BERYLLIUM METALLICUM

Beryllium Metallicum

Pharmacy

Beryllium metallicum. Glucinium metallicum.

Historical dose: Trituration and all potencies.

Clinical

• Allergic conditions
• Cancerous conditions
• Chronic fatigue
• Dermatitis
• Eczema
• Emphysema
• Erythcma noscxlum
• Gingivitis
• Kidney stones
• Lichen planus
• Lipomas
• Myocarditis
• Sarcoidosis
• Stomatitis
• Tubercular conditions
• Tumors

Homeopathic

Beryllium, a light metal closely resembling Aluminium, was isolated in 1828 by Bussy, thirty-one years after Vauquelin's discovery of the oxide which he named glucinium, because of the sweet taste of its salts. Beryl exists in America, especially in Columbia; Madagascar; Russia and France.

The homeopathic symptomatology was undertaken by Templeton in 1951-52 on seven provers, using the 3x, 6x, 7x, 12x, and 30c. Some symptoms can be attributed to the fluorine if it is a question of impure beryllium containing beryllium fluoride.

The usefulness of the remedy should be noted for kidney stones with hyper-production. It is especially a remedy for respiratory deficiency with audible heartbeat.

Slight fever with gradual weight loss. Gradual emaciation and sub-febrile state. Anorexia. Faintness with weakness of the legs. Asthenia. Sleepiness, desire to eat, general weakness, rapid pulse.

Throbbing headache and pain going from the left to right mastoid.

Dyspnea, dry cough, painful with blood-stained sputum, difficult to expectorate. Dorsal and lumbar pains, as if produced by needles. Disorders of the bones of the limbs. The skin is weeping, burning with an itching eruption. Acrid, abrasive coryza. Tendency to skin tumors.

Abdomen

• Diaphragmatic hernia
• Chronic pancreatitis
• Fibrocystic disease of the pancreas

Back

Lumbar osteoarthritis. Pain in the back, aggravated by bending head forwards and lying down. Stitching pain and cold feeling in the dorsal and lumbar region.

Blood

Hyperchromic anemia. Increase of leucocytes. Elevation of calcium. Elevation of total protein. Elevation of the sedimentation rate. Albumin-Globulin ratio inverted.

Chest

Angina pectoris. Burning pain behind the sternum.

Eyes

• Conjunctivitis with photophobia
• Catarrhal conjunctivitis
• Follicular conjunctivitis

Face

Facial neuralgia.

Food

Capricious appetite. Anorexia, followed by keen appetite, which improves the condition. Aggravation from the sight or smell of food from riding in a bus. Aversion to sweets.

Head

Beating or bursting headache, improved by fresh air, lying on the painful side and aggravated by the least movement. Occipital pain extending to the mastoid. Pain from one mastoid to the other, from left to right.

Heart

Rhythmic anomaly. Rheumatic myocarditis. Sclerous myocarditis. Cardiac palpitations and feeling of thoracic constriction.

Kidneys

Porphyrins increased in urine.

Limbs

Rheumatism. Pain in the arms as if bruised. Buttocks cold. Clubbed fingers. Blue discoloration of the hands. Sarcoidosis of the bones. Deposits around the inter-phalangeal joints.

Liver

Liver weakness and deficiency. Acute inflammation of the gallbladder and bile ducts. Chronic cholecystitis with or without stones.

Lungs

Respiration painful, aggravated by movement. Deep, dry, painful cough, aggravated by bending backwards, from smoke, better in a very warm room. Sputum streaked with blood. Cyanosis, cough accelerating the respiratory rhythm. Spasmodic cough with pain behind the sternum. Appearance similar to tuberculosis or sarcoidosis. Pulmonary sarcoidosis. Pulmonary tuberculosis, early stage. Emphysema. Tracheitis and bronchitis. Capillary bronchitis. Dilation of the bronchi. Pneumoconiosis.

Modalities

Better from the cold and fresh air. Worse from physical exercise. Worse heat. Worse movement.

Mouth

Lips dry, cracking. Small ulcerations on lips and tip of tongue. Ulcers of the mouth and tongue. Glazed appearance of the palate. Stomatitis, gingivitis. Lichen planus of the mouth.

Nose

Acute and chronic rhinitis. Seasonal rhinitis, hay fever. Acrid, excoriating coryza, improved in the open air, aggravated in a warm room. Bruised pain inside the nose.

Rectum

Painful, explosive stool, worse by breathing in.

Skin

Nodules and papules, itching and burning. Development of granulomata and papillomata. Hypodermic sarcoids. Lichen planus. Eczema. Dermatitis. Erythema nosodum. Tumors, syphilitic, tubercular or parasitic. Cysts and lipomas.

Stomach

Capricious appetite, nausea at the sight or smell of food and from traveling in a bus.

Temperature

Feverish, goose flesh, shivering, aggravated by the slightest movements.

Throat

Shiny, painful, burning, pain going from left to right mastoid. Constant need to swallow. Stridulous laryngitis. Chronic non-specific laryngitis. Tubercular laryngitis. Polyps and papilloma of the larynx.

Comments

The extraction of the metal is made from the iron ore, beryl, which is ground and roasted, usually with sodium fluoro-silicate. The double fluoride of Be and Na thus obtained is transformed into beryllium oxyfluoride. The metal is isolated by electrolysis in the presence of barium.

Oxidized beryllium can also be treated with sulfuric acid and transformed into Be sulfate from which glucinium is extracted; the latter can be used directly in the manufacture of alloys or to pure Be after treatment by ammonium fluoride.

Workers are exposed at different stages of preparation to the inhalation of fine particles of dust and noxious fumes, formed particularly by fluoride derivatives as well as derivatives of glucinium.

Beryllium is used in, among other things, the manufacture of light bulbs, radio and TV sets' incandescent casings, glassmaking and ceramics, and synthetic precious stones.

Accidental poisoning can occur during the crushing process or the thermal treatment necessary to produce the powders. Chronic berylliosis is essentially caused by its insoluble compounds, especially beryllium, zinc manganese silicate.

These compounds are dangerous because of their fumes and particularly the dust particles, even at a rate lower than half a milligram per cubic meter.

The finer dust particles are particularly noxious. These form veritable aerosols which spread over a distance (which explains cases near factories) and which impregnate workers' clothes easily (this explains cases in the family, resulting from brushing the clothes).

The element causes proliferation in the mesenchyme, which ends in the formation of alveolar granuloma. This in turn causes difficulty in the diffusion of oxygen through the alveolar walls with subsequent anoxaemia.

The fixation is above all made in the ethmoid bones and is permanent. It is of the same nature and rapidity in the liver and kidneys, but less prolonged. Elimination is brought about through the urine, at first rapid and profuse, then slow and sparse.

In a subject who died from berylliosis, Martland showed spectrographically that beryllium was present, especially in the kidneys and skeleton.

Relations

Compare: (1) Bry. - Aggravated by movement with a dry, painful cough. (2) Lach. - Failing from cardiac weakness, suffocation, dry, rending cough.

References

Julian.