Group ii : mercurius solubilis

- TESTE A, GROUP REMEDIES,  GROUP II,MERCURIUS SOLUBULIS
 - TYPE : MERCURIUS SOLUBILES
 - ANALOGIES: ARGENTUM FOLIATUM. KREOSOTA.
 - ARSENICUM ALBUM. PLUMBUM.
 - SULPHURIS ACIDUM. STANNUM.
 - MERCURIUS CORROSIVUS. NITRI ACIDUM.
 - CROCUM SATIVUS.
 Common characteristics
 - It is worthy of remark, that several of the substances which compose this group, are, in their natural state, possessed of the power of preserving organic matter from decomposition,* and yet exercise an exactly opposite effect upon the living tissues, a fact upon which their common pathogenetic phenomena and their common therapeutic action depend.
 - Thus all have the following leading symptoms :
 - Suppression, or more frequently increase of all the secretions, with putrid alteration of the secreted substances.
 - Foulness of the mouth and breath : putrid taste, like foul flesh in the throat ; intolerable odor of the faces, and often even of the pus discharged from the ulcers ; fetid smell of the sweat and sometimes of the urine.
 - Bloating and softening of the flesh, with tendency to decomposition ; nocturnal bone-pains.
 - Softening of the vital action ; cadaverous coldness, general or partial ; apparent or real mortification of the extremities, or stinging heat, followed by profuse sweat.
 - Predominance of action on the left side of the body, that is to say, on the side which is the weakest side of most persons.
 - Deep derangements of the nervous action ; great disorders of the intellectual and moral sphere ; weakness of the senses, as at the approach of death.
 - Sort of violent oscillations of the vital principle ; opposite effects in all the functions ; paralytic numbness, or frightful pains, with involuntary motions ; ravenous hunger, or else anorexia ; unquenchable thirst, or else adypsia ; comatose somnolence, or else sur-excitation of the whole organism, which absolutely prevents sleep ; exaltation of the sexual desire, or else complete extinction of the sexual powers, etc.
 - Lastly, production of intestinal worms and other parasites.*
 Corresponding diseases
 - Syphilis.
 - Itch.
 - Variola.
 - Cutaneous affections, such as erysipelatous, gangrenous, squamous, papulous, etc.
 - Scurvy.
 - Scrofula.
 - Acute and chronic arthritis.
 - Bone-pains.
 - Exostosis.
 - Dry and humid caries.
 - Production of abnormal tissues.
 - Inflammations of viscera.
 - Catarrhal affections.
 - Passive haemorrhages.
 - Ascites.
 - Albuminuria.
 - Diabetes.
 - Weakening and loss of the senses.
 - Weakening of the intellectual faculties.
 - Mania.
 - dementia.
 - Idiocy.
 - Atrophy of one or several limbs.
 - Neuroses of the most diversified and strange kind.
 - Frightful neuralgia.
 - Worm affections, etc.
 - An absence of the excitement naturally occasioned by light and the business of the day, external cold, (especially when accompanied with dampness,) rest, and finally, lying upon the affected parts, are conditions which favor the essentially dissolvent action of mercury and its analogies.
 - A characteristic phenomenon of this action, and which the practitioner should well keep in view, is its predominance on the left side, which circumstance seems to me to be founded on a general law.
 - I here give my observations on this subject without any commentary ; I believe they are  worthy of notice.
 - The general idea of Rasori, if not of Brown, was correct ; there are drugs which excite, and drugs which depress the vital action, stimulants and counter-stimulants.*
 - In other words as I remarked in speaking os Spigelia, there are poisons which kill by exalting, and poisons which destroy life by depressing the vital forces.
 - The drugs of which we speak, belong essentially to this latter category, whereas, pulsatilla, bryonia, veratrum, and more particularly nux vomica, might be considered as the types of the opposite category, if we leave their specific properties out of consideration.
 - I ought to remark, that every drug belongs, more or less, to one or the other of these two classes, although I have not always been able to determine the fact with correctness.
 - Hence results the general co-relation existing between such and such a drug, and such and such a temperament.
 - But what I desire more particularly to prove here, in order not to be obliged to refer to this point again, hereafter, is that certain phenomena are connected with the predominance of the action of the drug on this or that side of the body.
