: 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 offensivepatient. 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 Merc.
He is worse at
night. The bone pains, joint affections and inflammatory conditions are
all worse at night and somewhat relieved during the day. Bone painsare universal, 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 isalso a general; inflamed parts indurate. If the skin is inflamed it is hard. Inflamed glands
are hard.
There is induration with ulceration. 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 burnand 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. Chancrestake 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 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 formation 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. gonorrheal discharge is thick greenish-yellow, with
stinging and burning in the urethra.
Rheumatic inflammationof joints and catarrhal inflammation ofmucous
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.
Rheumatismin 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 spreadand 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 gangrenouscondition. 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 beat.
A patient with a typical Merc. abscess rebels at
times against the poultice, for it makes the trouble worse.
Tremblingruns through the remedy, quivering all over. It has
been used with 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 in
coordinate 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, foetor, suppuration and ulceration, the aggravation at night and
from heat and cold, give the earlier impressions of the remedy.