphilis; red rash on chest; pityriasis); Lolium temuelentum (in trembling of hands and legs); Mercur. cum kali (in- veterate colds, acute facial paralysis). Compare: Mez.; Phos.; Syph.; Kali mur. Different Mercurial Salts; Ethiops. Antidote: Hep.; Aur.; Mes. Complementary : Badiaga.
Dose
Second to thirtieth potency.