 - Thus, form the fact that a drug acts primarily and in a marked manner, on the right side of the body, we have a right to conclude a priori : 1st, that the symptoms which it produces, are aggravated by light, heat, the open air, and exercise ; 2d, that they will be mitigated, on the contrary, by silence, cool air, darkness and rest ; 3d, that in the fevers which it causes, a quick and full pulse will prevail ; 4th, that in lying down, the pains will be principally felt in parts which do not serve as points of support ; 5th, that from the first, an aversion to food, or, at any rat, a speedy satiety will be noticed, but never, except in a few extraordinary cases, which it would be easy for me to account for, that extreme hunger, which shows a pressing want on the part of the organism to repair its exhausted condition ; 6th, that if the drug produces amenorrhoea or dysmenorrhoea, these symptoms will never be accompanied with an impoverished condition of the blood, which, if its course is sluggish and painful, will not be any the less rich in fibrin, and will, on the contrary, pass off in black and resisting coagula, as is the case with pulsatilla ; 7th, lastly, that cachexia and adynamia are not the general effects which the drug tends to produce, which might likewise occasion as serious disorders of a reverse character.
 - The contrary of all the accidents which have just been enumerated, takes place but in endless degrees and shades, with every drug which acts primarily upon the left side of the body.
 - In this respect, every careful observer will find, that there is no difference between natural and drug-diseases.
 - Among the former, so far as their organic manifestations are concerned, several seem positively to develope themselves from left to right, whereas, others proceed in the opposite direction, which simply means that there are diseases, which essentially exalt, and diseases which essentially depress the vitality ; the former was denied by Brown, the latter by Broussais.*
 - These considerations are not, by any means, devoid of interest to prove it, I will content myself with relating the following fact.
 - 1848, a patient, whose physician I had not yet become, lost his left eye in consequence of frightful neuralgic paroxysms which were seated in the bottom of the orbit, and it was supposed, proceeded either from an old syphilis, or, which seems to me much more probable, to judge from what I now know of the case, from some alloeopathic mercurial treatment, which he had undergone some years before, and which had been carried to the last degree of insane violence ; that is to say, the treatment was continued all the time, for no other reason than for the purpose of removing mercurial symptoms which were incessantly reproduced, and which were mistaken for syphilis for the whole of six months.
 - In 1850, the neuralgia first showed itself at the bottom of the right eye.
 - This was assuredly an exacerbation of the genuine disease.
 - Whether syphilitic or mercurial, the disease had not ceased to exist : it proceeded normally, that is to say, from the left to the right, to its work of destruction.
 - The paroxysms lasted three days, almost without an interruption, and were complicated with the most violent ophthalmia.
 - In a consultation, Calcarea carb was proposed.
 - Isolatedly considered, the symptoms pointed to this remedy : I accepted it, less, however, from conviction, than from deference to the eminent colleague who had advised it.
 - The patient took it, and the pains subsided almost instantaneously.
 - It will be seen hereafter, that the action of Calcarea proceeds in an opposite direction to Mercury ; hence, I had to conclude that my theory was wrong.
 - Unhappily of the patient, this was not the case.
 - After forty-eight hours of suspension, or rather repression, the paroxysms returned with greater violence than ever.
 - Free to do as I pleased, I followed the idea which I have developed in the preceding paragraphs, and selected arsenic accordingly.
 - The result was permanent and decided.
 - Not only was the paroxysm arrested, but alarming symptoms of amaurosis which had been setting in for a long time previous, and were similar to those that, in 1848, preceded the loss of the left eye, were gradually dissipated.
 - I shall not dwell upon this point any longer.
 - The energetic, deep, and persistent action of Mercury and its analogies, shows satisfactorily that the diseases which they are specifically called to combat, are such as deeply invade the organism, undermine it without mercy, and tend to dissolved it.
 - But independently of these diseases, which, according to an expression of Broussais, are essentially and primarily chronic, there are others of an acute character, but  which nevertheless require to be treated with the drugs of which we are speaking.
 - Thus, certain exceedingly acute rheumatic diseases, with redness and swelling of the affected joints, tearing pains, profuse sweat, sour or fetid odor, etc., frequently yield only to Merc. sole. or corr.
 - The same remark applies to certain kinds of ophthalmia, hepatitis, etc. ; it is not, therefore, indispensably necessary that a disease should present a specific character in order to render the employment of the drugs of this group necessary.
 - It is sufficient that the disease should have the prominent symptoms, from whatever cause it may otherwise have emanated, or whatever be its inmost nature.
 - All the drugs of this group are anti-syphilitic.
 - This proposition alone would suffice to destroy the specific system which, owing to the radical impossibility of generalizing its fundamental principles never has had any serious chance of existence.
 - It is worthy of remark, however, that Hahnemann, whose genius swept every existing medical doctrine, and overthrew all existing systems, seems to have remained more or less undecided all his life, as regards the specific system.
 - Not only does he seem to accept the exclusive efficacy of mercurius in syphilis, in other words, its absolutely specific action in the disease, as an immutable, absolute fact ; but he pursues even to the remotest corners of medical ontology, his inquiry into the general relations existing between such and such a disease which he discovers, or fancies he discovers, and such and such a drug that cures it.
 - Is not thuya his specific remedy for sycosis  sulphur for psora ?
 - It is true, in the treatment of sycosis, he alternates thuya  with nitric acid,*  without, however, accounting for the homoeopathicity  of this proceeding, which snatches from thuya a considerable portion of the prestige of its specificity in this disease.
 - It is likewise true, that, compelled to admit that sulphur will not cure all non-syphilitic diseases he declares that ``the cure of an inveterate psoric disease can never be accomplished by sulphur alone.''*
 - But as regards the want of success which is frequently encountered in the mercurial treatment of syphilis, Hahnemann does not seem willing to doubt the specific character of mercury in this disease which, however, is of a very remote origin, except when complicated with psora.
 - ``Wherever such a complication does not exist, an infinitesimal dose of the best mercurial preparation is sufficient to cure forever, and thoroughly, the whole syphilitic disease.''*
 - It is moreover evident, that even at the time when Hahnemann first published his Materia Medica Pura, he looked upon mercurius  and thuya as exclusively endowed with the property of curing syphilis and sycosis,-mercurius the former, and thuya the latter ; and this is the reason why these two otherwise long-acting drugs are not classed among his anti-psorics.
 - The following passage from the Materia Medica Pura shows that my statement is correct :-``To administer the smallest dose of pure mercury prepared in the manner which I have just described, Homoeopathy must, in the first place, have recognized the indispensable necessity of employing it in a given case of chronic disease, UNLESS this remedy should be ABSOLUTELY indicated by a case of pure syphilis, not complicated with psora, for in such a case a single infinitesimal dose is sufficient to annihilate the CHRONIC MIASM.''*
 - Hahnemann's specificism assuredly differs from that which some German homoeopaths are endeavoring to introduce now-a-days, for it leaves a vast majority of all disease beyond the reach of its influence.
 - But for all that, it is a form of specificism which carries with it several serious defects which I have to point out.
 - 1. It tends to impart false notions to homoeopathic physicians, with respect to these two drugs, and, by making them believe that mercury cures exclusively syphilis,  and thuya, sycosis, leads them to the opinion that they exercise only a very equivocal action in other chronic diseases.
 - 2. It seems to place mercury, thuya, and even sulphur, beyond the pale of the law of similitude.
 - At least it seems indisputable, that such is the idea which a great many homoeopaths attach to Hahnemann's notion of the specificity of these drugs.
 - How many among them, for instance, when mercury does not help in a case of inveterate syphilis, at once jump at the conclusion that there must be some psoric complication, and, upon the strength of this supposition, prescribe sulphur empirically, without its being at all indicated by the symptoms !
 - And, by a legitimate reciprocity, how many, in a case of refractory psora, jump at the inference that it is a complication of disguised syphilis, and blindly prescribe mercury !
 - 3. Lastly, by attributing the failures of mercury in syphilis to psora, Hahnemann affirms that mercury is not only the best, but the only remedy for syphilis, which is a very serious error.
 - It is from such an error that the forcible concessions which Hahnemann has made to the specific system, emanate ; for,. it we admit that a disease without regard to its duration, course, symptoms, the idiosyncrasy of the patient, etc., can only be combated by a single remedy, it is evident that the name of the disease is sufficient to indicate the treatment, and that a comparison of its symptoms with those of the drug, must be superfluous.
 - All this is different if, instead of one, we admit several anti-syphilitics.
 - The mere name of the disease cases to indicate the treatment ; we have to observe symptoms, and the law of similarity again reigns supreme.
 - In this sense, therefore, I had a right to say that my general principle ``all the drugs, belonging to the group mercury, are anti-syphilitic,'' overthrow the sophisms of the specific system ; for, by upsetting the specificity of mercury is syphilis, the whole edifice of the specificists falls to the ground.